Perfume Pagoda

Lady plucking ducks outside the window of our van - with more ducks awaiting their fate
see all photos »

Being the suckers for punishment that we are we had booked a tour to the Perfume Pagoda, starting at 7.30am after arriving back in Hanoi on the night train from Sapa at 5am.  The Perfume Pagoda is a series of shrines and temples built into a mountain 60ks from Hanoi.

After a 2 hour bus ride we arrived at a river, where we were loaded into open boats for an hour trip to the mountain itself.  It was a very beautiful trip as mountains lined the river.  Once there it was another hour hike up the mountain to the Pagoda itself - some things are more about the journey than the destination!  The main pagoda is built into a large grotto in the mountain, and there were many Vietanmese people there worshiping, rubbing money on special rock formations for luck, and trying to catch drops from the ceiling for the same purpose I guess.

Boats on the river
see all photos »

After lunch and a reverse journey back to Hanoi we had our last night in Vietnam, spent at a road side Bia Hoi - places that sell you a glass of "cool" beer for 20c or 30c!