I just got back last night from an adventurous all day road trip to Huong Tich Mountain (Mountain of the Fragrant Traces), which is located about 60km (38 miles) outside of Hanoi. Quang, one of the company employees, invited me to join him and a group of his friends for an all day pilgrimage to this beautiful Buddhist cave temple located high in the mountains.
According to
Lonely Planet: Vietnam, "Great numbers of Buddhist pilgrims come here during a festival that begins in the middle of the second lunar month and last until the last week of the third lunar month (usually corresponding to March and April)." So it was packed!!!
Quang came by and picked me up at 6am to head to the meet up spot. There I meet the rest of the crew. There was a total of 8 of us on 4 motorcycles. It was a bit awkward because it was basically 3 couples (1 married, 1 engaged, and one bfgf) and then me and this other chick.
When I first told my dad I was going to be traveling my motorcycle he was skeptical b/c he thought it was too dangerous... He offered to have one of our drivers take us all but I told him I wanted to experience the journey on motorcycle like a real Vietnamese person... If they could do it I could do it too!
The ride up took us about 2 hours. We did manage to make a pit stop and rest for a few mins. Damn... My ass was hurtin' (NO HOMO) from sitting on the bike the entire time. On top of that, it was drizzling the entire way up. My shoes & jeans were soaked even with my rain coat on.
Pho for Breakfast
Quang & I on his motorcycle crusin' in the rain!
Making a quick pit stop!
Willy's Workshop... So Nice!!!
60km (38 miles) later we reached our destination... Chua Huong (Perfume Pagoda). There we would have to travel another hour by boat to two separate locations. The first was a pagoda located on a nearby island. There were thousands of boats there!
At the first pagoda... Wildboyz4Life! You can see people in the back making their way up the river to the next stop.
Like the new hats?
Welcome to Jurassic Park!!!
We were surrounded by beautiful lush green hills... and Vietnamese people!
How thats a lot of FOBs in one boat... It seriously looked like we're going to Jurassic Park!
45mins later we reached the bottom of the mountain.
Once we made it here we ate a few Vietnamese style hot dogs and made our way up to the next pagoda, Giai Oan Chu (Purgatorial Pagoda). The way up the mountain was crazy b/c it was a bunch of rocks that were thrown together that made the trail... They totally didn't try to smooth it out or anything.
Notice the smooth and even concrete trail... NOT!
The couples...
Me and my date?
The sacrifice
Thank you for modern technology... The sky lift brought us straight to the top!
The Girls
The line to go to Zion! You'll see what I mean... FYI: I'm the tallest person here... By FAR!
The Entrance to Zion: The last human city on the planet Earth and existed deep underground for both concealment from its enemies as well as warmth (From the Matrix Trilogies).
Huong Tich Chu (Pagoda of the Perfumed Vestige) aka Zion...
It was a magnificent sight to see this massive cave located on the side of a mountain. I couldn't believe how many people where there. It seriously remind me of Zion from the Matrix movies.
A few hundred feet into the cave their was a monument were people came and prayed.
It was truly worth the entire journey there...
Other Friends
This is the married couple who was party of the crew. They both work at a travel agency that puts together tours throughout Vietnam. They said they could hook it up too!
Instead of taking the sky lift back down we decided it would be fun to hike down instead. It took us about 45 mins but we eventually made it down. Some of the trails were crazy steep, slippery, rocky, and dangerous... but even 80 year old grandmas were making it look easy.
We made a stop on the way down to have a few drinks and I saw this little boy... He was all upset so...
BEFORE:
AFTER:
I gave him a Willy's Workshop sticker and he started to cheer up! He's a cute little mountain boy... Thanks Willy!
Look at my shoes... Someone please send help! HAHA
Finally we all made it back down the mountain. We meet up w/ our captain of boat 167 and began the journey home.
Look how many boats there were at the end of the day...
We ended up having roast duck for dinner at a restaurant nearby.
Check out the cool rain coat...
Making our way back to Hanoi...
The way home was crazy b/c the roads were so dark at night. There were long stretches between small towns were it was pitch black and all we had was this dinky motorcycle light. It was pretty dangerous but exciting! A great experience though!!! On top of that, it started pouring! Huge rain drops were hitting me in the face as we were speeding through the countryside and they hurt!
Finally after we made it back to Hanoi I thought it was was a perfect opportunity to get a massage! Just a massage! Since one of my dad's close friends owned his own hotel and resort all we had to do was make a call and we got hooked up! HAHA
It was a long day but I finally made it home around 10:30PM... Definitely an adventure to remember! Thanks for reading... Sorry that was such a long post!
If you want to see all the rest of my pictures from the road trip... Check out my photos on Flickr!TK's FLICKR
Reality:
On site at the future 18 story Olympic Towers...
This is my dad... He's the MAN!
Less than 48 hours left in Vietnam... See you soon San Diego!
