Cuc Phuong National Park is Vietnam’s largest national park and one of the most important sites for biodiversity in the country. With all the activities it can offer for visitors, you can easily spend there a week. Unfortunately we didn’t have that much time and after short walk and abundant breakfast we were ready to hit the road!
Driving around reminds you that very often it’s not about destination but about journey, especially if you are following unbeaten path. On the way back to Ninh Binh we passed by some really local places and ended up driving through some rice fields. Pushing scooter through the rocks and dirt was included in our experience.
If you don’t want to go too far from Ninh Binh but still get imbued of Vietnamese atmosphere, you should check Bich Dong Pagoda. The unique of Bich Dong Pagoda is the perfect combination of ancient pagodas with crosscovered roofs, natural caves and majestic mountains. Once you overtook street vendors, you can enjoy atmosphere there and don’t get too upset if it’s raining, it’s even more special then. If you are a bit more curious, you can explore a bit dipper and maybe you will be able to see some private caves.

Not too far away to the East from Ninh Binh you can find one the most significant place for Christians people in the area Phat Diem Cathedral. This beautiful cathedral was build with a lot of effort in 1892 (due to boggy surface it required a lot of work reinforcing fundament). It was a surprise for us to realize that it’s actually a Catholic Church, pagoda type roofs in traditional Vietnamese temple architecture was to blame for our confusion! Wikipedia says that this style called "eclectic architectural style". New word learned today!

Phat Diem Cathedral was our last destination in the area and we finally had a chance to test local trains! Destination: Thanh Hoa. It’s so much better using trains instead of buses as you have all the commodities for a trip, even if it’s 3rd class tickets, without mentioning speed of traveling. It’s a winwin situation: cheap and fast!

We picked up Thanh Hoa not by accident, we needed to be there in order to get a bus to Lao preborder town Sam Nuea. There were some rumors about possible crossing there so we decided to give it a try. 9 hours ride was waiting for us! Woohoo!
Apart of a day long trip the main difficulty for us was establishing a price for the ride with the bus driver. They tried hard to rip us off by charging us double and them gradually dropping it. No way we were going to pay that amount of money. So after a lot of discussions, involving some customs officials as well, we agree to pay normal fare of 300.000 dong. Victory for us! And with victory new country and new adventures were waiting for us!
Laos, here we are!