Perfume Pagoda

In Vietnam, 90% of the population do not affiliate themselves with any religion.  However, twice a month, once on the new moon and once on the old moon, about 80% of the country's population visit pagodas to pray.  It's a bit contradictory, don't you think?  The first visit is to ask for prosperity, good health, fortune, pregnancy, wealth, etc.  On the second visit, they thank the Buddha for the month's gifts.  

I've visited numerous pagodas since arriving in Vietnam.  The ones that truly stand out in my memory are those I visited my first Saturday in this country, the day before my group arrived.  I walked into a travel agency, sat down, and asked them for a day tour that would give me a hiking option.  I didn't care where I was going, as long as I was out in nature and got a hike in.  They had one.  To an ancient pagoda on top of a mountain.  Built into a huge cave.  Up 5km of stairs.  Only US$34 for the day with lunch included.  It was a no brainer.  

So the next morning I awoke early, got on a little shuttle bus with eleven other foreigners, some from Italy, some from Belgium, Israel, Germany, and then there was the American:  me.  We made a ninety minute drive to a village out in the middle of nowhere.  From there we took an hour boat ride on a canal to the intrance dock to the pagoda.  Along that stretch of canal are 5,000 operating boats that transport mostly locals back and forth to the pagoda.  As our caucasian selves drifted by, many Vietnamese in other boats were taking pictures of us.  This place did not see many foreigners, and I was pleasantly surprised it hadn't.  Between you and me, I generally try to avoid other travelers for their lack of acknowledgement and respect for the country's standards they are visiting.  I'm often embarassed and shamed to be a foreigner, especially an American.  

But I digress.  The experience was phenomenal.  The boat ride was a great experience and the pagoda port was a bustling array of people and primitive food practices.  Whole wild animals hung in glass cases next to stacks of bananas, presumably staying cold.  We then walked towards the pagoda.  Shops lined the stairs all the way to the top.  We stopped about half a kilometer in to eat a pre-made lunch.  The shop was a massive eating-style cafeteria and was so loud I couldn't hear the Italian sitting across the table from me.  It was fantastic.  

We had been given the option to take the cable car to the top or walk.  I was one of three people in a group of twelve that chose to walk.  What lazy bums!  The guide informed us that it would take us about forty minutes to walk, he would be taking the cable car with the others.  I did it in 25.  Stopping at shops to browse was not on my list of things to do going up.  I wanted to get my heart rate up.  So off I went, leaving the two Germans behind.  Yes, I may have been being slightly antisocial, but I made friends of some of them on the way down- a much easier pace for browsing and conversation.  

At the top the views were gorgeous.  Cliffs as far as the eye could see bore only patches of their sandstone faces, the rest were covered in a shroud of greenery.  A few flights of stairs down took one to the entrance to a massive cave.  The volume from all of the people there was extroardinary, as it was the second moon of the month.  People were coming in droves to thank the spirits for their month's good fortune.  

We spent a long period of time observing the religious practices of the Vietnamese.  Prayers were whispered all around me as I perched on different rocks for a good picture.  On the way out, I passed groups of people pushing to reach far above one another towards the ceiling.  Water drops fell into their waiting hands, which they then wiped onto their faces.  They do it for luck.  

We turned and made our way out of the Perfume Pagoda and back down to the base of the mountain.  Another, more anthropologically designed pagoda resided at the bottom.  After our viewing we returned to our boat, returned to the water, the bus, and made our way back to Hanoi.  I felt it an amazingly refreshing and rejuvenating day after so much city bustle.  

 This boat's purpose is solely to play live music for those traveling along the river.  There are also floating concession stands.

I found our boatman fascinating.  He is 21, will row this boat the rest of his life, as many young people who grow up in small villages take up their family occupation, and not once did he look me in the eye.  I wish I could've gotten a good picture of his smile, because his face was the kind that lit up when he did.

Many people live within these channels.  Some small channels go off from the larger one we were navigating like drive ways.  How would you like to row home every night to park?

  

  

 You are seeing porcupine, squirrel, some sort of ardvark thing, and deer in all of these pictures.  This may be pangolin, which is a highly endangered species in Southeast Asia, but I certainly hope not.

 

Those are some sort of squirrel in the bag on the left.

The balls on the left are actually a type of arthropod, something like a centipede, that are used in a children's game.  

 

Perfume Pagoda at the top of the mountain.

People bring offerings to the Buddhas that will be distributed among the community.

Lucky water drops.

 

I didn't know they had penguins in Vietnam...!

 

 

Turtles are considered very lucky and a sign of long life in Vietnamese culture.  There is a 600lb turtle that resides in the lake in central Hanoi that the government spent over 1,000,000 US dollars on.  This included medical treatment and habitat quality control.