Blueyebabe @ Perfume Pagoda

Chua Huong (Perfume pagoda) is located in Huong son (Perfume mountain) 70 km southwest of Hanoi. Chua Huong is a cluster of temples and shrines in the general vicinity of Huong son. The uniqueness of Huong Son is that the mountains, river and forest appears like an oasis for buddhists in the middle of the great plains of northern Vietnam.

In order to go to Chua Huong, we must drive through Ha Dong city, Van Dinh township to Ben Duc (pier Duc). The road is in poor condition so it can take more than 2 hours to travel the 50 miles from Hanoi to Ben Duc. and then take row boats on Yen Vi river to Chua Huong.

it is quite romantic to go to the temple by rowing boat

After we passing through the river, we have reached a row of shops selling bread in crab shape, and restaurants selling "weird creature" meat along the way to temples and shrines, and the smell....yucks! really beh tahan~~

and the Hanoi people actually eating this creature
err...is that a cat!?

And then we reached Thien Tru temple (Chua Ngoai) which was built in the 18th century. Thien Tru means heavenly kitchen. I find this temple is so amazingly pretty than all the other temples I have been to...

Thien Tru temple

there are million steps of staircase to go in order to get to Huong Tich grotto

That was a 45 mins walking along the staircase to the Huong Tich grotto, so I opt to take cable car instead. Fast & save energy for other activities..keke. At the entrance to the grotto, there is "heaven's gate" (path to heaven) and "hell's gate" (descend to hell), and also the granite that looks like a tongue of a dragon according to the good imagination of the locals.

Dragon's tongue at the entrance of Huong Tich grotto