Mysterious caves revealed at Trang An

Covering an area of 1,961 hectares, Trang An Eco-tourism complex boasts 48 grottoes and caves, 31 valleys and the hallowed cultural area of Bai Dinh Pagoda. Cruising around the area, tourists will have a chance, like kings in ancient times, to use the mountains as walls, the rivers as roads and the caves as palaces.

Tourists cruise around at Trang An eco tourism complex – Photo: Thuy Trieu

A tour around Trang An often includes visits to nine grottoes and three temples, Trinh, Tran and Phu Khong. About a kilometer from the wharf, tourists will get to the complex’s longest cave called Dark Cave which is 315 meters long, and then to Bright Cave which has four gates opening to mountains walls.

The site is home to many wild creatures and plants and each cave has its own beauty with many stalactites in a profusion of color. Trang An is truly a land of myth and fantasy making it easy to forget the troubles of daily life. Rowing through Trang An Grotto in the quiet, fresh air of the highlands, with only the sound of the birds and the oars stirring the clear water and surrounded by magnificent forested mountains upon which graze white goats, visitors enjoy a heaven on earth.

Tourists not only sit on a boat and cruise through the caves but also climb mountains to visit temples associated with historical relics from the dynasties of Dinh, Le, Ly and Tran from the eleventh to fifteenth centuries.

Tourists can contemplate bronze statues, bells and 500 stone arhat statues at Bai Dinh Pagoda.

As other sites in flooded areas, the entrance and the exit for an excursion to Trang An is a wharf. However, after finishing the tour, tourists will not come back to the entrance wharf but will move on to another wharf to have food in a restaurant.

Drifting on the rivers, discovering the mysteries of the caves and breathing the incense smoke from the temples leave space for peace in the soul.

The Saigon Times Daily