Departure from Hue for Ninh Binh, fourth stage of this lightning trip in Vietnam.
I chose to leave with the night train. It is the most economic and practical way to travel this distance of 580 kms. Small inconvenience: the night train leaves at 4pm from Hue and arrives in Ninh Bình at 3am. I book a second class berth. It could be comfortable, except for two details: the train makes an infernal noise, but it’s nothing compared to my neighbour who snores like a bell ringer. In short, I don’t sleep and I arrive in Ninh Bình at 3am. Fortunately the owner of the central hotel which is a few meters from the station is used to it and comes to open the door for me. I collapse on a good bed until the morning but I still get up early (7 am) because I expect a big day. During breakfast, I organize a tour with the advice of the owner who orders me a driver for the day and recommends the three main sites according to her. The driver who will take me to each site speaks a decent English. It is pleasant. On the other hand her 4X4 does not have any more suspension and I would say the evening to my host that she should not propose this vehicle any more which is the most uncomfortable I ever used.
Trang An
It is a completely amazing place. 
I am wide-eyed from one end to the other, despite the very large influx of tourists, almost exclusively Vietnamese by the way.
It’s an indescribable place, you really have to go there, a three-hour walk through lake valleys linked together by caves. A historical place since it was in these valleys that the Vietnamese took refuge to fight the Mongols 
In each valley, islands, temples. 
It’s fabulous, a real storybook world.
Hoa Lu
The second stage proposed by my guide is on the other hand quite disappointing.
It is the first capital of Vietnam with temples that dates back to the 10th century but apart from the historical interest, there is really not much to see.
The Bai Dinh pagoda
Here, it’s still a great show. A pagoda made up of several huge buildings on a no less huge site.
Hundreds of statues, all different.
Kilometers of corridors, hundreds of little buddhas enclosed in niches, a huge tower. 
Really a place that must be seen and walked through. It’s quite tiring because it goes up quite a bit and to walk around the site takes several hours.
An exhausting day, but I have a lot of pictures in my eyes. I go back to the hotel exhausted, especially since the night before I only slept four hours.
I finally decide not to stay longer in Ninh Bình and to leave for Halong Bay, because I think I have seen the essential. The next morning I pack my bag and get into what the hotel owner calls a limousine bus, which is a slightly more comfortable minibus but driven by someone whose mental health is questionable. Frankly, it is better not to look ahead and try to enjoy the scenery on the sides, which is absolutely not the concern of the four Englishmen who occupy with me this vehicle, since all four will spend these almost 3 hours of travel with their nose on their mobile phone. Well, it is a conception of the voyage of discovery.
Arrival at Tuan Chau in Halong Bay in the late morning.
