Hiking Tram Mountain & Discovering A Ruined Church in Northern Viet Nam

Hello everyone, today I am happy to introduce to you a place that hasn’t been included on the Worldmappin map before. This place is called Núi Trầm (pronounced new-ee chum) or Tram Mountain, in northern Viet Nam, about an hour or so outside of Ha Noi. Tram Mountain is not a large mountain, but it certainly sticks out in the mostly flat landscape that surrounds it. This place is actually a great example of what I have found to be an iconic feature of the Vietnamese landscape, which I haven’t really seen anywhere else in the world. A landscape defined by endless stretches of flat farmlands and the occasional small mountain of limestone sticking out here and there. Usually, you will see these mountains standing alone against the flat landscape, as is the case with Tram, but in other instances, they will be in small clusters.

At the time, I was working at a university in Ha Noi, and this place was introduced to me by one of my students. Ha Noi is often considered one of the most polluted cities in the world, and while I lived there, I would often take little motorcycle trips with friends to natural places outside of the city. It was always nice to spend time with friends and to take a break from the busy and polluted city streets. One of the things that I always appreciated about Ha Noi, is that if you were up for a little driving, there was no shortage of beautiful hidden gems sprinkled across the landscape.

Once you are out of the city, the drive to Tram is pretty calm and uneventful, with little towns and rice fields dotting the small country roads. In Viet Nam, many of the large highways are forbidden for motorcycles, so you will often find yourself on smaller two-lane roads. In many cases, I actually prefer these more cozy streets, at least until the occasional large van or truck comes by. When we arrived, there was no sign or anything to mark the trail, but regardless of that, when I got to the pin, there was a small dirt path waiting for us.

The path is certainly a bit rocky and narrow in some places, but overall it's pretty manageable for most hikers. Some is scrambling near the top, so be sure to bring stable shoes with you.

At the top of the mountain are the ruins of a small French church. There isn’t much left of the building that identifies it as a church, but that is what I was told by the student who told me about it.

The views from the top are really quite beautiful, and I would imagine they would be even better at sunset. It is really nice to sit in a shady spot and just gaze out over the quiet landscape and see the outline of the big city in the distance. Having this peaceful place to ourselves was quite a treat, and seeing the busy city in the background heightened my feelings of detachment and pastoral bliss.

We took another way down from the mountain, and stumbled upon these cool statues at the bottom. Seeing the Christian saints sitting there assured me that there was a church up there at one point.

We also found several Buddhist statues nearby, but that didn’t stand out as much since there are a few small temples in the vicinity.

On the way out, we got a little turned around and stumbled upon the cool little bus cafe. It wasn’t open, but I am sure that this place is quite popular closer to sunset, when more of the locals would be visiting the mountain.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my visit to Tram Mountain, a nice little bit of nature calmly outside Ha Noi’s hectic sprawl.

All photos are my own. Have a great day.