The Ancient City of Hoa Lu and the Bai Dinh Pagoda

Breakfast was, fortunately, much better than dinner had been. The owner of our guesthouse prepared a delicious meal of baguettes, eggs, coffee, and fresh fruit, then we set off to explore Ninh Binh.

In the late 10th century, Hoa Lu became the capital of Đại Cồ Việt, the first independent Vietnamese kingdom founded in 968 by Đinh Bộ Lĩnh after hundreds of years of Chinese dominance.

In 1010, the Lý dynasty moved the capital north to Thăng Long, modern-day Hanoi. Loa Lu was thereafter known as the "ancient capital", but its temples and ruins remain a reminder of the birth of the Vietnamese state.

After breakfast, we took a taxi to the Hoa Lu Historical Park, encompassing the ancient citadel and the ancient tombs of the earliest Vietnamese emperors.

The most significant building in the Ancient Capital complex is the Temple of King Dinh Tien Hoang (another name for Dinh Bo Linh), dedicated to the first emperor and the founder of Vietnam.

Approaching the temple, we passed through a series of courtyards and ornate gateways decorated with dragons, phoenixes, and other traditional Vietnamese motifs. 

The main sanctuary is a richly decorated wooden structure, with the interior sanctuary centered around a statue of the emperor.

There was a small fishpond at the temple filled with golden carp. Nearby sat an honor box where you could purchase little bags of fish food. We did, and it was hilarious! The fish were so excited about the food that they were almost literally crawling up onto dry land for a bite.

Ninh Binh is sometimes nicknamed "Ha Long Bay on Land", and it's easy to see why. Karsts covered in thick tree growth rise up over the otherwise flat fields of the region in dramatic shards of limestone.

We walked along a quiet dirt road away from the main historical park towards a small Buddhist temple about a mile away. Along the way, we got to appreciate the beautiful scenery, with the rice paddies stretching out around us and the limestone mountains rising to the sky in the distance.

It was early, but it was already hot, and we ended up stopping about halfway at a quiet guesthouse where we sat on the patio and ordered a cold drink to cool off.

The tourists coming to Hoa Lu typically stay around the historical park and rarely take the time or effort to walk out to the temple. It was very quiet, and we were the only ones there save for a small number of Buddhist nuns clad in white robes with shaved heads who greeted us warmly.

Before heading back to the hotel, we made one last stop at Bai Dinh Pagoda, and let me tell you, whatever I was expecting it to be, it wasn't this.

The temple complex is absolutely massive. In fact, Bai Dinh is recognized as the largest Buddhist complex in Vietnam and is home to a collection of rather impressive records, including the largest bronze Buddha statue in Vietnam, the longest corridor of Arhat (Buddha's disciples) statues in Asia, and one of the tallest stupas in Southeast Asia.

Bai Dinh is so enormous that the only way to get around is to buy a ticket for one of the electric golf carts that shuttle visitors between the various temples and monuments.

The complex isn't ancient. While there has been a small, historic pagoda on Bai Dinh Mountain for centuries, the enormous complex we were walking through was built almost entirely in the 2000s.

Despite its relatively young age, it is an incredibly impressive place. The sheer scale of Bai Dinh is difficult to appreciate until you're actually there, and the hour or so we had to explore was nowhere near enough time to do the place justice. We could genuinely have spent an entire day there, driving from site to site, without really getting to see everything.

The temple complex is the site of religious pilgrimages and retreats, but it's not without controversy due to what some perceive as the commercialization of religion. The complex was built by a private development firm and is part of the new wave of religious tourism that has become increasingly popular in Vietnam.

Vietnam is a deeply spiritual and religious country, and rather than attempting to eliminate religion altogether, as some other communist governments did, the ruling Communist Party gradually shifted toward recognizing and regulating religious practice as an accepted part of Vietnamese society. Today, the government officially recognizes Buddhism and several other religions (most notably Cao Dai, Taoism, Catholicism, and various local folk religions).