A royal court music performance in the new boat tour in Trang An Complex. (Source: VNA).

The new waterway tour, the third of its kind, offers tourists a scenic boat trip of three hours through the Trinh and Quy Minh temples and caves of May, Dia Linh, Van and Dai. During the tour, visitors also have a chance to stop at the Vu Lam Palace and Kong film shooting site then return to the departure point.

With the new waterway route tour, which opened in February with a ticket price of 200,000 VND (9 USD) per person, Trang An now has three waterway tours and one road route to serve visitors.

The tours offer the chance to visit up to 11 caves, temples and pagodas including the Trinh Temple and picturesque mountainscapes. The river water is clear enough to view aquatic plants living on the river bed. Nature is pristine with forested mountains and green valleys of reeds and bushes.

The new route is not a difficult trek but includes walks to the Tran Temple, the Vu Lam worshipping palace of the Tran dynasty and to Kong Village, a recently built model aboriginal community with many simple bamboo huts and friendly local villagers – just like the village you see in the latest Kong film: Kong: Skull Island.

Nguyen Van Duong, a freelance tour guide specializing in Ninh Binh boat tours,  said along with stops at spiritual and historical vestiges such as the Trinh and Quy Minh temples, the new stop at the Kong film studio on the tour was attracting foreign and international visitors seeking to satisfy their curiosity and admire the natural beauty of the complex.

Those interested in history will be attracted to the Vu Lam military base, built by the first emperors of the Tran dynasty (1225-1400) after they defeated Mongol invaders.

The new waterway tour is the first step in the province’s plan to increase the number of tourists, particularly those who wanted to follow adventurous tours, Dong said.

Nguyen Thanh Trang, a business representative from the agency C-Vietnam Travel, said positive signs had been recorded in tourism development since Ninh Bình has attracted more interest thanks to local historical and cultural vestiges as well as well preserved natural beauty and eco-systems.

Located about 90km south of Hanoi, Ninh Binh is known as “Ha Long Bay on Land”, given its limestone mountains rising out of paddy fields.

The most famous local attraction is the Tràng An Landscape Complex, which has been expanded over recent years and gained popularity for its green fields, mountains, caves and forests.

The stunning view of the boat tour.

The province has been listed as one of the 50 best spots to visit in 2018 by US travel site Insider.

Together with other famous sites in the province such as Tam Coc Grottos and Van Long Lagoon, the Trang An Landscape Complex was also used as a location for the movie Kong: Skull Island, one of the biggest Hollywood blockbusters of 2017.

In UNESCO’s words, "Trang An is a resplendent complex of limestone karst peaks which are permeated with valleys, including submerged ones, and surrounded by steep, almost vertical cliffs", nestling on the southern shore of the Red River Delta.

Source: VNS/VNA