Huong Pagoda — Local services in Hà Nội

Perfume Pagoda is a complex of Buddhist temples and shrines built in the Hương Tich mountain. This is one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Vietnam. I visted this place few years ago and have some notes below: There is a bus from My Dinh bus station to Perfume Pagoda. The bus will stop at the main road and you can walk abt 2 km from bus stop to the tourist center of Perfume Pagoda that nearby the Ben Duc boat whaft. You buy ticket here and don't forget to get a leaflet to know abt attractions. The only way to reach Perfume pagoda is by boat and on the way there, the boat will stop at some spots for tourists to have a look. The ticket price includes boat service, but you must share the boat with others and have to wait the boat full (5-6 people) to start the trip. If you want to rent an entire boat for yourself, ask the staff in ticket counter for the price. If you share the boat, you just can visit some main destinations on the tour, and if you don't know people who share the boat with you, it is quite inconvenient abt the time. But if you rent the entire boat, you can discuss with the boatman abt where you want to visit and you are not be rushed by others. Thien Tru Pagoda and Huong Tich Cave (named "The Most Beautiful Cave Under the Southern Sky") are the 2 must-visit on this trip. From Perfume Pagoda to Huong Tich Cave, you can take a cable car or walk up the mountain. I recommend walking up because it is quite easy with the staircase, just abt 30-60 min and there are some spots you can visit on the way. If you take cable car, you will skip them. If you can speak Vietnamese, you can chat with locals and hear some intertesting folktales abt the sacredness of this place. I personally, can felt it by myself, so be mindful of your words and your behavior here. Many couples struggling with infertility come here to pray for a child. First 3 months of lunar year is pilgrimage season and Perfume Pagoda Festival is one of the Vietnam’s largest Buddhist celebration, so has many activities to enjoy. Though, if you are nt a pilgrim and don't like long crowds and long lines, you should avoid these months. The best time to visit is the fall (Aug -Oct), weather is great, not too crowded and can see a lot of blooming lotus, water lilies on the river. If you want to visit some main attractions and explore the other surrounding temples, it will take a whole day, you should start your trip in the...

Very interesting place to visit, unique history, set in a remote location, surrounded by beautiful vistas. To get to any of the 15 pagodas in this area you must travel by boat. The Huong Pagoda was 3km upriver and you must visit the local temple as part of the journey. It's a very tranquil way to start. The Pagoda itself is set up a short but steep walk up from the shore, and is maintained by a group of working monks. Unique to this Pagoda, is that is a monk dies here, they are given their own tomb on the grounds, and they're cast as a statue, and after 200 years the statue will be painted gold, as it is believed they have achieved enlightenment as a Buddha. The star attraction is the cave at the top of the nearby mountain, said to be the restimg place of a king's daughter. You can walk to the summit (3,400 steps) but unless you are very, very fit you'll want to take the cable car. There is still another 200 or so steps to the summit, before you decend into a very stunning and tranquil cave. Overall I'd say it's well worth the visit, however there are a few things to be aware of:

1. There is a festival here Jan-Mar, that attracts 2mil worshippers. The river is choked with boats, and it is shoulder to shoulder walking room. This in itself would be an experience.
2. The place is step up to sell to those visitors during the festival - everywhere the path is lined with makeshift shops and restaurants all the way to the summit. Outside of the festival time period the majority of these are closed, so you are walking past walls of tarps.
3. The heat - there is nowhere to hide from it. Especially on high humidity days. There are no air-conditioned buildings, just fans and refrigerated drinks. A number of our group suffered heat exhaustion, and there was little relief until we were...

The park itself, with its various highlights is definitely worth a visit. There is no need to book yourself a tour; you can drive up there yourself with a motorbike (or car) from Ninh Binh or Hanoi, which should take around 1-2 hours, depending how confident you are.

Once you have arrived you buy tickets to the park and tickets to the boat. When we visited, the sales person spoke poor English, but he simply called someone who asked what we needed and then translated it. Tickets should be around 80k dong per person. The boat coasts 300k, regardless of the number of group size. You may want to find some people who are also arriving to split the cost. When we visited (early afternoon on a Saturday), it was completely desolated so we just paid for ourselves.

The boat takes about an hour and there are some pushy boats which will insist you drink something and buy the rowing lady a drink as well. We were happy to oblige as we were thirsty so we paid 60k dong for two coffee and a red bull for the rowing lady. She was kind and we had a lot of fun despite the language barrier. Once we arrived we could enter the park. Our rowing lady waited for us to return.

-1 star for the extremely pushy sales people on the way and in the park. Every 10 meters you will be asked to buy food, drinks, stuff or a live animal to release. If not for this, the experience would be perfect.

Note that the rowing lady will expect a tip, preferably from each person / group. We gave her another 100k dong with the two of us and she seemed happy with this. All in all we spent around 800k in total, including motorbike rental, gas...