Perfume Pagoda / Ha Long Bay

On Tuesday we booked a tour to go see the Perfume Pagoda, a Buddhist prayer house, on top of the Perfume Mountain 70 km southwest of Hanoi. In order to get there, you must take a row boat up the Yen Vi river. The drive out to this location was half the fun. It gave us a glimpse of what everyday life in the countryside of Vietnam is really like. The pagoda itself is a cave on top of the mountain, with shrines for the three different Buddhist flavors practiced in Vietnam. The Kitchen Pagoda at the bottom was just as spectacular and our guide, Tuyen, did a fantastic job explaining the historical and spiritual context of the place.

Yesterday was mostly a day of rest, partly due to a stomach-ache I developed by eating Pizza of all things. Teaches me right, never eat western food in a Asian country. However, after a good week of rice and vegetables and vegetables and rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner I was craving a little variety. I guess I'll stick to rice and vegetables for the remaining 2 weeks of our travels (TWO WEEKS?!?!?! - Didn't we just leave the US yesterday??!?). We still managed to see Ho Chi Min, the national revolutionist hero, at the mausoleum as well as his living quarters during his presidency.

Today, feeling much better, we visited touristy Ha Long Bay. We experienced the manufacturing side of Vietnam to the east of Hanoi toward China. The trip there and back was well organized with plenty of planned stops at various shopping opportunities. Nevertheless, the landscapes and caves in the ocean bay, which we visited by means of a Junk, were breathtaking.

We are looking forward to heading south to Hue tomorrow. The weather has been unseasonably cold for Hanoi - nothing in comparison to Minnesota of course.