Perfume Pagoda & Victorian Mills
Hanoi, 17th May 2002
Today I decided to take a visit to the famous Perfume Pagoda, one of
Hanoi's main sights. I booked a day tour there through my hotel (by
Sinh Cafe) and I was picked up at the far too early time of 7:00am.
To reach the Pagoda, there is first a 2 hour bus ride, then a 1.5hr
boat journey. As we drove up to the Pagoda, the heavens opened and
rain fell heavily. We all crossed our fingers that it would stop by
the time we reached the river, but it didn't. Luckily I'd brought my
poncho & umbrella.
When we reached the river, we were directed to a tiny, simple, red,
metal boat. 4 of us climbed slowly onto the precarious boat, and
were joined by a small Vietnamese lady. We all took our seats on
tiny wooden benches, then we pushed off. I quickly noticed that the
boat was scarily close to the water, the top of the boat was only a
few centimetres above the water level! Still, we moved slowly down
the river, the single Vietnamese lady propelling the boat along
solely with oars, quite a task with 4 big foreigners sitting in the
boat! It was quite impressive how she pushed along constantly,
without any signs of exhaustion or any stops!
For the whole journey, we all cowered underneath our rain jackets &
umbrellas as the rain fell heavily. We tried our best to enjoy the
views, but the low clouds concealed a lot. We were also a little
concerned by how quickly the already heavily laden boat was filling
with rain water! However, just as the water was reaching ankle
depth, our destination came into view and we hopped out.
Still covered by our rain jackets, we took a short walk up to the
main temple site. The Perfume Pagoda is actually a complex of a
number of temples, so we walked slowly around a number of them.
Because of the heavy rain, water ran down the steps leading up to
the first temple like a big waterfall! After negotiating this
temporary waterfall, we had time to explore the temples. While I was
walking around with an American guy called Jay, some Vietnamese
ladies asked if we'd pose in some photos with them. I've read
stories about people in Asia liking to have Westerners, even
complete strangers, in their photos, so we agreed. After the 3
ladies had taken a few photos with us & them in, they said thanks &
disappeared.
Our guide took us around a few more of the pagodas and up into a
small cave full of Buddha images. The pagodas were quite impressive,
but I'm not sure if the long haul trip in the rain out here was
worth it. I do prefer the Vietnamese/Chinese Buddha style imagery to
the Thai style though.
After we'd finished checking out the temples, we had some lunch in a
large restaurant. As we were eating, all drenched through from the
rain, the clouds dispersed & the sun began to shine. Typical. We'd
seen all the sights, and now the rain stops.
On the way back to the boat, we passed the ladies who' taken the
photos of us, and as we should have guessed, they'd developed the
photos, laminated them and tried to sell them to us. The photos were
a little cheesy & a bit strange having some completely unknown
Vietnamese ladies in them, but the price was so cheap, we bought
them. I'm sure it'll be a good souvenir.
The boat ride back was much better. As we weren't trying to hide
from the rain, we could enjoy the amazing views around the river.
Also, the clouds has lifted, allowing us to take some great photos.
On the way back to Hanoi, we stopped at a small town that
specialises in making & selling silk. It was quite amazing to see
these silk factories, they looked like they were straight out of
Victorian England! I reckon that once England has finished with
these old spinning machines, they shipped them out to Asia. The
machines were made of wood & looked centuries old, but they also
looked very complicated. Watching all the threads, pulleys &
spindles moving was quite amazing. Jay also pointed out how the
whole machine was run by small punch cards, like the kind that were
used by old style computers.
After a quick look around the silk shops, where the goods were
ridiculously cheap (a double-layered, all silk, embroidered, two-way
kimono for only US$10) we continued back to Hanoi.
In the evening I said good-bye (for now) to Gilad & Andy who headed
down to Hue. I'll probably run into them again the day after
tomorrow when I reach Hue!
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