Perfume pagoda in the rain

It's 3am on Saturday morning and I seem to be wide awake. I actually thought I had kicked my jetlag by sleeping a full 7 hours the first night I was here, but alas the travel gods have deemed that too good to be true. I had a very full and interesting day at the perfume pagoda. I was the first to be picked up by the van followed by 7 other passengers in slow succession.  All of our hotels were in a 1/4 mile of each other but as most of these tours boast, they offer door to door service, so our large van had to work it's way through the tiny, congested streets and 1.5 hours later we were finally ready to leave Hanoi.
As I later learn, the perfume pagoda is a pilgrimage site for Vietnamese Buddhists and those with difficulty in love and having children. During the new year, the tet celebration, thousands gather on the hills leading to the pagoda, although luckily for us, it was raining and not close to the new year at all so we were some of the only people there. As it goes, if you are having difficulty getting pregnant, you pray at this pagoda and if a child is born afterwards, you must bring the child every year to the pagoda in thanks until they are 12 years old. As legend goes, if you do not, you are assured a naughty child (their word, not mine). On our way, we stopped at a tourist shop which was actually an art studio with work by victims of agent orange (they were sitting in the middle of the store weaving and painting) and just like my previous experience in Vietnam, the American guilt set in (more on this later).
Part of the appeal of this trip is the 1.5 hour non-motorized boat trip up a river to the pagoda site (this is the only access). Keep in mind, it's pouring out and 6 Europeans, Australians and 1 token American were placed in a boat while a 70 year old woman paddled us without stopping for the full 1.5 hours! We were all miserable and fantasized about taking a motorized boat on the way back. Finally at our destination, we ate lunch and took the cable car up to the "kitchen pagoda". I couldn't  tell you why it has this name, but it was beautiful nonetheless. After visiting other temples on the property, we cajoled our guide to bargain with the motorized boat owner to bring us back down the river to our van. 100,000 dong ($5) per person later we had a deal! (that boat owner made a killing that day with the inflated price, but we were too wet to care).
Back in Hanoi, after being dropped off and thinking only of my hot shower, I return to a room (6th floor walk-up) to find a broken hot water heater- (each bathroom has a separate small unit that is turned on shortly before the shower). So, as traveling in SE Asia goes, I had to make my way down to the lobby (since my phone in my room hasn't worked since I got here) and of course, still wasn't working and ask for shower assistance. 3 hours and 4 Vietnamese hot water heater experts later, my  shower was finally fixed and I was able to garner a free breakfast for tomorrow morning for all my trouble.
All in all, things turned out well and I was given a nice reminder of life in Vietnam, different in many ways as the states, although lovely nonetheless.

I can't seem to upload pictures from my phone into here, but check out my Instagram profile for some perfume pagoda pictures. Find me at hugospaperco.

 Entrance into the "Kitchen Pagoda"

 

 

 

70 year women paddlers

 

 

Choco-biscuit offerings