Rough Guide to Vietnam - Jan Dodd [240]
New Guesthouse 3 Hoang Hoa Tham 030/387 2137. Six basic rooms with fans and hot water, right beside the train station. They can also help with train ticket bookings. US$10 and under
Queen 21 Hoang Hoa Tham 030/387 1874, luongvn2001@yahoo.com. A few doors along from the train station on a pleasant tree-lined street, this small, friendly hotel is basic but clean, with a large sister hotel opposite. US$10 and under
Thanh Binh 31 Luong Van Tuy 030/387 2439thanh_binh_hotel@yahoo.com. Clean, well-equipped rooms off the highway make this a good alternative to the nearby Thuy Anh and Thanh Thuy if those are full. The meals here are also recommended. US$11–20
Thanh Thuy 128 Le Hong Phong 030/387 1811, tuc@hn.vnn.vn. From the front it may not look like much, but walk through the passage, past the excellent courtyard beer garden and you will see why so many people stay here. The new section of the hotel is situated at the back, away from the street, and offers twenty clean, fully equipped rooms. Those in the old section with fans are the cheapest. There’s a small but decent restaurant offering a limited range of tasty, fresh food. US$10 and under–20
Thuy Anh 55a Truong Han Sieu 030/387 1602, www.thuyanhhotel.com. Ninh Binh’s smartest hotel offers efficient service and a range of immaculately kept rooms, from a couple with fan and shared bathroom up to huge rooms furnished and equipped to a high standard. The food in the downstairs restaurant is very good, and there’s also a bar on the sixth floor with views over Ninh Binh. The full range of tours and transport, including good-quality bicycles and motorbikes for rent, completes the picture. US$21–30
Xuan Hoa 1 & 2 31d Pho Minh Khai 030/388 0970, www.xuanhoahotel.com. Owner Xuan’s two hotels are situated almost side-by-side just off the main drag, 20m apart in quiet surroundings overlooking a lake. The rooms are spotless, modern and well equipped, and some have views of Tam Coc. They also offer excellent home cooking and tour services. US$10 and under–20
The central provinces - Part 2 | Ninh Binh and around | Practicalities |
Eating
Ninh Binh has a fairly limited choice of eating places, though all the hotels provide excellent food at surprisingly reasonable prices. Best for both value and quality is Xuan Hoa, where Hoa (wife of owner Xuan) creates some excellent dishes. The Thuy Anh also provides good food (their sweet ‘n’ sour chicken is excellent) in friendly surroundings, as does the Thanh Thuy, while the banana pancakes at Queen deserve a special mention. There are also a couple of good-value independent restaurants to head for: the Hoang Hai, just down from the Thuy Anh at 36 Truong Han Sieu, serves an excellent fish steamboat (lau ca), and you’ll also find good fare at the popular Com 112 at 112 Le Hong Phong. Otherwise, check out the roadside braziers around the market and the cafés in streets west of Tran Hung Dao, where the little courtyard behind Café Be, 142 Cu Chinh Lan, is a decent place for a coffee or beer. The rooftop bar of the Thuy Anh hotel provides a scenic spot to unwind at the end of a heavy day’s sightseeing.
The central provinces - Part 2 | Ninh Binh and around |
Tam Coc and Bich Dong
The film Indochine put the Tam Coc “three caves” region, 7km southwest of Ninh Binh, firmly on the tourist map, and the government is now pouring money into developing it: the access road has been upgraded, there’s a new Visitors’ Centre and concrete lines the canal banks – but fortunately only as far as the first bridge. They’re even trying to clamp down on the over-zealous – occasionally aggressive – peddling of embroideries and soft drinks by the sampan-rowers. Despite all this, it’s hard not to be won over by the mystical, watery beauty of the area, which is a miniature landlocked version of Ha Long Bay. The two-hour sampan-ride is a definite highlight, meandering among dumpling-shaped, karst hills in a flooded landscape where