After my 24 hours journey I arrived safe and sound in Hanoi. I could feel the difference in temperature, Hanoi was a bit cooler at night. After a well needed hot shower, Lionel took me out for a meal in the local restaurant and he was eager to show me the proper local stuff as he had arrived almost a full 22 hours before me, by plane (Grrr!). He had been exploring the locality and also been practicing crossing the roads, quite a dangerous pastime in Hanoi especially after being in the calm of Laos for the past few weeks.
*How do you cross a road in Hanoi?
The best way, without fail, is to do what the locals do. Admittedly this takes a bit of courage at first, but when you get it down it’s a fail safe. Once you’ve decided to cross just keep walking at the same pace without deviation or hesitation, no matter what is coming towards you, behind you or to the side of you. By all accounts close your eyes if it helps! All traffic will calmly pass around you as a stream would a rock. Truly amazing, it never fails! *Disclaimer: Thanks go out to Brad for this top tip, so if you follow this advice and somehow fail, sue him!
The next day we went to see the famoso Perfume Pagoda which is about a 2 hour drive from Hanoi city. Next up we took a small iron boat which are traditionally rowed by women. This journey was roughly 50 minutes along a narrow stream. Me being me, I felt that I had to help this lady as she was doing such a hard job on her own. Watching it , it looks pretty easy, but doing it is another thing. I got one of the oars from this lady and tried to maneuver but to surprise the boat wouldn’t move forward. All I could get was giggles from this lovely Vietnamese lady. She explained to me a couple of times in Vietnamese and me being fluent in Vietnamese just couldn’t grasp what she was saying. After trying several times I bumped into other boats that where moored and this time was my time to have a burst of the giggles and get back to my seat. Oh well, the adventure continued!
An hour later we arrived at the foot of the perfume pagoda where we had a spot of lunch before trekking up the mountain. We had a choice of either trek it by foot or taking the easy option, by cable car which would have cost 70000 Dong (roughly 4GBP return per person). Anyways, me being lazy and wanting to get away from the 3pm heat just wanted to get there see the pagoda and get down, but some of us are a bit more conscious about spending the greens so after a short consultation, we decided to trek it on foot!
After the 50 minute trek up the winding Huong Son Mountain we realised it was money well saved as it was a more than worth while trek. The scenery was stunning and all along the route up are locals selling Cassava, Tapioca, Medicinal herbs and at every 50 paces vendors selling traditional Vietnamese folk songs, which are blared out from TV screens. These were an acquired taste at best and we were more enthralled with the rickety structures built from bamboo and overhanging the mountainside that they were selling all of this from.
We finally arrived at the entrance to the cave and to our horror we saw some signs that said “no shorts, sleeveless tops or open toed shoes” permitted! Lionel looked himself up and down from his t-shirt, to his shorts and then his little toes and nearly fainted at the thought that he wouldn’t be able to go in after the arduous trek. Not to worry though as we managed to sneak in with all the other falang (foreigners).
Once inside, we were a bit disappointed with the perfume pagoda, we were told that we would be able to smell the perfume but the only thing we could smell was the incense being burnt by all the locals beside the many Buddha statues praying for good luck for the year ahead.
After exploring the pagoda off we went back down the mountain for the journey back home and another Vietnamese boat ride. Our next endevour will be at the beautiful Halong Bay…asta la vista!
