Thien Tru Pagoda in Vietnam

On January 2, 2020 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Vietnam3 Comments

The final tour that we took in Vietnam from Hanoi was the Perfume Pagoda tour. It is a day trip that takes you along a river with beautiful scenery to a complex of several different pagodas as well as the actual Perfume Pagoda, which is located in a cave at the top of Perfume Mountain. The tour started with a visit to the Thien Tru Pagoda, which is at the heart of the temple complex. The Thien Tru Pagoda is over 500 years old and is truly spectacular with wonderful architecture, artwork, and cultural features.

We visited during the offseason, but from January to March, during the festival season, it is extremely busy as thousands of people come to Perfume Pagoda. To enter Thien Tru Pagoda, you walk up a series of stairs and go through a typical Buddhist arch entry with three openings. The openings represent past, present, and future with the center opening being the present. The main courtyard features two large, gold lions guarding the main temple. It is an active temple and there are offerings inside of the temple and monks can be seen walking around in their orange robes.

In addition to the interesting architecture, the surrounding mountains and trees make it even more beautiful. We were some of the only people visiting during our time at Thien Tru Pagoda, but we weren’t completely alone as we did see a snake climbing one of the gates. Since it was fairly colorful, we didn’t get too close as we didn’t know if it was poisonous. We took about an hour walking around the pagoda complex and looking at all of the amazing details.

The age of the temple is quite apparent as many of the buildings and stupas are weather worn and the details have faded. The overall experience of walking the grounds of Thien Tru Pagoda is something that make this a worthwhile trip for anyone visiting Hanoi. From the golden Buddha statues, ornate decorations, unique buildings to the natural environment surrounding it, the time spent in Thien Tru Pagoda was one of our favorite memories from Vietnam.

Overnight Cruise on Halong Bay in Vietnam

On December 19, 2019 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Vietnam3 Comments

It is possible to visit Halong Bay without doing an one or two night cruise, but it is much more relaxing to do at least an overnight cruise. Halong Bay is absolutely beautiful and there are a variety of cruise choices. Most of the cruises offer some similar activities such as visiting caves, kayaking, doing tai chi, and watching a cooking demonstration. All of the various excursions away from the cruise ship were wonderful, but just sitting on the top deck and watching the scenery go by was just as much of a highlight.

Being a UNESCO World Heritage Site, taking a cruise on Halong Bay is an extremely popular tourist activity and you will be surrounded by many other cruise ships with similar itineraries. That means that when you are not on the ship, you will face large crowds at each of the various sites that you visit. It also means that there will be lots of other ships around you as you cruise along the bay. We went during a bit of an off-season and it was still extremely busy, so we can only imagine what it would be like during the high-season.

Meals are obviously included as well, with most cruise ships offering a variety of authentic Vietnamese cooking. Most of the meals on our cruise were multicourse meals with more food than we could possibly eat. One of the nice things was that they were served family style with everyone at a table sharing, which gives you a chance to meet some of the other passengers. There was also a reception at the end of the first day with specialty drinks available during a happy hour. Since the meals were included, the cost of having a drink or two is very minimal.

Seeing both a sunset and a sunrise during our trip was definitely one of the highlights of our overnight cruise on Halong Bay. Seeing the orange glow over the unique landscape that is the trademark of Halong Bay was truly spectacular. Since we spent almost every day during our time in Vietnam on long tours in order to see as much of the country as possible, having a couple of days with a more relaxed tempo gave us a much needed break from the hectic streets of Hanoi.

Tam Coc Cave Tour in Ninh Binh Province, Vietnam

On December 17, 2019December 17, 2019 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Vietnam2 Comments

One of the more popular day tours from Hanoi is to go to the Ninh Binh province, especially to do the Tam Coc caves (which actually means three caves). There are a couple of styles of boats that will take you along the Ngo Dong River, but the ones where the oarsman rows with their feet are different from anything else that we’ve done. The caves themselves are quite interesting as they have been carved out by the river and they actually create tunnels that take you under the mountain by boat.

Boats Going One After Another Through the Caves

The area of Ninh Binh is also known as the Halong Bay of Inner Vietnam for obvious reasons if you visit both of them as we did. The scenery is absolutely beautiful with the mountain scenery and the rice paddies. Due to the popularity of the tour, you will likely find a lot of boats on the river with you as you make your way through the three caves. In fact, we actually teased during our tour that it almost felt like we were on a ride in Disneyworld as the boats went one by one through the caves.

Most tours provide you with a local, handwoven hat, which you will need to protect from the sun during the hour and half tour. The limestone caves have unique formations due to the elements that have created them and will be within arm’s reach at some points as you make your way through them. One of the caves is so long that you will virtually be in the dark as you pass through it. As the boat turns around after passing through the last cave, there will be boats with local vendors offering to sell you drinks, snacks, and other items.

We saw so many amazing sights during our time in Vietnam and Tam Coc in the Ninh Binh province was certainly one of our favorites. There are a variety of choices of places that you can visit during a Ninh Binh tour, but we would highly recommend making Tam Coc one the choices that you make. Between the scenery, the caves, and the unique boats, it is well worth dealing with the potential crowds.