Perfume Pagoda, Hue and DMZ
Unfortunately, we have learned that our cat, Nizhoni, had been hit by a car and killed recently near our house. Our neighbors who found her were kind enough to bury her, but it was very sad news for us. We had had her for just a year and were looking forward to seeing her again. We wanted to post her passing as some of you knew her and may miss her as we do.
The day after our return from Halong Bay, we got up early for our second tour in Vietnam to go from Hanoi city to the Perfume Pagoda, a sacred place of worship in a big limestone cave in the mountains outside Hanoi. We got picked up outside our hotel and were lucky enough to end up with the only extra seat on the bus next to us. We felt lucky, but we hadn’t changed our clothes for a couple of days, so there may have been a good reason why no one sat next to us.
After driving for a couple of hours with the rice harvesters in the fields on either side of the road, we arrived at the next leg of our journey to the Pagoda. The rice production and harvesting was impressive to watch, with lots of people in the rice-paddy fields under their sun and rain-protecting conical reed hats working so diligently in the hot weather with their bicycles parked nearby. All along the road they had the rice harvest laid out on the edge of the road to dry, the bus swerving to avoid the grains. The machines that separate the rice from the chaff were also in the road processing the crop and spewing the grasses away from the grain. Amidst such a bustle of rice-centered activity, we arrived at our destination and climbed into little red metal, flat bottomed boats sitting very low on the water. There were four of us per boat with one little person to row us upriver for about an hour. We of course had a couple of ”big-boned” Americans plus our guide (making five passengers), and the smallest of the rowers. But lo and behold, he was actually the fastest and made it in record time….at least on the way there. =)
The river was gorgeous, you couldn’t even tell we were going upriver because the water was as calm as a lake. There were men and women fishing from their little boats that we would occasionally pass by as they worked on catching their food. This is called the Perfume River, and it lazily winds through limestone hills tilled with green agriculture in small valleys surrounded by wild vegetation. The ducks didn’t seem to like us floating by, but the butterflies, swallows and eagles didn’t seem to mind a bit.
We arrived to the base of the mountain in the heat of the day, perhaps the hottest and muggiest days we’ve had yet, and began ascending towards the Perfume Pagoda. Well, our guide informed us that he didn’t think that we would have enough time to hike up the steep hills to the cave where the Pagoda was, so he suggested that the group buy tram tickets to get there. We were told when we signed up that we would have plenty of time to walk up to the cave when we bought our tour tickets. So not being easily intimidated into doing something we did not want to do, we (JGR & HJK) told our guide we thought it was a bum deal and that we should have enough time to do the hike. His response, “well, you better walk fast or we’ll start lunch without you.” As lunch was included in the tour, this hardly seemed fair. Determined as we are in not backing down, we started up with one other person who didn’t even want lunch hoping that our old hiking legs would not fail us. Thankfully we were in the shade for much of the time, but our clothes were both completely wet by the time we reached the top, and it didn’t rain…. Of course we made it in record time according to our guide, as the tram people had only been there for 10 minutes, it only took us 35 minutes to hike up the very steep trail, with ackward stone steps half the way up, for about 2 miles.
We then explored the big cave that was home to the Perfume Pagoda. There were some faithful devotees praying and making offerings there, including our guide. It was quite beautiful and peaceful. It was also really nice to be in the hills looking at the mountains and exploring the hillside cave. Then we decided to run down the hill so we would catch up with everyone and be on time for lunch as we were pretty hungry by this point. Right as we saw some of our crew nearing the bottom, JGR stepped on a random nail in the path, but luckily it didn’t break skin. However we could not for the life of us pry it out of his shoe with rocks and sticks. So off we went, one shoe on and the other off, looking for a refreshment stall along the way that might have pliers. Fortunately we found some and the people were gracious enough to extract the nail so we could continue on. We were on time for lunch, hungrily ate and washed it all down with a fresh young coconut…
The ride back in the boat was peaceful but incredibly hot. Luckily we both had our big rim hats on and survived the journey. We arrived back in the city just at sundown and visited a local silk farm as silk is an art form in Vietnam. We went back to our guest house where we had already checked out for a quick shower in the general bathroom/shower. We were leaving that evening on an overnight train down to Hue in Central Vietnam. We had dinner, finished the blog, and got a taxi to the train station.
