My Very First Blog

Continued from Part 1

After passing by the gruesome animal carcasses on hooks, we were a little apprehensive about having our lunch there. Luckily, we did not eat at any of the restaurants along that row. Our tour guide Nam Nam brought us to another restaurant a little further.





Walking up the steps, we could see many stalls on the left side.





Perfume Pagoda is a popular tourist attraction, but it is said to be very crowded with local pilgrims during the first two to three months after Tet (Vietnamese New Year according to the Lunar calendar). I would advise not visiting during those months (usually from January till March every year) unless of course, you are one of those people who enjoy the madness of a peak period.





I am not a crowd person so frankly, I was a bit worried that it would still be crowded with worshippers as it was just the first week of April. As it turned out, I had nothing to worry about.





We had lunch at Mai Lam Restaurant.





Our not-so-adventurous fare. Definitely thankful there's no dog, deer or porcupine on the plate!





During lunch, we debated on whether we should hike up the mountains or take the cable car to reach the pagoda at the top.

I had fun talking to everyone in our tour group. I asked a German tourist in our group to guess which country I was from and he said Malaysia. Surprised, I asked how he knew and he told me that he could guess just by listening to the way I speak English! Gosh!

It was then that I noticed that both my friend and I were the only Asians talking in distinctive Malaysian English. The Indonesian Chinese couple spoke English like Americans, and so did Nam Nam, our Vietnamese tour guide.





There are actually many pagodas (I heard about 14!) all over the area, but Nam Nam said he would only bring us to the main one inside a cave at the top of Huong Tich Mountain. I guess once you have seen one, you have seen all. To get to the top, we can either hike up or take the cable car.

My friend and I decided to go up using the cable car and then walk all the way down on the return journey. In this way, we could experience both the cable car ride and the hiking on the mountain.





In fact, all of us except for two ladies (from Canada I think) took the cable car ride up. It was a wise decision because the two ladies later told us that there was nothing to see on the way up as the views were all blocked by souvenir shops and tents!

This is the cable car station at the base of the mountain.





The cable car ticket was priced at 80,000 VND (about US$4) one way. I thought that was quite pricey especially if you need to take the cable car on the way down as well, which most of them did.





However, I had no regrets taking the cable car ride as we could watch the beautiful mountain-side scenery from the top.





Some pictures I took from the cable car.





Was I glad I did not hike up the mountain!





Halfway the journey, the cable car reached another station. Here, I was surprised to see lots of cash strewn on the floor! According to Nam Nam, these were money thrown by pilgrims to cleanse their sins. I wondered who collect all the money on the floor later.





Leaving the station, and the money, behind.





More beautiful views and scenery from the cable car.





I have a fear of heights, but somehow I did not feel fearful during the ride.





Maybe because I was too busy taking pictures there was no time to let the fear of heights took over me.





Finally, after about 15 minutes or so, we reached the top of Huong Tich Mountain.





Alighting from the cable car, we walked over to what looked like a very long staircase. This stone-slabs staircase leads to the cave below.





View of the stairs from the bottom.
































There were numerous shrines inside the natural cave.





I have to say that the cave was pretty huge!













The floor was wet and slippery and I had to walk very carefully to avoid slipping and falling.
































The cave was filled with incense and candles.





Tourists taking pictures as usual and I took a picture of them taking picture. LOL.





There were a lot of locals offering prayers at the shrines. Luckily, it was not too crowded. I can't imagine how it would be like if I were to be there during Tet celebrations.





I walked around for about 20 minutes and then I wanted to leave.





Yes, I wanted to leave. Because, honestly, I was not impressed.





I mean, if this is a major tourist destination as claimed in most of the travel brochures and online, then it must be the most hyped destination in all of Vietnam! There, I said it!
































OK, I like this bell...
































And I like the cable car ride although it's still nothing much to shout about.

