A short hop south of Hanoi and Halong Bay, Ninh Binh province is blessed with breathtaking natural beauty. ...Which, once we'd recovered from our epic and rather successful typhoon escape, we rather enjoyed. Ninh Binh itself is a rather industrial city, but a good base for exploring the quintessentially Vietnamese limestone scenery.

We biked it out (with drivers...such a good idea, as it is a long way and a hard drive) to the nature reserve, through what can only be described as Halong Bay-on-land. These spectacular limestone peaks rise out of the rice paddies with a majestic beauty that is unrivalled so far on our trip.

 
Tam Coc boat trips

These three caves cover a 2km stretch of the Ngo Dong River and boasts a landscape of surreal beauty, but it is also immensely popular. As we discovered, as a procession of boats of what seemed to be an entire school year of smiling and waving Vietnamese school children passed us -- each and every one insisting on saying hello. After half an hour of this we understood why the queen has her own wave!

The row boats are an experience in themselves though, as the ladies row the boat with their feet. Lol.