This was not a very satisfying day. We had booked the sleeper bus to Hue for 8 pm and wanted to spend the day going to a cathedral about 20 miles away but the people at Trang An Garden Homestay persuaded us that it was too far and we should go to the “Thung Namh” Ecotourism place. The drive there was the best part of the day past mountains, forests, paddy fields and small villages. The Ecotourism place was a major disappointment, although the thousands of Vietnamese and foreign tourists seemed to enjoy it. It was like a theme park, totally artificial, exactly the opposite of what we like. Set in beautiful countryside of lakes and mountains, it had a “Flower Island” in the middle of a lake where flowers were laid out in neat lines but we arrived between seasons so some flowers were dead and others in bud. The “Bird Island” was supposed to have millions of birds in 60 varieties; I walked onto it over a bridge and didn’t see a single bird, only a hotel, restaurant, shop, cafe and karaoke bar. I suspect the birds visit for a week in the autumn, take one look and fly away. I visited the “Love Tree” and stood under it for 10 minutes but nothing happened. The pangs of unrequited love. So we told the bloke on the little electric buggy that takes people around the place that we would go to the Buddha cave. It was closed, so we went to the smaller “Mermaid Cave” with 500 steps. At this point we were exhausted from the heat and humidity, so we went home. The Homestay Taxi took us to the Ninh Binh Bus Station in the evening where we had very nice meal and then boarded a sleeper bus to Hue. The pic shows the “Love Tree”.
The “Love Tree”
A cow (artificial)
What we were supposed to have seen on “Flower Island”