Perfume Pagoda
People i met here, who contributed to and improved my trip: Juliana (Russia)
We decided to take a day trip from Hanoi and visit the much hyped Perfume Pagoda. After 2 and a half hours we arrived at a small river, from where we took a small rowing boat through some pretty scenic areas. After around an hour we arrived back onto land and began the steep ascent up to the pagoda. After climbing for roughly 45 minutes, we reached the top and descended into a small cave. It wasn't really what we had been expecting i.e i there was no pagoda, and our guide explained it was a common misconception, which was hardly surprising! After a brief look in the cave, which contained a couple of uninteresting formations and small shrine, we began our descent.
Back at the bottom we grabbed a spot of lunch before visiting a couple of small temples, none of which compared to what we had been seeing in China. If the trip was called the Perfume Cave or Perfume Temple, we would have given it a wide berth, but the saving element was it hadn't been an expensive trip and was a welcome break to get away from the hustle and bustle of Hanoi for a day.
