Part 1: Mountainous Tam Cốc area

Back in 2023, I spent a week in Vietnam for a friend's wedding. The trip was so fun I still keep coming back to it 1,5 years later! After the wedding, there was a day trip organised to the Ninh Bình province, about a 100 km south of Hanoi. The bus left early in the morning from the Hanoi Opera House, a gorgeous French style building built at the beginning of the 1900s. It took about two hours to reach our destination, after a brief lunch stop along the way.

The area is situated close to the first capital of Vietnam, Hoa Lu, which was a strategic place with the mountains and river to defend. In 1010, the King decided to move the capital from Hoa Lu to Dai La (modern day Hanoi).

Walking up the mountain. There's no shortage of stairs here.

I didn't research much about the location beforehand, but nothing could have prepared me for what awaited us there. It was quite a hot and humid day, but I was excited to start walking up. I had prepared with sporty clothing and a hat, because I knew I would be drenched in sweat in no time. And sure enough, it didn't take many steps to feel the heat.

Structure belonging to the temple. The mountain is formed from very sharp volcanic rock, which I'm not familiar with. It was very interesting to see in itself.
After a brief hike (the place is quite accessible) I saw the view towards the river. I felt like I'm in a movie! It was something I had a hunch about how it looks like in Vietnam. But it's just so amazing to see such a wondrous sight in person. The world really looks so different around the world.

The lush, neverending green and the river flowing between the mountains is a very poetic sight. I hope to convey at least a sliver of the real experience through my photos. As with any photos, you're still missing the feeling of humid air and scorching sun, combined with the occasional refreshing mountain breeze, and all the smells carried by the tropical winds.

Turning head towards the other side, we can see the stairs leading to the mountain top. So beautiful! Try to follow the steps from the bottom and see how many people can you find?
Of course, people take photos of themselves everywhere. But couldn't ask for a more beautiful background. I hope she is careful not to fall...

Surprisingly there's even a kiosk mid way to the mountain. It really came in handy as even a 0.5 liter bottle of water is going to run out quickly.

This vista makes my mind calm down.

Not much more to the top! To really get to the top, you have to climb on the rocks. The easy path ends quite high, but the very top requires some agility to get to. A real adventure! The rocks really are super sharp, so caution is required to not end up in the hospital. And there's other people to watch out, as the path up there is narrow and you might have to take turns to move.

The view from the top is simply stunning! The scenery is unlike anything I've seen in my life. This is one of my personal favourites from the trip. You can see the different layers, all the way to the city in the background. People provide a sense of scale and the colourful roofs look cute.
I saw a goat jumping up and down the cliffs somewhere here. Sadly I couldn't take a photo of the goat. But the dexterity and ease with which they stride the sharp and uneven terrain is very impressive.

Now it was time to climb down. By this point my shirt was resembling more like a wet towel than a t-shirt. But I didn't mind, as I was having fun and was well prepared with lots of water.

I remember this was the last photo I took before climbing down. I went up the other hill while others were already tired and leaving. Can't leave any stone unturned, now can we? The view is more "normal" but here you can see the small store in the middle.

On the way down, one of us spotted Suomi (Finland) carved into the stairs! I'm generally not a fan of tourists leaving a trace of them behind, but I guess in this case it's kind of okay, as the stairs in this section are not of any historical significance.

Just before getting back to the bus, we saw this group of women dressed in similar fashion. I snapped some shots quick, and thought it was fun to get the organiser in the photo too. In hindsight, I could have waited some time to ask them for a proper pose (and also in hindsight maybe they don't want random tourists snapping quick shots away...) but well, they didn't seem bothered by it too much.

Next we had lunch, after which we moved to see some nearby temples. The temples were beautiful but I did not find that many opportunities for photos as it was a bit rainy and dark.

I'm not sure if it just the humidity, which makes buildings look like this, or combined with them not being cleaned too often, but the run down aesthetic is certainly very pleasing. Sometimes I don't know if some structures are really old, or they just look like that because of the rapid build up of moss and gunk. 😃 Nevertheless, it looks gorgeous.
Details on a temple wall. The nature adds its own touch to the human hand.

Entering the temple, you're faced with a small challenge. As the weather in Vietnam is mostly hot and humid, a lot of tourists wear shorts or other clothing revealing legs. It is considered disrespectful to enter temples in an attire such as this, so they offer skirts for loaning. Of course I had to try one. (It's actually not stricly enforced, but when in Rome...)

Wide field and a pagoda.

The day was just getting to it's halfway point, but now it's time wrap up for this entry and keep it short and sweet. Next one will focus on the river boat ride between the mountains. Until next time! 🛶⛰️

The air always feels calm after the rain.

All photos were taken on a Canon EOS 30 film camera on Kodak Gold film. Special thanks to Ngọc Nguyễn for providing additional details.

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Ninh Bình - through cliffs and caves
Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM
Vietnam
Kodak Gold 200
Canon EOS 30
Landscapes