But the temples inside the cave - what's the big deal with that? Not to put down their temples or having any disrespect, but I have seen better cave temples in Malaysia, my home country! I do not need to travel all the way to Vietnam to see this!

It was such an anti-climax and a disappointment. I was really glad I did not hike all the way up the mountain to see this cave!

While the rest of the tourists in our group took the cable car down, my friend and I decided to walk. But we were in for another disappointment. There was absolutely nothing interesting to see on our way down. Stalls and souvenir tents lined both side of the walkway, effectively blocking off any view of the mountains. How boring.





It was already late afternoon by the time we all leave Perfume Pagoda.





Back on the boat ride on Yen River.





I did not particularly enjoy this boat ride compared to the morning session, maybe because I had seen the scenery earlier and also it was quite hot under the afternoon sun.





Ironically, this boat ride was still way more enjoyable than visiting the Perfume Pagoda.





If there is any trip where the journey is more interesting than the destination, this must be the one!





We saw another smaller shrine along the river.





Come to think of it, no wonder the tour agent only brought us to the main pagoda. If the main pagoda is already quite a let down, why should we even visit the rest of the pagodas?





I used to take pictures of my leg and shoes whenever I travel inside a boat, so here's another one! Haha!





When we reached Duc Village, we had an unpleasant experience with our lady boat rower who insisted we pay her more tips and only in US dollars. You have of course read about this in Part 1, but if not, go read about it HERE.

Thereafter, we took the bus for another 3 hours journey (including a short stop at a souvenir shop) back to Hanoi.





So would I recommend a visit to Perfume Pagoda? I would say no. I feel it's more like a domestic tourist spot - more suited for locals than foreigners. Maybe it should not even be marketed as a tourist attraction!

But if you like to go on a scenic boat ride and see first hand porcupines being hung on hooks and ready to be cooked and eaten, then maybe, this trip is for you. Just don't expect to be impressed by anything and you should do pretty fine.

Next : A Morning Spent At Vietnam National Fine Arts Museum

WARNING : This post contains disturbing images of animal carcasses hung on hooks. Please proceed with caution if you do not wish to see them. I have placed the images towards the end of the post with a warning sign beforehand so that you can skip them if you wish.

On my fourth day in Hanoi, my friend and I went for a day trip to Perfume Pagoda (Chua Huong). We had booked this trip via Sinh Cafe Travel a few days earlier. The price for the one day trip was US$25 per person which include lunch, entrance fees, transport and a tour guide.

The young tour guide by the name of Nam Nam (I remember his name because it rhymes with Vietnam!) came to pick us up at our hotel at around 8.30am. We were the last few to be picked up that rainy morning so we ended up sitting at the back of the bus.





If you look at the photo above, you can see that they have cleverly maximised the space in the bus as the seats can be expanded in the standing area between the left and right rows. Well, this is still better than the buses in Guilin, China where they actually provide you with stools to sit in the standing area!

The journey by bus (which was heading southwest of Hanoi) took roughly three hours, including an unnecessary stop (read time waster) at a souvenir shop as usual. It could have been faster had the road not been so bumpy. It was especially bumpy during the last half hour of the bus journey. We even passed by a very huge pothole filled with rain water!





Luckily we survived the pothole and reached the riverside of Duc Village. From here, we entered the second phase of the journey to Perfume Pagoda. Yes, if you must know, there are no roads to Perfume Pagoda. You need to take a bus, then a boat and finally hike up the mountain to reach it. That is exactly how the Vietnamese pilgrims reach this important religious site every year after Tet (Vietnamese New Year).

Oh, but don't be put off with that hiking part - we are living in modern times even in Vietnam, so now they have cable cars to take you up, so don't worry haha! Although that sort of defeats the purpose of the pilgrimage right? OK, maybe the pilgrims should hike and we tourists take the cable car. LOL!





I was actually looking forward to this boat ride! There were rows and rows of metal-bottomed boats along the Yen River.





