I really enjoyed our trip to Trang An. It's a great place and the carsts around the greenery you enjoyed while on a boat ride are a treat. We chose Bai Dinh as our base - it's basically one street but the road to it is lined with decorative lampposts and signs so you know you're reaching a touristy place. There are many homestays and restaurants, we chose Bai Dinh Garden Resort and Spa, a lovely new place affording a bit more luxury at a decent mid-point price. We booked a driver at the reception for the next day, when asked what to do at three in the afternoon, the receptionist shrugged and recommended us to see the Bai Dinh Pagoda, as it was just about 500 metres from our hotel. So we walked.

And man, it was a surprise, the whole religious complex full of temples, a big pagoda with golden and marble interiors should be visited if only for the views of the surrounding area. Each of the temple proudly presents the inscription certificate, claiming they're part of the inscription. Well, yes and no. Apparently, at the mountaintop of the complex is the old shrine that actually is historical and included in the WHS. But a good visit anyway, if only for marveling at the massive massive complex and everything in it being so big. You take an electric car from the ticket booth and from the top right side, past the Buddha statue, a 1,5 km walk leads you back to the Bai Dinh.

On our second day we visited the Ho Citadel and then went to Trang An. We bought tickets and chose route 1 as it has most caves and three lovely temples. Els mentioned set of Kong Skull Island, but from what I've read, they started dismantling it in September due to the movie declining in popularity and also on recommendation that it should be done to preserve the original landscape of the national park. The paddle boat sits four people, Ivan and I had two other guys as our boatmates. Most of the time we took the paddles which are on the boat and helped to paddle along as we felt bad about a frail Vietnamese lady doing all the work. And it was great because as we were approaching caves and temples, we sailed past other boats and could take uninterrupted pictures.

The whole trip takes three hours and it's really lovely, we enjoyed the views, water lillies along the way, the caves with low ceilings as well as the temples - the second one has a nice hike to the top. It's 200 000 dongs for one person, about 8 euros, which is a fair deal for what you get and optionally you can tip your rower. I would have really enjoyed doing the other two routes, but alas, as usual, we had limited time. 

After that we drove to Hoa Lu Citadel, part of the inscription, which is a large complex of old temples and some excavations. We saw about three temples and the excavation inside a building, but were quite tired to explore further. Temples are small and typical for Vietnam, though obviously much older. However the best part was hands down the Trang An itself. We enjoyed this WHS very much, it's a natural marvel that can be explored through a fun activitiy instead of hiking and the nature is beautiful.