I joined in on one of Phong Nha Discovery Tours' excursions to Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park today. This park consists of old karst mountains and at least 300 caves, many of which are open for visitors to explore. We started off with a walk through the Botanic Garden. Our destination here was the Thac …
About a 40-minute drive from my homestay in Tam Coc is the Bai Dinh Pagoda. This is apparently Southeast Asia’s largest Buddhist complex, and it includes several temples and more than 500 carved statues of Buddha. This is a modern pagoda with elements that are, in fact, still under construction - though it incorporates some …
Trang An Boat TourAfter breakfast this morning, I took a taxi to one of the biggest tourist destinations in the Ninh Binh province: the Trang An Boat Tour. This is a three-hour ecotourism boat ride that takes you down rivers, past steep limestone mountains, to various temples, and through a number of caves. There are …
One of the stops I've been most excited to get to is Ninh Binh, where I had read about stunning landscapes and access to rural Vietnam. This morning, I hopped on a train that carried me from Hanoi to Ninh Binh, and then I took a taxi to the town of Tam Coc within the …
Today, I continued exploring parts of Hanoi's Old Quarter that I didn't get to see yesterday. My first realization when I started out my day today was just how much having San by my side yesterday had kept me from dealing with scammers targeting tourists. I haven't had to deal with this in any of …
Yesterday, I contacted an organization called Hanoi Free Private Tour Guide at my hotel's recommendation, signing myself up for a half-day walking tour of theirs that supposedly occurs every morning at 9am, which would take me around Hanoi's Old Quarter. This is not at all the tour I ended up going on, but that was …
Sai BatI wish that I could say that I was up before the rooster crows this morning, but it turns out that roosters start crowing dang early. Regardless, my alarm was set for 4:45am today so that I could get up to see the daily sai bat (morning alms) occur. This is when the hundreds …
Journeying Jasmine 