Caves, Karsts And Colourful Pagodas

In the third installment of their Southeast Asian journey, Jacqueli and Joubert Tulleken explore northern Vietnam on scooters, buses and boats. Get in!

- Jacqueli and Joubert Tulleken

After 14 hours on an overnight train, we arrived in the town of Ninh Binh in northern Vietnam early in the morning.

You might have seen photos of the jungle-covered limestone hills – called karsts – that tower over rice fields and rivers in this part of the country. Ninh Binh offers affordable accommodation and a range of activities. It’s about 95km south of the capital Hanoi and it’s right in the middle of karst country.

From the railway station, we took a taxi for about 10km to the smaller tourist town of Tam Coc. We planned to spend two days at a guesthouse called Tam Coc Bungalow, with our friend Wessel van Wyk and Shivani Ghai. It was tucked away behind trees next to a river and the veranda had a view of the limestone karsts.

After an afternoon nap and a hot shower, we all felt refreshed and ready to explore. We hired two scooters and rode around town. The main road was lined with restaurants and bars packed with young travelers.

We headed to the outskirts of town and rode past rice fields and smallholdings with Google Maps leading the way on the narrow roads. Later we watched as the sun set behind one of the karsts. We returned home for dinner and played pool and drank beer the rest of the night. It was a holiday, after all!

The towers of Tam Coc