I've always wanted to see the churches of Nam Dinh. In the past heading towards Ninh Binh on the road, the familiar towers and arches of massive gothic style French influenced churches would peak from beyond the horizon, sparking my curiosity. Later on, I saw many pictures of the online. So I knew that one day I had to go see them for myself. And it happened.
The Hanoi Bus Station has quite a few buses in Nam Dinh's direction. In fact, every 15 to 30 minutes or so. I recommend going to a ticket office and buying a ticket first, but be warned that these mini buses still might take their time leaving to pick up more passengers along the way. Remember that. And the buses can be quite hot too.
About 2 and a half hours later I made it to Nam Dinh, got into a cab and checked into my hotel. I rested for about an hour because I was completely exhausted from the early morning flight and the time on the bus. I tried to rent a car and driver with two rental places and they were all either busy or gave some outrageous number. So I contacted the same taxi guy that dropped me off. Then I realized that all of the churches were in the rural province of Nam Dinh and not in the city. This was a shocker because I was planning to see at least ten. In the back of my mind, I kept thinking that they were next to each other, similarly to how Ho Nai in Bien Hoa's mega churches are. I was more than wrong.
All the major churches are far apart from each other. You can ride a motorbike for sure, but it'll take you all day. I only had about 4 hours or so before sunset. So because I didn't know for sure where I was going and the driver wasn't an expert on the churches, we just opted to use the meter instead, which at the end of it was 1.8 million Dong. The first few churches weren't that far from each other, but they weren't on the main road. They are all tucked in little communities off of the side. The last one called Hai Ly or the Ruined Church as the locals call it was quite a ways away from all the other churches.
I was disappointed that I couldn't see more churches. I was also disappointed that pictures made them look more grand and beautiful. But that's photoshop for you. There was also the fact that many of the churches were given a new coat of paint. You see, that's the problem and the double edged sword. These are active churches that people use. So naturally, they have to restore them and improve them. And a new fresh coat of paint is a part of that. Though, I personally would just have left it alone. But that's not the local mindset.
So are the churches still worth checking out? Yes. Give yourself from morning to evening to properly explore them. Some of them are stunning. Their grand size made it impossible to film them completely. The people in the churches were so nice. From my experiences of traveling, church volunteers and visitors have always been nicer to me than temple people. Many of the church construction workers worked for free in the blazing sun. Some of them even invited me to drink some tea with them. They were proud to show off their work, and rightfully so. These churches were beautiful.
The night concluded with a meal of roasted and boiled ducks. The restaurant where I got the food from didn't have any tables left and it was just too loud and dark to make a proper video, so I bought the food back to my hotel restaurant instead. Despite being a draining day, I slept like a baby on the hard rock of a bed and enjoyed my time running around Nam Dinh a lot.
If you're in Ninh Binh. There is absolutely no reason to not stop by Nam Dinh for a day, especially if you believe in Jesus or if you can appreciate Gothic architecture. Nam Dinh is only 40 minutes or so from Ninh Binh after all.
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