RTW Trip Day #20: Lost Credit Card Panic and Arriving at the Trang An Family Homestay (Ninh Binh)

18 October 2025

Steps: 3,592

Today was meant to be a nice leisurely morning before heading to the train station in Hanoi to catch our train down to Ninh Binh.

Well that went out of the window when I realized that I had lost my Wealthsimple card at the mall the day before! Absolute disaster! Instead, I was rushing around trying to call the mall to find it, cancelling credit cards and trying to figure out how we are going to get a new card sent over to us by the bank.

Let’s just say it was a more stressful morning than I was expecting…..

Sleeper Train to Ninh Binh

We arrived at Hanoi central station 20 minutes before the train was due to leave, so I grabbed a few small banh mi and an iced salt coffee, before boarding the train.

We had booked a four-berth soft sleeper cabin, which was basically a small room with two sets of bunk beds. You can close the door for a bit of privacy, which was nice.

Since the journey to Ninh Binh was only a few hours, the girls just played and enjoyed the novelty of being on a train.

It was a pretty bumpy ride though, so I’m not exactly looking forward to the 15-hour trip down to Hoi An! I’ve read that the SE3 train we’ll be taking from Ninh Binh might be a little smoother — fingers crossed!

Trang An Family Homestay

We’re staying at a small family-run homestay in Trang An, which is a short drive from Ninh Binh and Tam Coc. It feels like a completely different world compared to the hustle and bustle of Hanoi. It’s so peaceful and quiet here. I think we might be the only guests staying at the moment.

The room itself is simple but really big, and the beds are absolutely massive, so we've all got plenty of room to spread out. We did have one bit of 'excitement' when we spotted a huge cockroach in the top corner of the room, but the lady running the homestay came to the rescue with a long broom and a bug zapper! Hopefully that’s the last one we see, as Jess dealt with the situation exactly how we expected her to....

The homestay is in a beautiful setting, with a pool as the centrepiece and a small restaurant off to the side where breakfast is included in the morning. We’ve ordered banana pancakes for the girls, and I’ve gone for a traditional pork-stuffed rice pancake, so we’ll see how that turns out.

It’s only about a three-minute walk to the main street, where there are plenty of places to eat. We had dinner at a small spot that overlooked the road. I ordered a bún thịt nướng, which is quite similar to the rice vermicelli dishes we have back home, and Susie had a chicken phở. The girls went for a pizza, which was pretty dreadful, so hopefully they’ll be a bit more adventurous with their choices tomorrow!

chicken phở

bún thịt nướng

We played a few quick games of pool before heading back to the homestay for a short swim and then called it a night.

Previous Day #19: Morning Homeschooling and Kids Fun at tiNiWorld

Next Day #21: TBC

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