Words barely suffice to express the tranquility and languid beauty of Ninh Binh Province, the home of Kenh Ga floating village, Tam Coc and arguably Northern Vietnam’s most stunning countryside.
Visiting Kenh Ga is simple: you buy a ticket and sit on a boat for two hours.
Just 3km down in Ha Nam Province and already I was playing a never-ending game of Highway One chicken with the life-flattening, prehistoric trucks heading to Hanoi.
I contemplated turning back, or at least the closest one comes to contemplation when duelling an aspirin-defying hangover: Was it really worth risking becoming a paraplegic to visit Kenh Ga, a fairytale floating village most Hanoians have never heard of?
In fact, everyone I had talked to about my trip – expats and Vietnamese alike – said the same thing, “Kang what?”
Their ignorance fuelled my illusions of having discovered an unknown civilisation hidden in the folds of Ninh Binh Province, rather than just having noticed a rather-long description of it in a guidebook.
This should have tipped me off to the Kenh Ga paradox I later understood: Sandwiched between tourist uber-magnets Tam Coc and Cuc Phuong, the remarkable floating village is such a minor notch on the tourism chain that its beauty has yet to break past the leisurely-traveler circuit.
Few tourists venture down to Ninh Binh for more than a day and, of those who do, most invariably dash past Kenh Ga to queue up for a boat trip in Tam Coc.
As soon as a striking wall of limestone mountains appeared on the horizon, though, I couldn’t take my eyes off them, much less turn back. So two hours later I found myself on the boat docks, sweat pouring, as I tried to figure out how to take a tour of the watery village.
more to read->VietNamNet Bridge
Visiting Kenh Ga is simple: you buy a ticket and sit on a boat for two hours.
Just 3km down in Ha Nam Province and already I was playing a never-ending game of Highway One chicken with the life-flattening, prehistoric trucks heading to Hanoi.
I contemplated turning back, or at least the closest one comes to contemplation when duelling an aspirin-defying hangover: Was it really worth risking becoming a paraplegic to visit Kenh Ga, a fairytale floating village most Hanoians have never heard of?
In fact, everyone I had talked to about my trip – expats and Vietnamese alike – said the same thing, “Kang what?”
Their ignorance fuelled my illusions of having discovered an unknown civilisation hidden in the folds of Ninh Binh Province, rather than just having noticed a rather-long description of it in a guidebook.
This should have tipped me off to the Kenh Ga paradox I later understood: Sandwiched between tourist uber-magnets Tam Coc and Cuc Phuong, the remarkable floating village is such a minor notch on the tourism chain that its beauty has yet to break past the leisurely-traveler circuit.
Few tourists venture down to Ninh Binh for more than a day and, of those who do, most invariably dash past Kenh Ga to queue up for a boat trip in Tam Coc.
As soon as a striking wall of limestone mountains appeared on the horizon, though, I couldn’t take my eyes off them, much less turn back. So two hours later I found myself on the boat docks, sweat pouring, as I tried to figure out how to take a tour of the watery village.
more to read->VietNamNet Bridge
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