Rough Guide to Vietnam - Jan Dodd [241]
If you have time after the boat trip, follow the road leading southwest from the boat dock (See "Practicalities") for about 2km to visit the cave-pagoda of Bich Dong, or “Jade Grotto”. Stone-cut steps, entangled by the thick roots of banyan trees, lead up a cliff face peppered with shrines to the cave entrance, believed to have been discovered by two monks in the early fifteenth century. On the rock face above, two giant characters declare “Bich Dong”. The story goes that they were engraved in the eighteenth century by the father of Nguyen Du (author of the classic Tale of Kieu), who was entrusted with construction of the complex. The cave walls are now scrawled with graffiti but the three Buddhas sit unperturbed on their lotus thrones beside a head-shaped rock which bestows longevity if touched. Walk through the cave to emerge higher up the cliff, from where steps continue to the third and final temple and viewpoint over the waterlogged scene.
Boat trip through Tam Coc
The central provinces - Part 2 | Ninh Binh and around | Tam Coc and Bich Dong |
Practicalities
Day-trips from Hanoi start at $15 per person in a minibus and also include lunch and a side-trip to Hoa Lu. From Ninh Binh, the easiest and most enjoyable way to reach Tam Coc is to rent a bicycle or motorbike; the turning, signed (with a large photo sign) to “Bich Dong”, is 4km south on Highway 1, before the cement factory. Hiring a xe om for the excursion will cost about 75,000đ including waiting time. From Tam Coc, there’s a partly unpaved back road, which takes you on a delightful ten-kilometre cycle ride through rice fields and limestone karst scenery to Hoa Lu ((See "Practicalities") for details).
To avoid the worst of the crowds at Tam Coc, it’s best to set off either very early in the morning or in the late afternoon (boats run between 7am and 5pm). Tickets (30,000đ) are on sale at the Visitors’ Centre – on the right 100m before the boat dock, located in Van Lam Village; it’s another 60,000đ for a two-person boat. Restaurants and cafés catering to tour groups line the approach to Van Lam, and some of the smaller places aren’t too bad. There’s also a clutch of cheap noodle and rice stalls beside the entrance to Bich Dong.
The central provinces - Part 2 | Ninh Binh and around |
Hoa Lu
Twelve kilometres northwest of Ninh Binh, Hoa Lu, site of the tenth-century capital of an early, independent Vietnamese kingdom called Dai Co Viet, makes another rewarding excursion. The fortified royal palaces of the Dinh and Le kings are now reduced to archeological remains, but their dynastic temples, seventeenth-century copies of eleventh-century originals, still rest quietly in a narrow valley surrounded by wooded, limestone hills. Though the temple buildings and attractive walled courtyards are unspectacular, the inner sanctuaries are compelling – mysterious, dark caverns where statues of the kings, wrapped in veils of pungent incense, are worshipped by the light of candles.
First stop at the site should be the more imposing Den Dinh Tien Hoang, on the left as you approach from the car park and ticket office, dedicated to King Dinh Tien Hoang (also known as Dinh Bo Linh), who seized power in 968 AD and moved the capital south from Co Loa in the Red River Delta to this secure valley far from the threat of Chinese intervention. Dinh Tien Hoang’s gilded effigy can be seen in the temple’s second sanctuary room, flanked by his three sons. Dinh Tien Hoang was born near Hoa Lu. He was the illegitimate son of a provincial governor and