* From January to March of the lunar calendar: there are many festivals in Ninh Binh, the weather is cool and you can combine to visit temples, participate in festivals and row to visit Tam Coc.
* The end of May and early June (the solar calendar) is the season of yellow ripe rice throughout the fields in Tam Coc - Bich Dong, creating a wonderful picture.
TAM COC
It takes only 3 minutes to walk from Ninh Binh Hidden Charm hotel to Tam Coc pier. Tam Coc means three caves, also known as Xuyen Thuy, including Ca cave, Hai cave and Ba cave.All three caves are made up of the Ngo Dong river through the mountains. This is a route travelled by boat
- Sightseeing fee:
* Scenic ticket: VND 120,000 / person / turn
Children under 1m4: 60,000 VND / person / turn
* Ferry ticket: VND 150,000 / boat / turn (4 Vietnamese tourists or 2 foreigners).
Free for children under 3 years old.
After buying the ticket, you can go to the pier. The ferry takes tourists to visit the rice fields on the river, weaving through the cliffs, water caves. The travel time (outward and return) is about 2 hours. Depending on the season, the landscape of the rice fields along the river will be green of young rice or yellow of ripe rice.
On the rowing road, you shall visit Thai Vi temple, where worships Kings Tran Thai Tong, Tran Thanh Tong and Generals Tran Hung Dao, Tran Quang Khai and Queen Tran Thi Dung. In the past, Tam Coc mountain was the place that the Tran dynasty built the Vu Lam palace in the resistance against Nguyen Mong.
BICH DONG
2km from Tam Coc pier, which means "green cave", the name given by Prime Minister Nguyen Nghiem, the father of the great poet Nguyen Du in 1773.This is one of fine sceneries in the group called the "The Nam thien de nhat dong", specifically Bich Dong was named "The Nam Thien De Nhi Dong", the second beautiful cave in Vietnam [behind Huong Tich cave (The Nam thien de nhat dong) in Huong Son and stand in front of Dich Long cave (The Nam thien de tam dong) in Kem Trong].Bich Dong consists of a dry cave lying on halfway of the mountain (building Bich Dong pagoda) and a water cave through the mountain (called Xuyen Thuy Dong). In front of the cave is a branch of Ngo Dong river winding on the mountain side, across the river is rice fields.
Bich Dong Pagoda was formed in 1428, at the beginning of the Later Le Dynasty with a small pagoda at the top of the mountain. In 1705, there were two venerables Tri Kien and Tri Be from Nghia Hung district, Nam Dinh province meeting each other and became blood brothers. The two monks all had religiosity, they wanted to go places to spread Buddhism and build temples. When coming here, seeing that Bich Dong mountain had a fantastic terrain and a pagoda, thus the two monks decided to stop, fix themselves the old pagoda. They made a collection to rebuild into 3 pagodas: Ha, Trung and Thuong to lead a religious life. In 1707, two monks Tri Kien and Tri The casted a large bell and it is still being hung in the Dark Cave.
* Free to visit Bich Dong Pagoda
