Hanoi - Day Bon: Perfume Pagoda

*You should know the drill by now. There are so many pictures in this post, it's insane. If not on broadband, be patient. My lawyer's really good, won't do any good suing me*

After a good night's rest - the next day, day 4 in our Vietnamese holiday, we headed out on a small tour to the Perfume Pagoda.

Some 60kms southwest of Hanoi, the limestone mountains suddenly appear again - in the province of Ha Tay. Here, in the poetically named Mountains of Perfumed Terraces, the countryside is dotted with about 30 buddhist temples (also called pagodas), making this the center of Vietnamese buddhism.

We didn't come here as pilgrims. But if you come during the 1st - 3rd lunar month, the whole place will be swarming with Vietnamese undertaking pilgrimage.

The day starts again at 7.30am, and after picking up all 11 people in the tour, we headed out of Hanoi, for a 2 hour ride. The scenery today was more rural compared to yesterday's, but the ride was just as comfy. Just an annoying Spanish woman to spoil the day a bit. =(


2 hours later, we found ourselves reaching the Yen River, where we drop off the van, and splitted into groups of 4-5, each group getting into metal sampans.


The 1 hour, 3 km boat ride was by far the best thing that happened to me in the whole trip. The river was so peaceful, the air was fresh, no motors means quiet and the scenery was to die for ...

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves ...


At our drop off point, after a 10 minute hike, you can decide to either walk all the way up to the pagoda (1 hour, rocky trail, dangerous in the rainy season) or pay extra VND 30,000 for a cable car ride (15 minutes, beautiful view). Me & Taiko chose to take the cable cars both ways. Some more adventurous souls walked up and down. Some walked up, and took the cable car down. Truth being said - the walk up is not much, because it's all jungle only, says the guide book, tour guide, and some of the people in our group.


The perfume pagoda is really a cave, with a temple inside. Chinese would know it as 南天洞, and Viets call it Chua Huong. A bit anti climatic, but atmospheric, and it's set in great natural settings. And it happens to be the most important pagoda in the whole of Vietnam. During the months following the Vietnamese new year, this place gets thousands of pilgrims every day, some even overnighting in the cave itself !!!


Back from the trip, at the foot of the cable car station, is the beautiful and ancient Tien Chu pagoda, Chua Tien Chu. Truly atmospheric, in a great natural setting, it's worth the time to visit and just soak in the atmosphere. It was under a little bit of restoration work when we visited, but still very much a great temple. The guide told us this temple is more than 500 years old.


Truly a great trip !!! Costs us USD 18, includes the transportation from hotel both ways, the boat trip, lunch and includes 2 tour guides. Of course, you visit the two pagodas, get good commentary from the guides, and generally have a good time !

Hehe ... but the boat ladies will hassle you for tip. Pay around VND 2,000 - VND 4,000 per person. Don't spoil the market ... one of the groups actually paid USD 10!!! I think that lucky boatwoman would be having a good meal that night !!! And she might just wash that meal down with some snake wine ...