Perfume Pagoda, and back to Hanoi
The next day we were back in Hanoi, and I took a day trip to Perfume Pagoda (pagoda = buddhist temple) while Bek had a day off for interview prep.
Unfortunately our local guide for the trip was not so good (unlike our overall tour guide who is excellent). He did give one gem of inormation, though - Hanoi has about 4 million people, 2 million motorbikes and 300,000 cars. Sounds about right. The day trip itself was a little surreal, and was probably more effort travelling-wise than it was worth. After 2 hours on a bus, we were shunted into small row-boats, two at a time. The rowers were all small but very strong and fit Vietnamese women who had a strange forward-facing rowing style. The boat trip went for about an hour, with some more lovely scenery.
Unfortunately our local guide for the trip was not so good (unlike our overall tour guide who is excellent). He did give one gem of inormation, though - Hanoi has about 4 million people, 2 million motorbikes and 300,000 cars. Sounds about right. The day trip itself was a little surreal, and was probably more effort travelling-wise than it was worth. After 2 hours on a bus, we were shunted into small row-boats, two at a time. The rowers were all small but very strong and fit Vietnamese women who had a strange forward-facing rowing style. The boat trip went for about an hour, with some more lovely scenery.
At the destination, there was quite a bit of frantic activity going on, consisting of hundreds of people building temporary stalls and shelters out of bamboo and sheet metal. They were all preparing for a massive festival that was to be held over during "Tet", the lunar new year holiday. It was a good example of the Vietnamese attitude to getting things done - just do it. Want to build a shop? Grab some bamboo and do it. Want to connect a telephone line? Grab some wire and do it. Very pragmatic.
The main attraction was at the top of the mountain. There are two very incongruous ways of getting to the top, by walking up the ancient stone pathway that has been trodden by millions of people seeking enlightenment, or get the cable car. I chose the option that seemed to fit better with the place - taking the 45min walk. I don't know what to say about the rest of the trip. It was interesting but a little underwhelming. Nice, though.
I should mention one of my enduring memories of the trip so far that I forgot to talk about earlier. It happened in Sapa on the trek to the homestay, when we paused for a rest in a small roadside store. As we sat and waited, a small boy of about 18 months, walked up to us with wide eyes. Proffering a few embroided cloth bracelets, we went up to each of us, using the only word he know in english - "mmmeeeeeee?? mmmeeeeeee??" he asked, his voice rising to an impossibly high pitch at the end. It was a good question. Should we buy the bracelets, which we had seen everywhere, from him? Or from one of the hundreds of other villages who had offered us the same thing? It was a bit sad to see that a little boy who had barely learned how to walk had already been trained to haggle tourists. It made me think of the huge gap between us and them, that they should be so desperate for money that is only pocket change for us. On the other hand, do they really need it? These are some of the most self-sufficient people I have seen. The grow everything they eat, they produce most of the things they need in their villages, and they seem a pretty happy people. But the easy money to be made from the constant stream of tourists is perhaps too tempting to ignore. I honestly don't know who is being exploited here - the locals or us.
The main attraction was at the top of the mountain. There are two very incongruous ways of getting to the top, by walking up the ancient stone pathway that has been trodden by millions of people seeking enlightenment, or get the cable car. I chose the option that seemed to fit better with the place - taking the 45min walk. I don't know what to say about the rest of the trip. It was interesting but a little underwhelming. Nice, though.
I should mention one of my enduring memories of the trip so far that I forgot to talk about earlier. It happened in Sapa on the trek to the homestay, when we paused for a rest in a small roadside store. As we sat and waited, a small boy of about 18 months, walked up to us with wide eyes. Proffering a few embroided cloth bracelets, we went up to each of us, using the only word he know in english - "mmmeeeeeee?? mmmeeeeeee??" he asked, his voice rising to an impossibly high pitch at the end. It was a good question. Should we buy the bracelets, which we had seen everywhere, from him? Or from one of the hundreds of other villages who had offered us the same thing? It was a bit sad to see that a little boy who had barely learned how to walk had already been trained to haggle tourists. It made me think of the huge gap between us and them, that they should be so desperate for money that is only pocket change for us. On the other hand, do they really need it? These are some of the most self-sufficient people I have seen. The grow everything they eat, they produce most of the things they need in their villages, and they seem a pretty happy people. But the easy money to be made from the constant stream of tourists is perhaps too tempting to ignore. I honestly don't know who is being exploited here - the locals or us.
posted by Brett at
7:12 pm
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