The Perfume Pagoda

The Perfume Pagoda is located a few hours out of Hanoi and is reached via a small boat trip on the Yen river. This trip is best organized through a tour guide and can be completed in a day.

The voyage on the Yen river is a quintessential Vietnamese experience. Women in straw hats expertly navigate the shallow boats on calm waters, and you can just sit back, relax, take in the natural beauty of the mountains and observe life unfold along the riverine communities.

Unless of course, you're sitting next to a bald Korean buddhist monk who can't swim so she's hanging onto you for dear life and there is a language barrier so for all you know you have a crazy person who's just attached herself to you for no reason.

I didn't realize she was a buddhist monk until she started chanting and offering up prayers as we were navigated along the river. She barked back at the dogs along the shore, and waved frantically at passersby - by her iron grip on my arm, I could tell that she was "really happy to be there". Perhaps this was because the Perfume Pagoda is the most important buddhist shrine in all of Vietnam.

Upon landing on shore, a very energetic quartet of us (two Malaysian guys, one Israeli woman and myself) decided to climb up to the Perfume Pagoda instead of taking the cable car. We ask how long it will take. The tour guide tells us an hour. So off we go through the mountains. We get a little lost. We back track, and it ends up taking us 80 minutes to get up there, sweaty and grunting, but euphoric. But, having survived the hike, we've bonded and created a little clique. The Malaysian guys are real gentlemen and sweethearts, who always step aside and say, "Ladies first".

Tammi, the Israeli woman on the hike, and I also end up meeting up for dinner later that night, where I learn that she is a television producer who is on vacation before launching her pilot show on Israeli public television. Every year she takes a big trip and last year it was India.

The Perfume Pagoda itself is a huge cave that contains large stalagtites. Like optical illusions, if you stare long enough at the rock formations, you can see dragons and other figures. (Or perhaps I was just dehydrated after the hike and seeing things.)

After lunch, the group looks at a few more temples. By chance, we walk into a buddhist ceremony in progress. The monks are chanting with great concentration and it is monotonous, but at the same time rhythmic and beautiful. One of the monks chimes a bell for every cadence. Silently, but with purpose, the bald Korean monk who was my boat buddy joins the Vietnamese monks in their prayers. I feel like I have just witnessed something very special and feel blessed by the experience.

On the way home in the mini-van, a gorgeous looking American-Thai couple and I start chatting. They are both young (early 30s), working with USAID and have travelled around the world extensively. At the moment, they are stationed in Indonesia, where she is working with the Ministry of Finance and he, with a private company.

Immediately we recognize that we speak the same "NGO language". It's like I'm talking to old friends, and this immediate comraderie takes me by surprise. He kids, "Honestly, have you ever tried to explain to your parents what you do?".

I am so thoroughly entertained by hearing their experiences, we monopolize all of the silence in the mini-van with our laughing and storytelling. I learn that the couple's last posting was in Kazakhstan. Yes, Borat's birthplace! They proceed to tell me all about their vodka-filled meetings and sheep brain dinners. And I proceed to tell them all about my banana liquor and mystery meat buffets in Rwanda. 2 hours later, we regrettably reach Hanoi but thankfully exhange business cards. I hope to visit them in Indonesia someday.

There is a saying that goes, "Enjoy the journey, not just the destination". I went to see the Perfume Pagoda. Along the way, I ended up making new friends.