On our second day in Hanoi we got an early start heading south about sixty miles to the Ninh Binh area. Our primary destination was the river trip via small sampan on the Ngo Dong river at Tam Coc. Guide Mike and our driver arrived a bit before 8 A.M. and we headed out of town on the expressway CT101. About two thirds of the way to our destination, we left the freeway and moved over to the "old highway," QL1A that runs the entire length of the country. It was interesting to me to see that the "tombstone style" of kilometer posts that I recalled from Vietnam in 1970 have survived for fifty-five years, even though they had to be slightly modernized.
The route gave the illusion of taking us through a vast urban corridor as the highway is lined with shops and residences, but most of the route passes through lush farmland with just a thin urban veil of buildings on one or both sides of the route.
Here, as on other excursions, we noted the strongly vertical character of many residences. Our guides attribute this to the high cost of land for home-sites which may be part of the explanation but another factor is the tendency for homes to be multi-generational. As in Egypt, "filial piety" has a strong cultural influence on family location. This appears to be a result of Confucian influence in the case of Vietnam in contrast to Islamic influence in the Middle East.
We also noticed a strong Catholic influence in several of the communities we passed with both church steeples and homes displaying prominent statues, recalling the years of French missionary work in the sixteenth and seventeenth and extending into the colonial times of French Indochina.
Our first stop along the way was at a rest-stop and souvenir shop at Mỹ Nghệ Phương Anh. Linda and I independently photographed the signs inside the restroom stalls suggesting proper etiquette.
Out in the souvenir merchandise area, we were impressed with the overall use of color to entice buyers.
The most unusual local artwork available here and at other rest stops is Vietnamese silk embroidery, where unbelievably detailed scenes are created from multiple vivid colors of silk thread. (Some examples here - photos in the shop are not permitted. Instagram video here.)
Some of the works are created by disabled workers, part of the continuing legacy of Agent Orange use by the U.S. military as a defoliant during the war.
Back on the road,we continued just a few kilometers farther south before crossing a bridge over the Sông Đáy river. Off to the west, I could see the steep limestone mounds (geologists call them karsts) that mark the edge of the Red River's delta and were the destination for the day. And is that a cement plant nestled at the edge of the area? I believe it might be.
Soon a towering domed building appeared on the east side of the highway just behind a gas station. "Is that a church?" I asked. "No, its a house. A man built it for himself and his two sons," was the reply. (image courtesy of Google StreetView) "It's the size of a European cathedral!" we marveled.
It seems that the facility seen previously at the first appearance of the mountainous karsts probably is a cement plant and the construction and cement business has been quite profitable since the Vietnamese financial reforms of the 1990s. An article on the expansion of the Thanh Thang cement plant with a third production line can be found here.
The most definitive information that I was able to find about the owner, Đỗ Văn Tiến, and his mansion turned up at a Vietnamese Language Blog which helpfully defines a Vietnamese phrase: "the term đại gia is used to indicate a rich person in general."
CUNG ĐIỆN THÀNH THẮNG (THANH THANG PALACE)
“Cung điện Thành Thắng” situated in Ninh Bình city, built in 2016 and completed in 2019 by the businessman Mr. Đỗ Văn Tiến. The construction site was around 3.6 acres on an approximately 7 acres lot. The building has 5 floors, around 27,000 sq ft of living space, with its height equivalent to eleven storeys. The cost was in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
With this mega size, it’s the biggest and tallest private home in Vietnam at the time of completion, as well as in Southeast Asia. It appears ... that Cung điện Thành Thắng’s architecture and design emulate the European Rococo style.
It is hard to capture very much of the main house since the two "smaller" houses block the view. The entry arch is pretty impressive as well. The two photos are actually those smaller houses.
A much better view of the mansion, frequently described as the largest private residence in Southeast Asia can be seen on this YouTube video. The mansion is also featured at Oddity Central, sort of a Roadside America for the rest of the world.
Since we were still within the ten day Tet New Year's Holiday, the sampan launch site at Tam Coc was crowded with Vietnamese tourists and several police were managing the traffic flow.
We dropped Mike off to purchase tickets while we waited just outside of town (we were not allowed to stop the car near the ticket office). It may have been a half-hour before Mike gave the driver a "thumbs up" on Whatsapp and we headed back to the dock. A long line of tourists was waiting to board their small sampan for the trip; fortunately, there is a separate line for "foreigners" and we were soon on board and in the capable hands of our oarswoman, Mai.
Or, perhaps I should say "feet" rather than "hands." Mai, like almost all of the oarswomen (there are only a few oarsmen in this line of work) skillfully worked the oars with her feet. They do not use any kind of strap or special shoe - give it a try the next time you are out on the lake! It won't be as easy for you.
As we joined the flotilla heading into the Ngo Dong channel, we were amazed at the number of boats simultaneously underway. There are as many as twelve hundred of these boats on the river.
As we approached the first of the three caves on the journey downstream, Linda began video recording the trip.
Join the voyage for two minutes:
Besides the water and rock formations, there was an abundance of birds and plants along the way. The lotus is considered the symbolic flower of Vietnam. Being avid bird watchers, we were excited to see this bird, which is an Asian openbill, a relatively small stork species. They inhabit wetlands, including shallow marshes, flooded agricultural fields and lakes, which is exactly the environment where we saw them.
Later in the year, the rice turns golden, creating a spectacular view and an artistic pattern is shaped to provide an attractive view from above.
There are viewpoints from elevated points along the route with a 500 step climb at Mua Cave being the best known. Google "climb at mua cave video" for varying opinions of how difficult this walk is. We did not try it this time.
The round trip down the Ngo Dong and back takes about an hour and a half. We disembarked at lunchtime and headed for another culinary treat at a local restaurant. Once again we enjoyed a fixed menu with a wide variety of local specialties.
I took great care to make sure I got a picture of the restaurant as we were pulling away in our SUV but neglected to notice that there was no visible restaurant name - so five stars go the no-name spot in Tam Coc.
After lunch we headed back north for about ten miles to reach the site of Hoa Lư that was the capital of Vietnam at its founding from 968 to 1009. Our route followed a very narrow winding road as we left the Tam Coc site.
Nestled in a valley among the limestone mountains this site was selected for the first capital because it was very defensible following the initial founding of Vietnam's early government after the successful expulsion of the Chinese warlords from the area. After a fairly short existence, the government was relocated to what we now recognize as Hanoi.
While there are no remnants of the buildings remaining from the early era beyond some foundation stones, a pair of nice memorial temples to honor the site and a very entry lovely gate is a popular spot for photographs. The surrounding garden area and pond is also very attractive.
The combination of Tet holiday and Saturday evening produced an enormous amount of traffic out of Hanoi that resulted in a two-plus hour drive to cover the last twenty miles back to our hotel.
Many more pictures at this Flickr album, of course.
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