2/10/02020
Its closing in on 11pm, and I have been up for so long. What a nice feeling to have a rain shower after a full day, and washing the burning feeling off of my face from the smog toxins in the air. Equally irritated are my runny nose and itch eyes. Seriously, the air quality index is terrible, and the amount of traffic (scooters) on the Vietnamese streets does not leave any room for wonder about that.
Looking forward to a full nights sleep, which has eluded me for so many days due to the travel, time zone changes and the effects of being a 50plus year old male. However, the reason for interrupted sleep last night was none of those. The guests in the room next to mine, came in after I was sound asleep, and were laughing and speaking loudly: post party mode. I never really got great sleep after that.
But, I still woke up early this morning to go for a run around Hoan Kiem Lake. The Lake is a prominent feature of the colonial French Quarter. What a cool experience it was to be out before the traffic and bustle of Hanoi really kicked off. There were a lot of active Vietnamese people out there, doing tai chi, playing badminton, dancing, walking, stretching, riding and moving. It was really fun to see that as a start to my day.
The Paradise Center Hotel serves breakfast in the form of a buffet, and it was great. Vietnamese breakfast mostly, and very tasty. I also got a cup of strong hot Vietnamese coffee from a local shop named Dave’s Coffee.
At 9 we had arranged a coach (Rick and Kurt doing most of planning) for a day trip to the Perfume Pagoda. Although the books and nav apps says it is only 28 miles from Hanoi center, it took us quite awhile through traffic and country roads. There were rice paddies most of the way on the trip, and the workers stood in the shin high water planting new rice shoots. It looked like absolutely back breaking work under the classic worker triangle hat and overcast skies. A curious phenomenon that I am still looking for an answer to is why the above ground graves (think New Orleans with an Asian flair) are co located next to bodies of water. Both next to the paddies and the rivers.
The pagodas were accessed from the town of My Duc. We had a perpetually smiling guide named Long (pronounced Loung) , and his wife who guide services had apparently come with the price of the coach.
There were literally hundreds of steel skiffs to transport people the 3 km up and down to the Perfume Pagoda, and the boat drivers were ladies who paddled forward with bamboo shafted paddles, also back breaking, after all was said and done, we paid for boat fare, admission to the pagodas, cable car and back on the boat. Still soo cheap. We accessed the boats from the Ben Duc wharf and ascended the Swallow Tail stream, the ladies propelling with paddles lashed to upright stanchions with cloth. All the while, we progressed towards the karst landscape. What is karst you ask? The limestone mounds that are ubiquitous to the artwork of Vietnam and China.
At one riverside vendor at our launch point, we saw bowls filled with eels, turtles, goldfish, crabs, and a cage of birds. A Vietnamese gentelmen paid the vendor and released a bird, we later determined from Long it was a Buddhist tradition, something about setting a soul free, or karma, not fully understood.
The pagodas are located at some limestone hills (karst) similar to the ones we saw in China on the Li river tour outside Guillin. Proceeding towards these hills we observed small inlets which turned out to be lotus flower farms and curiously, some fishermen with an electrified net resembling the head of a lacrosse stick on a bamboo pole.
there was a lot of steps to climb, and paths to follow, all thickly lined with vendors selling usual a knick knack stuff, but also stuff to purchase and put on a tray when making a prayer for the deceased at the altars of the multiple pagodas.
We took a cable car to the highest peak of the cluster of pagodas, and there was a short hike to a grotto which can best be described by the tour books description, the most beautiful grotto in the Southern sky,the entrance is said to resemble the mouth of a dragon, the stalagmite inside its tongue. This is a huge cavern with stalagmites and stalactites which are used as a Buddhist altar.
The return drive was literally harrowing, and it took closer to 2 hours as we were blasted with smog and scooters that were thronging the roads in packs and darting to and fro within the traffic, ceaseless honking their horns. It was stressful to watch, and inspired me to NEVER wish to rent a car in Vietnam.
Felling quite hungry, we headed out onto the Night Market Street and found some BBQ street food which they cooked on a little stove right on our table. So fun, and the vibe was really cool.
I bought a couple of North Face jackets, and being pretty aware of their authenticity, aptly nicknamed them “North Farce”
I feel like I could be so much more creative with my writing if my level of fatigue was not so challenging, and hopefully I can upload this into the blog site with some more interesting and creative posts.
Apparently a lot of the tourism that is prevalent this time of year has been kept at bay due to the coronavirus scare that is sweeping the globe. Although mostly contained to China, there is a lot of media attention perpetuating the scare. Masks are being worn by many of the Vietnamese people probably for equal reasons of corona as smog. Although were not wearing masks regularly, we are blazing through Purcell hand cleaner at an alarming pace.
