The Englishman of Phung Hung Street - Part 4

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As soon as I settled in Hanoi I began to explore the area close to Hanoi and further afield. One of my first visits was to the Perfume Pagoda a day trip from Hanoi.  I joined a group of 10 people on the coach, we were from Germany, Australia, Malaysia and Russia. Thankfully all of us had a grasp of English enough to talk in the coach and on the climb up to the pagoda in the mountain. The trip involves a boat ride along the river. The woman rowers are fierce. They are able to row and sell you crappy trinkets at the same time. One of them asked me to marry her. I had to decline, I cannot imagine me being a house husband in the My Duc District of Vietnam. 

 The pagoda and the mountain are wonderful, despite the huge tourist shops and hawkers at the bottom of the mountain. 
The Pagoda and the mountain
Part of the Pagoda complex


The path up is not steep but hidden in the trees were chained monkeys, and quite aggressive they are too, I discovered that when I tried to pet one of them and it had teeth like a wolf!
The pagoda inside the mountain is worth the climb though I am not sure I would want to deal with the pushy hawkers and scary monkeys again. But for $16 round trip including entrance fee to the pagoda, you cannot complain.
River to the Pagoda

During the climb/walk to the summit I joined the Australians, everyone else chose the cable car but I am not a huge fan of Vietnamese engineering and didn't want to be suspended hundreds of metres above the valley floor by something that was probably stuck together with super-glue.  



Location: Hanoi, Vietnam

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