Each boat is rowed by two local oarswomen. We asked Nam Nam how much we should tip the oarswomen and he said US$1 would be sufficient. Unfortunately, that was not what one of the  women who rowed our boat expected from us. We had a pretty unpleasant experience with her.





These were the two women who rowed our boat. The one at the back of the boat showed us a sour face when most of us paid her US$1. She kept insisting for more and was not happy when some of us paid her in Vietnamese Dong. I mean, come on, it's just so rude to ask for more tips - it's our right to decide how much to give!





The one in grey shirt was rowing at the front. She was OK.





But this woman rowing at the back of the boat had a really bad attitude! She was smiling during most of the journey (although she wasn't in this photo) but turned sour face at the end when she saw how much we were paying her.





Sorry I have to single her out and even show her face here, but I was totally pissed off. I knew her rowing job was tough - I have to admit it is hard work rowing for more than an hour. Total that up close to 3 hours since she needs to row us to Perfume Pagoda and back.

Knowing how tough it was, I did not pay her US$1 like many others. I paid her US$10. And she still showed me a sour face!! What the hell. I wish I could have taken my 10 bucks back!





I did not know how deep the river was, but I was quite concerned that we were not given safety jackets to put on. Oh well, sometimes you just gotta take some risks...





Our boat passed by this man sleeping in his sampan. Just got to snap a picture!





Nam Nam, our tour guide - the one right in front of the lady rower and looking left.





A lot of people (especially tour agencies) had told me it would be a very scenic boat ride with views of stunning limestone karst formations and mesmerising rice paddy landscape. In fact, the boat ride was my main reason to go on this trip to Perfume Pagoda.





Never trust what the tour agencies tell you. Because as it turned out, I was not really impressed. Maybe because I have seen it all before in Guilin, China. Or maybe Guilin has nicer scenery - I am not quite sure.





But the boat ride was still pretty fun. So I was not really complaining. Just that I was not impressed. It just did not make me go "Wow!"





Nam Nam explaining some of the things we saw during the boat ride.





That poor lady rower looked pretty exhausted, so Nam Nam helped her with the rowing.





I was seated almost at the back of the boat on a higher seat, so I did not need to stand up like this lady to take pictures.





After a while, everything around us just looked the same.





It was starting to get a little boring when we saw we have reached our destination! No, not Perfume Pagoda - we still need to climb up the mountain, remember? This is the base of Huong Tich Mountain and we disembarked there.





Everyone had left the boat except the sour faced rower. Sorry just can't stop myself from calling her that although she was not showing any sour face at that time.





Took a shot of the scenery from the jetty.





WARNING : Disturbing images ALERT right after this picture below! Please skip the rest of the post if you do not wish to see the images. 

Before going up the mountain, Nam Nam told us that we would be having our lunch first at one of the restaurants there. We passed by a long row of restaurants and eateries and I was wondering which restaurant we would be going to.





And then, to my horror, I saw this ...
































And this!
































What animal was that?! Not a dog, I hope.
































These carcasses were hung off hooks and displayed in front of almost every shops there. Although I have heard that people in Vietnam do eat these animals, it's simply not the same as seeing the carcasses hanging like that.

Having said that, I was not particularly disturbed with what I saw. But it would surely be a shock to animal lovers and tourists not accustomed to seeing such garish display of dead animals!
































That's a deer hanging together with a bunch of bananas.

And what do we have here?
































Yikes! Giant lizards?

Is this a porcupine?
































Oh no! I would surely lose my appetite after seeing all these!
































I hoped we were not going into one of these restaurants! How could we even stand the smell?
































Then we stumbled onto these bread. What's with those "legs"? Maybe I should have bought one of these bread to try but after seeing all those carcasses, I just did not feel like having any!





So what did we eat for lunch? And did Perfume Pagoda live up to my expectation?
Stay tuned for Part 2 coming up next!