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| Banana Cake VND20k, Delicious as it is with real banana |
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| Banh mi with Bacon, VND30k |
This bus company is Hadeco. It also provide bus service to Cat Ba National Park from the Cat Ba town since we saw three people get off at the National Park. At the port, we were told to get off the bus and took our backpack to board on the boat. It is a small boat not like the ferry that we go to Cat Ba Island. The boat just took 10 minutes to arrive the nearest port at the Hai Phong town. Then we were told to get on another bus that is bigger in size.
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| Hadeco bus to the Cat Ba Port |
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| Ferry to Hai Phong |
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| Bus to Tam Coc |
On the bus, I found that the review from tripadvisor that the bus service provided by Hadeco at Cat Ba then boat and bus will stop at the Long Hotel at Tam Coc. It won't stop at the Ninh Binh town! There were many people review that they need to pay another taxi fee of VND150k to go to Ninh Binh town.
When the bus stop for the toilet and convenience shop, I used the google translate to show to the driver than I wanted to get off at the Ninh Binh town and he said OK. But we still feel uncomfortable.
After wake up from an hour sleep, we almost reached the Ninh Binh town. By opening the GPS map to track the bus driving direction, we knew that the bus is taking another way to Tam Coc without pass through the Ninh Binh town. This bus driver look very kind but he still did this king of thing. There is a people asking to drop at the road side near to the Ninh Binh town but the driver don't want to do it and he keep driving to Tam Coc.
1420 - We reached the Tam Coc where near to the boat ticket counter or Long Hotel. We asked the driver whether the bus will go to Ninh Binh or not. But he said get off first and will have another transport service for us. This time we think that he will charge us another fee for the transport. Hence we decided to just took our backpacks and walk away.
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| The drop off point where it is the ticket booth for the Tam Coc boat |
The distance from the place that we get off bus to the Ninh Binh town is 8km! Walking will took around 1hr and 20 minutes. Taking the taxi will cost VND150k. I tried to use the Grab or Uber. There is no Uber service in Vietnam. I used Grab and cost VND107k to go to Ninh Binh town. When we were discussing, there is a car approaching us and asked where we go. First he said VND150k to go to Ninh Binh. After we told him we wanted to get to our booked hotel directly and we wanted VND100k for the ride only, he don't want to do our business. After we continued walking while discussing, the driver come back and said ok about the price.
1510 - Reached the hotel which is Ninh Binh Family Hotel. It cost VND245k include the breakfast. After leave the backpack in the room, we quickly go to the receptionist to ask for the motor rental as we wanted to go to Mua Cave today. The motor rental for half is VND50k and one full day is 100k. There are many motorbike just beside the hotel which is belong to them. Hence, we rented a half day motorbike to find lunch and go to the Mua Cave.
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| The motor that we rented |
There were not many restaurant around this hotel. We simple had our lunch in one of restaurant. We called the chicken noodle soup and com chay. However, the chicken in the noodles soup look not like chicken. It was very chewy. I asked them to confirm again and they say the skin look like chicken. But we think it was goat meat as they like to eat goat here.
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| Com Chay with curry sauce VND40k. The special dish in Ninh Binh |
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| Noodles soup with chicken. I think it is goat! |
1630 - Reached the Mua Cave entrance. Parking fee for motorbike is VND15k. It is quite expensive. Next time, we should park further from the interesting place. The entrance to the Mua Cave is VND100k/person which is expensive too! The most interesting activity here is climbing the 500 staircase up to the top to view the Tam Coc and Ninh Binh. Hence, we quickly climbed up before the sky getting dark. It was quite exhausted as each of the staircase is quite high that need to take the big step to climb up. After 30 minutes, we reached the top and the view is really amazing!
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| A lot of buffaloes |
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| Inside the Mua Cave park |
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| Journey to the west can be seen here. Here must be influenced a lot by China dynasty |
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| Way up |
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| The view become higher and more amazing |
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| Limestone karst here is still amazing |
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| The most breathtaking view |
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| Another way up to that pagoda |
When get back down to the park, we didn't go to the Mua Cave as it was quite dark and scary that time. Then we leaving to the Ninh Binh town. At the town, we hardly to find any street food as our stomach still full after the lunch. We went to the bus station to asked for the sleeping bus to Danang. It cost VND300k at the bus station however the bus cost VND350k in the hotel! The lady that we asked for the bus also said that we can request the bus to pick up at the hotel. However, It could only booked in the early morning.
After that, we rode to the Tripadvisor top 1 cheap eat food in Ninh Binh which is Trung Tuyet Restaurant. The ladies is so enthusiastic to invite us into the restaurant. When we saw the menu, we were quite shocked about the price as the com chay cost VND80k compare to the one that we eat the lunch just cost VND40k. However, we just sit inside and called a small size fried noodles with chickens for two of us. While waiting for the food, the lady served free tidbits and free banana. No wonder it was ranked number 1 in tripadvisor. When our fried noodle come, we were shocked again as the portion size is so big as you can see the picture below compare to the banana! We were so lucky that we only called the small size one.
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| The "small" portion of fried noodles with chicken, VND50k |
After that, we bought some of the drink at the supermarket. Then we backed to the hotel and rest.
Our Expenses
Bus from Cat Ba to Ninh Binh : VND340k
Breakfast : VND80k
Lunch : VND70k
Dinner : VND70k
Drink : VND17k
Motor and Parking : VND65k
Taxi to Ninh Binh : VND100k
Mua Cave : VND200k
Accomodation : VND248k
TOTAL : VND1190k
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