After two nights in Hue, it was time to leave and head north on our longest drive of the trip. Dominik and I were on an adventure to recreate the Top Gear Vietnam Special, albeit with a private driver rather than on motorbike.
However, as we prepared to leave Hue, we ran into a hiccup. In the Top Gear Special, the trio realized they were running out of time and decided to cheat by taking an overnight train north. Driving all the way to Hanoi would have made for an extremely long day, so on the advice of our driver and booking agent, we decided to break up the journey with an overnight stop in Ninh Binh, a few hours south of Hanoi.
Alex, our driver, stopped just outside of Hue (his hometown) so that we could have breakfast at one of his favorite local spots. Breakfast was bun bo hue, a rich and spicy beef noodle soup local to the area.
It was a very long day on the road. I had brought my Kindle and was really happy for the chance to sit and read. I haven't been reading as much lately as I would have liked to, so it was good to be "stuck" in the car for a few hours.
Nearly 13 hours later, Alex pulled up in front of the Green House Homestay in Ninh Binh to drop us off and then go to get some rest. He was exhausted after driving so far, and I can't blame him. I've driven 13 hour days before, and they are really tough.
After checking in, we set out to explore the old town of Hoa Lu. We took a taxi to the riverside where we visited a small wooden temple.
A tower stood nearby on the water. The Tứ Ân Tower means roughly "Four Gratitudes" in Vietnamese Buddhist tradition. The tower is a Buddhist architectural monument and was constructed as part of the Kỳ Lân Sơn Tự complex.
The tower is modern rather than an actual surviving monument from the 10th-century Hoa Lư capital. The entire Hoa Lư Old Town complex is contradictorily a relatively recent project, opened to visitors in 2022, designed to recreate and evoke the architecture and culture of Đại Việt during the 10th century as the provincial government is trying to promote tourism in Ninh Binh, the origin of the very first Vietnamese dynasty.
Every day on our travels, I had spent an ample amount of time researching where we ought to eat that day. I run a small food blog on the side, and I'm usually pretty good at finding great things to eat.
However, for Ninh Binh, I really came up short. Every website I found said that the food in Ninh Binh was terrible. I couldn't believe it was so! After all, even bad Vietnamese food is usually at least decent food, right?
Dominik and I set off along the riverfront to find a restaurant for dinner. We hadn't had a bite to eat since the noodles that morning, and we were both starving.
To our dismay, every restaurant looked identical, with an identical menu. They seemed to cater entirely to Chinese tour bus groups. We both ordered banh mi, and we both agreed that not only was it the only bad meal we had eaten on our trip, but it was also actively the worst food we had in Vietnam. It was so bad that I dare not even describe it.
The reviews were right.
The dinner was so bad that Dominik and I left hungrier than we had arrived, as if our bodies had simply rejected the meal.
The less said about the better...
Anyway, we walked back past the towers as the sun set over the water. Hoa Lu has a ton of potential. I can see it becoming a major tourist destination someday soon, but for now it's still quiet and fairly empty.
The burritos were ok. They were certainly better than our dinner had been, and they were filling enough, but for some reason, they were filled with cooked instant noodles. I have no idea why.
Exhausted, we turned in early. We weren't far from Hanoi now, so we were going to spend the entire morning exploring the ancient Vietnamese capital before driving the final few hours to the current one.
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