Tràng An nature reserve

Tràng An nature reserve

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We left our boats to walk up 350 steps
for visiting Trần temple on the mountain.

Saturday 4 April 2009 - It was our national holiday. I booked a one day trip (VND 320,000, about US$18) with Vietravel Company to visit Bái Đính pagoda and Tràng An nature reserve in Ninh Bình province (110km from Hanoi). Both places are new tourist destinations, so some road sections and work items are still under construction. I was at Bái Đính pagoda (which is the biggest pagoda in Vietnam) last year, so this time I took only some photos at the site. My major interest on this trip was Tràng An nature reserve as I'd not been there yet. 

After lunch, we started a boat ride at Tràng An nature reserve. For 3 hours, we went along the streams through 10 grottoes (from 70m to 320m in length) with beautiful stalactites. We also visited 3 temples on the way, at one of which (đền Trần) we had to walk up and down a total of 700 steps. Even though there were small lights in the grottoes, they were very dark inside. So dark indeed that my camera flash didn't work very well. My photos were mainly taken at the entrances or exits of the grottoes. I've never been to so many grottoes at any one site and it was very relaxing while sitting on the boat and feeling myself surrounded by the mountains. We call these areas "thung" (valley).