Perfume Pagoda Tour - Vietnam

I went on the Perfume Pagoda tour. It is called that because the trees there are suppose to be potent. It was a two hour bus ride out of Hanoi. It was nice looking at all the rice patties and the people working in the fields. Getting to the Perfume Pagoda was very involved. Once arriving in the town we were escorted by a vicious women who took us from one end of the town to her restaurant. She led the way on her moped with the horn blaring the whole way and we were the only two vehicles on the road. It was not a beep, beep it was a laid on constant, beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep. Once at her place she was trying to sell, sell, sell and there was no need for food or drink. When we went to leave her restaurant we went to board the bus, but they would not let the four Westerners get on. The bus only took the Vietnamese people and we had to walk to the where we were to board the row boat for the hour long boat ride to the pagoda. I am not sure what that was all about.

We got on the boat which the crazy lady ushered us onto her boat and was persistent we get on her boat and not another. She then rowed at the back and a man at the front. She talked (yelled) into her cell phone for the whole trip. When it would ring, she would pull the boat over to answer it. It is amazing we were in no mans land and they still have cell phone reception. I think it is better reception than Canada and they are so poor, but have a phone.

Now it was really interesting and all of that sounds negative, but the views were spectacular and the boat ride great. There were thousands of boats and even more people. Most were Vietnamese and oh yes it was a festival day and Sunday (a time of year the Lonely Planet recommends not to go) but we did not know that until after we experienced it. March and April are extremely busy, but it is always busy the book says and it also says “you have been warned.” Sure makes since after visiting the place.

Once on the other side at the end of the hour long boat ride our vicious lady takes us to her restaurant on this side of the river and basically tells our guide we have to eat our lunch there. We don’t, so when we return at the end of the trip she gives him a tongue lashing. You have to trek to the top to view the perfume pagoda or take a cable car. The stupid ones we are decide, oh yea it would be great to hike to the top check out the scenery and get some exercise. You also had to pay for the cable car, but it was minuscule. The fourth westerner tried to take the cable car but was refused a ticket. She was told they were sold out so she also did the hike.

The hike of my god. Two hours up with extremely rough large rock terrain, mud, people, people and more people. It was impossible to look at the view as you had to constantly be watching where you were walking. The rocks were really slippery, uneven and there were tons of stairs without the correct seven inch rise. It took two hours and we did not even get to see it. There were so many people we were stuck in this one area for half an hour and only moved 10 feet in that time. From where I finally turned around it was suppose to be another 2 km and the people were so thick. We were on top of each other and they were constantly pushing with out saying excuse me or anything. Check out the picture of how close the people were. Thank god the four of us came out of the masses with all of our belonging and no one was pick pocketed. My plane was to make it to the top and take the cable car down as if would be really dangerous going down as the mountain was steep. We could not make it to the top so down I go. I almost fell four or five times. There were shoes and sandals left behind in the mud as their footwear did not make the journey. I came back to the hotel with solid mud running shoes and the mud on my pants was to my knees.

Once making it to the bottom we were to meet the “guide” or the guy that is suppose to talk English, but tells you nothing. He basically pays the money to enter the area for the group. We meet him it is 3pm when he said lunch was to be. We are starving as we have not eaten since before 8am and did all this walking. He finally after a lot of hassle from us orders the lunch at 3:45 pm. The two others I am with go to a spot for coffee and get into a huge argument with the workers there as they tried to ripe them off when they went to pay. He gave give a 100 000 dollar bill and the coffee was 10 000 and they tried to keep the money. He did not have anything smaller so had to pay with the 100 000. It was crazy the yelling, but they got the bill back and the other person paid for his coffee with her money as she had the correct amount for him.

So back to the boat area and you got it our lady is back, "take my boat, take my boat." This is when the “guide” gets yelled at for not taking our group to her restaurant. We get in her boat, this time she sits down with us and lets others do the rowing. She takes four cell phone calls (yelling matches) on the ride back. I made a bet with myself that before we got on the boat she would take three calls. Then once making it to the “docking” area she looks for a tip and the other people on the shore want us to give our lady a tip. For what ruining the calm and peace of the area by talking (yelling) into her cell phone? The docking was another story. Thousands of boats coming into this area no more than 50 feet across. They were crashing into one another and pushing there way through. It was mayhem.

We drive two hours back to Hanoi only to be dropped off at the lake the main part of the city and not our hotels. This is a good 10 minute drive from my place. We say no you have to take us to our hotels but no they won’t. It is also 8pm and obviously dark out. The “guide” does tell the driver to take me back as I am so far away. So I remain in the bus (large van) and go with the driver. He is not happy about this. He tries to drop me off 100meters away. I say no. He motions take that road. I say no you take me to my hotel, I do not know how to get there. He motions take a motorbike. I say no. I have to yell at him and show him the business card for my hotel and say take me to my hotel, pointing vigorously at the card. He ends up doing it, speaking under his breath. We get to my street and he says here. I say no take me the 5 blocks down to my hotel. So what does he do? Drives by it and I say STOP. Finally he does and shoos me out of the van giving me a nasty, dirty look. The service and manners here are out of this world. That being said though the people working at the hotel are very nice.

I met a girl today from Sweden. I am sure I will see her again as she is one day ahead of me on moving to the next city. Most tourists take the same route so I am sure to see others again. We are all a day or two behind each other.

The streets here are not parallel or perpendicular and change names literally five times in less than a km stretch. Some times each block starts a new name. So we got lost trying to find the lake. We were two hours trying to get there. Luckily we were just on tour for the day anyway. My sense of direction is usually good, but in this city I had no idea if we should go left or right and got so turned around. I have also learned that when most Vietnamese try to help you and say right, they really mean left.

We did manage to make it to the chocolate buffet J Terry and I read about this place the week or so before I came. There was an article in the Toronto Star raving about it. So you got it, this chocoholic checked it out and really enjoyed it. It was at a swanky, swanky hotel. The cheap room is $200 U.S. a night in the low season and $380 U.S. if I wanted to stay there tonight. You are welcome to go there though and check the place out. I had chocolate spring rolls, chocolate fondue, good fancy hot chocolate and tons more. It was decedent and very relaxing sitting in such an extravagant environment minus the traffic and constant horn blaring. Leaving there, which was right at the lake we were extremely successful making it back to the hotel in record time with not one wrong turn or street.

Sorry I can not get the pictures to upload. Hopefully I can get this to work somewhere else.