The train was not much different from an AC sleeper car in India, but quite a bit cleaner. We shared our cabin with an 80 year old man and his nephew as they were returning to Ho Chi Minh City from visiting his deceased father in Hanoi. They were very kind and even showed us where to get the hot water for our ramen noodle soups that were given to us for breakfast in the train.
We arrived in Hue in Central Vietnam, a nice laid back city with a lot of history. It was the capital of one of the last ruling empires in Vietnam up until the 19th century. We arrived in the morning from Hanoi on the overnight train, got our packs on and headed out walking to find a hotel. We got our best deal yet for just $7/night for both of us including, AC, bathtub, hot water, satellite TV and free internet use downstairs. We checked in, took a cyclo (bicycle rickshaw) to a nice cheap vegetarian restaurant and then headed across the river that runs through town to go to the Citadel. We explored the old capital, a massive walled in city with an old palace, university, temples and other neat places to explore.
Just north of Hue is the old DMZ where much of the Vietnam/American war was fought, so one of the first things we did was booked a tour bus to go visit the historic area and places around there for the next day.
We got up at 5:00am to meet the bus for a 6:00am departure. We had a long day planned with the return scheduled for 7:00pm. Something interesting in Vietnam is that the sun is actually up by 5:00am, which is really pretty nice. We had our snacks ready for the day, hopped on the full bus of foreigners and started the tour up north.
We picked up a great tour guide who told us a lot of the history of the war in a pretty neutral way. We first visited the “Rockpile”, nicknamed by the American military during the war. It was a small granite mountain where the US military had a post used as a vantage point for the surrounding countryside. Apparent were the devastating effects of “Agent Orange” defoliating the jungle so as to burn and clear the forest in attempts to uncover the ever-hidden Ho Chi Minh Trail. What we were told is that even the fourth generation of Vietnamese in the area are still having birth defects from it’s heavy use. It was interesting to see all the hills around with the old forest gone and only the occasional young tree amidst the bushes, but also to see the people out working in the fields making a new life. It was green all around, but you could still see deep depressions in the fields where bombs had been dropped.
We then stopped at Dakrong Bridge, rebuilt after having been destroyed by US bombs. This was part of the major network of trails and roads of the infamous Ho Chi Minh Trail which provided a means of transporting and supplying the South Vietnamese who supported the North with manpower and material. Many battles had been fought around the bridge, and the US destroyed the original when leaving back in 1973.
We then went to the old US military base, Khe Sahn, where the North Vietnamese were successful in creating enough of a diversion here that the US Military believed that the North Vietnamese were throwing all they had at the base. However, this was a diversion that made the subsequent Tet Offensive successful. At least this is what we have been told here. The base and museum displayed a few downed US helicopters and bomb shells. The old runway was still there, but the most interesting part was a notebook in the small museum where visitors had written their thoughts. However, the entries that felt the most real were the ones made by the veterans who had served here.
The tour then headed out to the coast to the small fishing village of Vinh Moc, where tunnels had been created to protect the villagers from the ravages of the war. The VC and North Vietnamese military subsequently expanded the tunnels into a massive system with 3 levels going as deep as 23 meters. The tunnels were hidden by dense foliage and stretched to the sea, housed families, provided drinking water, had a makeshift hospital and nursery, and no one was ever killed in the tunnels as a result of the war, but a close call by a US bomb created a nice big airshaft for the inhabitants. It was hard to believe that people lived here, and babies were born here, during such a hard time. We were able to walk through the tunnels and see the wells, the airshafts, the living quarters, and many of the passageways, entrances and exits. It was all such an incredible experience to walk in some of those same footsteps though we were very aware that we were able to do it during a peaceful time. It may be difficult for us to imagine being compelled underground during a time of war.
This day’s trip was a poignant one. After all we have seen, read and heard in the US about the Vietnam War through music, movies, television, and history books, I guess it had never seemed quite real. But here, where it actually went down, to see the people (to use a cliche) ”rising from the ashes”, using bomb craters as watering holes for livestock, and seeing all the pro-government propaganda pretty much everywhere, it has been brought to life.
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