Ja's Jolly jaunt here, there and every where

Trip to the Perfume Pagoda.

We took a mini bus at about 8am and set out for the perfume pagoda. All went well on the trip. There are a few good highways in Vietnam, but even the best ones have areas with large potholes. The most crazy thing of course is people crossing the highway with three lanes of cars and a million lanes of motor bikes. Even worse is crossing left into the on coming traffic.

On the way we stopped at a toilet break which really was a big store selling nic naks. Sonia’s eyes lit up and she was happy to see more stuff. After about another hour on country roads passing through the red river delta, where much of the land seems flooded from the weeks and weeks of rain which we have had here recently.

We made it to a place where we could take a small row boat. These things look like Canadian canoes but they are painted red. They are extremely useful as the ride up the river into the mountains was on navigable by boat. It was apparent that the river was well over it’s banks and had been that way for sometime. But for the woman rowing our boat it seemed just like a normal day. With five of us in the boat she rowed for an hour.

Then we climbed up the mountain a short way and started our tour of the perfume pagoda. It is a small temple by Korean standards but according to our guide a very important one. After lunch we took a 20 minute walk up the mountain to reach Giant Grotto type cave which too was part of the temple complex. The neon flashing head dress of the Buddhas made it all worth while.

Finally we headed back home, and took a bumpy bus ride back the Hanoi.

We had a struggle to get Sonia some money to pay me back what she owes. But the following I believe to be true. When traveling use cash, yes there is no doubt a thief and take it in a second. But you can see a thief robbing you there and then. You can beat him on the head and make him pay for his crime. Or you can be robbed by the bank, when you use your card. But the difference being that you can not beat anyone on the head when the bank robs you. You just end up walking strangely when you have been done up the ass by the bank in Vietnam, and again by the bank in England, and by anyone else along the road who feels that you should pay them to rob you. Hehehehe