We arrived in Ninh Binh fresh from our first-ever journey on a Vietnam Railways train.
The journey from Hanoi was only two hours, but for £24 we had our own private cabin, complete with a soft bed for each of us and charging points for all our gadgets. Imagine getting that for £24 back in the UK!
The comfort and cleanliness were honestly far better than we expected, so we pulled into Ninh Binh feeling surprisingly refreshed.
A short Grab ride — 100000% a must-have app when travelling around Southeast Asia — had us over to the West Lake area in around 15 minutes.
We had booked Tam Coc West Lake Homestay for £30 per night and were given a room with two enormous beds, right next to the pool. Once again, we were really impressed by everything our accommodation had to offer.
There were motorbikes and bicycles available to hire, a swimming pool, massages, organised day trips and plenty of food options. It had everything we needed without us having to go very far at all.
Our plan for Ninh Binh was incredibly simple: relax, relax and then relax some more.
Our style of slow travel usually means doing loads for a few days and then doing very little for the next few. After the noise, traffic and general busyness of Hanoi, we were more than ready to sit beside the lake with a coffee — or a 57p beer once evening arrived — and do very little other than read our books, play cards and cool off in the pool.
We took a few walks around the lake, discovered some lovely little bakeries and tried several different places to eat. However, the heat was on another level, so our preferred daily routine quickly became:
Breakfast at the homestay, which was included in the room price and was genuinely very good. A slow stroll around the lake. A dip in the pool to cool down. Lunch back at the homestay. A strategic retreat to our room with the air conditioning turned up to full power. Lake wander number two. Dinner. Beers. Card games. Bed.
Then rinse and repeat.
We would absolutely come back to Ninh Binh. We spotted so many homestays and hostels around the lake that looked brilliant, and next time we would love to explore more of the surrounding countryside, lakes and famous scenery.
For this particular visit, though, doing almost nothing was exactly what we needed — and Ninh Binh was the perfect place to do it.
Next up is Hoi An, reached by our first overnight sleeper train through Vietnam.
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