After the Vietnamese Lunar New Year holidays, On 02/02/2020 my friends and I organized a trip about 100 km far away from our home, our group has 10 people traveling on 2 cars but each car departed from 2 different directions - the first car from Hanoi and my second car from Thanh Hoa. We met at an expected destination ahead is Serena Kim Boi Resort (Khai Doi Hamlet, Kim Boi, Hoa Binh)
I got out of my house at 7:30 am at one of my partners in the group to go with the car, our car picked up the other 3 people in Thanh Hoa city, although they were not very far away but it still took us about an hour. Having enough 5 people in the car, the team in Thanh Hoa went to eat Hue beef noodle soup, a very delicious and unique beef noodle shop which was customized to suit the Thanh Hoa people (name of the restaurant: Bun Bo Hue - Tien Huyen; address 115 Quang Trung, Ward Ngọc Trạo, Thanh Hóa City) If you come to Thanh Hóa city you definitely should try it once, and the price is only from $ 1.5 - $ 2
Our journey just started, escaped from Thanh Hoa city, the road on National Highway 1A (the North - South main route of Vietnam) the road was so familiar to me and everyone because we were all of us have worked and studied in Hanoi for 10 years, this is the main way for us to be from home to Hanoi capital. Our car did not go too fast about 50-60 km per hour. Near the end of Thanh Hoa territory, adjacent to Ninh Binh, the car turned left to the small road and said it softly, but it could avoid two cars. At the beginning of this road, we seemed like to go to another land, the atmosphere and the scenery here were great. There are mountains, valleys, green forests, the atmosphere was extremely fresh and peaceful here … I stopped for 15 minutes to take a breath with the smell of the soil, and the trees here.
We took the bus and arrived to Resort Serena at 11:45 am. It was only 12:30 am when we got a room so in the meantime, we walked around the Resort. It was very surprised with the scenery and the location where there are rivers, streams, and mountains, even though we had just sat for 2 hours, stepped out of the car and took a deep breath of the fresh air. This made people feel better, like being pumped up more energy.
After walking for 20 minutes, the 5 members of our group from Hanoi - Hoa Binh also arrived, everyone came in to check in and went to lunch. The dishes here were not great, but they were quite suitable. Reasonably compared with the cost, we took a nap without alarm, woke up at 4 pm with a lightly windy and sunny sky. Review about the satisfaction of the room: the room is simple and fully furnished, the view to the river is the 2nd floor so the view is comfortable to feel the wind and sunshine {photo} To be literally, an afternoon vacation trip began with a few tennis set in really nice weather, when there were the last rays of the day. The tennis session ended at about 6pm, then we went to the hot spring bath, a reasonable choice (Resena Resort Kim Boi is famous for hot mineral springs). My body was relaxed completely. 45 minutes soaking was enough to recharge the energy. Everyone returned to the room to get ready and went to dinner. Serena’s cafeteria had a unique architecture, friendly and close to nature. The architecture name is Nha Non, which was designed by famous architect Vo Trong Nghia, the main material is Vietnamese bamboo.
Our dinner included with light stuffs, but energetic to replenish the energy lost after a full-power advocacy session. Eating and people chatting until 8:30 pm, then Serena organized a campfire, everyone started dancing and singing around the fire. 11pm when the last branches of wood are completely burned off, everyone came back to their rooms
I woke up at 7am in the cold weather and had a bit foggy, then boiled water, made a cup of coffee to drink on the porch, was watching the peaceful morning stream. It was such an interesting and peaceful morning. I also read news on the phone to see how the social situation begins the new day especially the situation of Corona disease, also known as Covid-19. Not that much outstanding news and it was 8:30, everyone also woke up, called each other for breakfast. Breakfast here also had many famous Vietnamese dishes such as beef noodle soup, bun cha, banhmi … There was also my favorite tea and it was delicious. Afterward, everyone went to explore Serena Kim Boi, an isolated and closest resort to nature that can be said to be afraid of a great arrangement with service and attentive service
We did not plan to have lunch here, so at 11:00 pm we checked out and left, before going back to 2 cars we shared a meal at a place 1km far from from Serena Resort Kim Boi. They served local specialties like stream fish fried, fried wild boar meat.
Yes it was an interesting trip for everyone, 2 cars divided by 2 directions to return to the place they came from. After a long day and night of the comfort on the road, the way was shortened because of our jokes and conversations
Because we talked so often, we went past the old turn and went the wrong way, we decided to go the other way, maybe the road ahead was full of surprises and interesting for me and with the feature only Google Map. I searched for the shortest way to get back to Thanh Hoa city by car and the Google Map gave a pretty quick result, we went through a small road, through the fields, to a farm. But the road ahead was a bridge but surprisingly it was only for motorcycles, bicycles, and pedestrians. Everyone and I in the car know that sometimes Google maps was usually just wrong but this was a trip and it was only 2pm so people were still quite comfortable, but that was not the biggest surprise when they I stopped at the foot of the bridge, because this was a suspension bridge spanning the river with a cable that reminded me of the American Golden Gate Bridge. We went up that bridge and it was interesting that it was quite tall. Although when a motorbike was passing and its feet were made of wire mesh, when I looked under my feet, it was like walking on a glass bridge, but the fear would increase when every motorbike passing by me was not afraid. My fear increased when a few motorbikes passing over me made my heart beat fast when I walked up the bridge and I did not dare to hold the phone. I took pictures to take pictures because I was afraid that if my motorbike would pass by, I would drop my phone into the river. We stopped 30 minutes to go up the bridge to admire the mountains and rivers and felt the smell of the wild grass. I think everyone felt like me.
I tried to fix it but it has not worked yet. What I want to say was that I want Google map to add editing features to us so I am able to let people know by car that this bridge is not accessible by cars and I want points like those. This on Google Maps is also fixed, to avoid people wasting time to enter but still have roads like this.
We turned around and followed the path that a member of the car knew to go back to Thanh Hoa city, we once again encountered this case, which was to go through the Nha Ho wall which was recognized by UNESCO as a cultural heritage. This time Google Maps showed directions correctly but cars were not allowed into the city when walking on Google maps only. But this time we did not have to go around but just went through another road to the National Road 45 and went straight to Thanh Hoa city.
The journey ended in an alley near Tay Thanh market, Thanh Hoa city with each person a very delicious leaf cake, at that time around 5:30 am. When people were hungry, people had to recharge their energy, right?. Thanh Hoa city welcomed us in the light yellow afternoon light, when finished eating was also the time when people split up to end the journey.