Our first day trip in Vietnam!

There are very few reasons why one would get up at 6am on a Saturday morning. Today we got up to take a day trip to Ninh Binh, the Old Citadel of Vietnam aka "Ha Long Bay on Land." It was a VERY foggy day today, and I was a bit skeptical, but it turned out to be yet another great day in Vietnam.

Smoggy sights on our two hour drive to Ninh Binh

We were so happy to see blue sky!

Entering Ninh Binh...

I see why it's called Ha Long Bay on Land

The entrance to the Citadel and temples. The vendors were VICIOUS.

Another pagoda in the middle of a field, it could be a permanent family burial ground, I am not sure

Lotus pond

Our group contemplating the entrance to the Citadel. The King would enter through the middle entryway.

More beautiful lotus ponds

An altar for the King and his family

The king!

In another temple, a statue of QueenDuong Van Nga; one of the most powerful women in Vietnamese history. She was married to two Kings(at separate times) and the mother-in-law of another King.

Thien Phuc: Ten Happiness

Names after the King whose nickname was Thien Phuc because he had ten sons

A cute old man on a water buffalo

The entrance to one of the most spiritual places in Vietnam. It's under construction, but will be complete in 2015. All of the following photos were taken inside the walls. It was huge.

The protector from evil

The promoter of Good

6 of the 1,000 buddhas made for the people who contributed for the temple

The beginning line of 500 buddhas

People rub his knees for good luck, each statue was different

The bell tower

A huge pagoda under construction

The 35 ton bell

From the bell tower, so beautiful!

This guy was my favorite

The buddha with a thousand eyes and a thousand hands--she is known to help everyone in the world; which is why she needs so many eyes and hands

A closer look at the huge pagoda

A piece of petrified wood that resembles a turtle

Another beautiful altar

A phoenix on a turtle; representing balance

A rock garden

The road to the Happy Buddha was busted:( 

Buddhas of the past, present and future

Beautiful acoustic music played by a blind man

Crossing the bridge to the river we will boat on!

The specialty of the region? Mountain goat. No, we did not order the one second from the bottom. 

Grilled goat with spring onions. It was pretty tasty!

Pork spring rolls

A Vietnamese veggie omelet

Steamed bok choy 

Chicken with lemongrass

Regional specialty; fried rice-yum!

Stir fried rice with vegetables and fried onions on top

Tofu in tomato sauce, the same thing our housekeeper made for us last week! 

Perhaps the best tofu I have ever had. 

No, I did not eat all of this food. There were ten of us who shared it all.

After lunch, we headed out on a two hour boat tour. They can fit 5 people or 4 foreigners on the boat....A sweet vietnamese lady rowed us through many caves, but unfortunately, my phone died. Luckily, our other camera didn't, but I will post those hilights later.

We're on a boat!

Here we go!

There's the first cave we went into.....

The other half of our group

Into the cave we go!!!

It was a great day. We were on the boat for two hours. At one point, a large group came up behind us and while we were in the cave, they started singing. We asked our guide and she said they were Korean so she didn't know. It sounded like "Oh mommy, please come home." Or something of the like, it was really pretty and harmonious, so we started singing with them. After we got out of the cave our Language teacher said "I like your singing!" I said "What were they singing?!" She said "OM MANE PADME HUM."Which is a mantra encompassing all the teachings of the buddha. We then sang it every time that we were in a cave, which was at least 6 more times.

We ate, we walked, we rowed, we loved every minute of it.