Travel Stories - Vietnam

At the bus station of "Ninh Binh" I am referred to the van with "Kim Son". It is a bus trip along some churches and not a remarkably green landscape and if you do not know better you drive around in Eastern Europe. I assumed that here was only a cathedral complex and so look surprised that there is a whole city with a long, strikingly wide canal with locks and many bridges. 

It is still a few hundred meters when I get out of the bus. At a small lake I see the bell tower in front of me with a small island. On it is a "Rio de Janeiro" Jesus statue, white and with spreaded arms. Where I expect a European cathedral with some "Asian" characteristics I see the opposite; it is a Vietnamese church with crosses built in a Sino-Vietnamese style. Hordes with children I see around the lake and it turns out that the school just went out despite the fact that it is Sunday. I walk to the entrance which consists of a beautiful old gate and almost everyone is gone now. Quickly I walk to the largest building on the complex which turns out to be the cathedral; a man is already closing the doors on the sides and I have to hurry up to get in and take a look. It is built of coal wood and the pillars and roof are really fantastic. The only thing that affects me is the atmosphere and the interior despite the TV screens that are attached to the beams. I walk to the altar which turns out to be made of a large block of granite before I’m sent out. I actually thought it was always open, this cathedral but in a way I’ve seen enough. 

There are four outbuildings that are all closed but luckily I can peek inside through the walls. It is a mix of a temple complex with large outdoor plants in which palm trees grow and the whole is beautifully maintained. Orange roof tiles interspersed with Chinese style roof tops, large gray brick walls, columns and huge crosses on the roof. The complex was built in 1891 and became really a Catholic stronghold over the years, especially during the "Vietminh-Franco" war that raged here in the 40s and 50s. Of course I know the building of the scenes from the movie "The Quiet" American "in which the protagonist stands on the balcony in the clock tower (the first building near the water) and sees the North Vietnamese and the French fighting. I look at the grave of the founder "Father six" and also because the threat is there that it starts raining again I walk back. An old lady with a wicker conical hat tries to get some money from me but I walk through the gate back along the lake.

I take a look along the canal just outside the cathedral complex with its many bridges and locks. I just drove here past with the bus. There are some pieces floating on the water and suddenly I see a top of a body in the water. Only the head stays above the water surface when the arms are stretched downwards and the woman tries to pick up something from the bottom of the river. No idea what they are looking for but it is a strange sight in the middle of the city. Further on I see the "covered" wooden bridge and I see numerous other only-walking bridges (even without any handrails or protection) in the distance. Wicker hats from girls cycle up the almost triangle bridge and then bike away. An old couple on a bamboo raft moves on with two sticks in the water - ducks and birds do not show themselves afraid to land on the spit. Suddenly shrieking that decreases as time goes by - a sign that my bus is coming. I have to go back.