08-Apr-2018 -- Back in Vietnam to visit my daughter who settled in Ho Chi Minh City for almost five years. We use to visit her once a year since then. This time we decided to make a 3-day trip together in the Ninh Bình area. One of the objectives of the trip was the visit of the Phát Diệm cathedral founded in 1899 by french missionaries. The place is visited by a crowd of Vietnamese and foreign tourists and is also used as a stage set for the annual pictures of school mates of local high schools.
20N 106E is only 13 km (bee line) southwest of the cathedral and we asked our driver to make the side trip to the village of Nga Thanh and from there we easily walked to the point using local concrete roads.
The point is located in the garden of a private property and as I am always reluctant to trouble people, especially when we cannot exchange in their own language, we decided to stay on the northern side of the canal framing the property at less than 28 meters from the point.
The landscape at the point is made of small fields and farm houses inserted in a web of irrigation and navigation canals.
During our visit we were escorted by children on a bike who were very curious about our intentions but we had no way to explain what we were actually doing.