Hi everyone in Hive!
I hope you are having a nice day today, and if you are having a not-so-well day, well, let me just take you to somewhere wonderful to uplift your spirit through the wonders of Ninh Binh province of Vietnam.
I have finally come to share today the last stop of our day tour in the beautiful province of Ninh Binh when we had our Indochina Tricity trip earlier last month. If you have been following my previous posts, I have shared the beautiful scenery of Hoa Lu temples, and the Tam Coc - Bich Dong river cruise which is the first and second destination of our day tour in Ninh Binh which I booked in Klook. You may read those previous blogs I wrote if you are traveling to Ninh Binh in the future, and are looking for information. Travel blog links in the end of this post.
There are so many wonderful comments in my previous blogs that make me happy, so today, I will be sharing more of the wonderful scenes that we captured in the Mua Caves of Ninh Binh.
Although the location is named Mua Caves, we are not going into caving but we are going into trekking and strolling above the surface of the Mua Caves today- yes! you read it right, a stroll above, not inside the cave. It just made me wonder if we are trekking above the cave and are outside the cave, can we still call it "caving"? What do you think?
To start with this stroll, we entered the park entrance of Mua Caves, which has many picturesque corners filled with gardens, a waterfall, and a lake, which on the adjacent side is the lotus garden.
My favorite corner of the park is the waterfall garden. It is just so pretty that it feels like I am out in the far-flung enchanted paradise where fairies fly all around. Its beauty is so magical!
The park is perfect for those who would not opt to climb to the viewpoint of the cave and just want to relax while waiting for the other tourists of the chartered tour to finish, it has cafes and souvenir shops, too.
Mua Caves is also called Hang Mua since "Hang" in Vietnamese means "cave".
Hang Mua's viewpoint is something that any visitor shouldn't miss, as it offers a very scenic view and a 360-look of Ninh Binh. From Tam Coc River to Ninh Binh's mountains down to the lotus garden and the far-away civilization, we have witnessed with our bare eyes how beautiful this province is.
Tam Coc river view on top
Pagoda viewpoint looking over the Lotus Garden
The dragon and pagoda viewpoints:
Everyone has two options though, the viewpoint with the pagoda on the top or the viewpoint with the dragon statue, or could choose both.
However, before witnessing those beautiful sceneries, we took the call of adventure first. We trek the 500 steps of the 20-cm-ladders going to the viewpoint and I tell you, climbing up to the viewpoint is not for the faint-hearted individuals, it takes endurance, but it is not that strenuous though since the path is already cemented, so even kids could do it when taking one step at a time.
Everyone could take all the time to have a chill trek while we didn't, because aside from we are used to hiking back home in the Philippines, we are eyeing to have ample time to take good photos up in the viewpoint.
Initially, we are planning to take a good photo on the tip of the viewpoint where the dragon statue is sitting looking over its province. However, it was a weekend when we had our day tour, so the flock of tourists crowded the peak on that afternoon making the idea of climbing up to the top of the viewpoint not worth risking for our time.
Additionally, the dragon's viewpoint does not have much place to stand by because of the many tourists taking turns for the photos. Considering those sharp limestones that our footwear is not suitable with, @ybanezkim26 and I decided to take a reroute while Shiela and Jovy pursued to reach the peak.
Kim and I decided to head back already for the lotus garden, but while taking our way down, we spotted a good spot where no tourists were queuing for a photo op. We had all our time taking turns in here where the view is perfect for a pictorial!
Such a beautiful almost-sunset background with the Tam Coc river at our back.
There are view decks around the dragon's viewpoint foot, where anyone can take a rest and take good photos.
Lotus is Vietnam's national flower, and you can definitely see them everywhere in Vietnam- architecture, art, fashion, and design.
While there are many variants of lotus, what we saw in this lotus garden is the color pink lotus flowers which means devotion to Buddha.
When we got into the garden, there weren't many people already, so we took our time relaxing by the pathways and watching the sun setting down behind the mountains.
Sharing these scenes today reminds me of how @ybanezkim26 felt during this time when he shared his sentiments being in the lotus garden through his previous post, and yes! I could agree that this scene out here woke our inner child up. It was like some scenes that we saw in our childhood movies and animes that we are fond of following the series.
This place is also known for its pre-nuptial photoshoot location, the scene is romantic and serene.
Our day ended so well, and it was so fulfilling to have strolled around the province of Ninh Binh, a two-hour bus ride from Hanoi City.
Thank you for strolling with me today, and see you on our next destination blog- stroll around the City of Hanoi.
XoXo,
Kim, thestrollingmind
Blog thread for this Vietnam trip
Tam Coc - Bich Dong : Caving & River Cruising to the Paradise in Ninh Binh
About the Author
Hi! I am Kim- The Strolling Mind.
I love to travel, I have been traveling in my beautiful country- the Philippines, and some Asian countries, as well. My pleasure to share them here in Hive.
I believe that our mind is so powerful that anything we think is anything we can reach and achieve.
It is our mind that'll lead us to where we are heading to, so....