Delivery? Of course...

So to bridge the language barrier, there is a wonderful website here in Vietnam.  eat.vn.  It is a great way to get everything delivered.  Mexican food, sushi, pizza, beer.  Yes, beer.  At first we thought that maybe they had just uploaded the entire menu but wouldn't actually deliver beer.

Yes, they delivered beer.  Of course everything else comes in it's own little cup.

Their Spanish rice is awesome and the flautas are the best chimichungas I've ever had.

So when we ordered again, we explored their drink menu.  There was an html error when we tried to order a shot, so we just stuck with this:

A margarita in a plastic cup with a straw!   They really have a 'can do' attitude and make it happen.  If you order it, they will deliver it.  If you imagine it, it can be delivered, margaritas to Spider Monkeys, it is all just a phone call away.

Doggies and Rice

I miss my puppies.  No, that isn't an anti-Vietnam thing, most people here have never eaten dog and there are a plethora of dogs who are well taken care of, even by the not-so-soon to be rich.

This is our/my mom's dog Toto

This is our Jake.

We had a few more Perfume Pagoda pictures that we shared on Facebook, but not on here.  Someday we will get readers who aren't family and friends... so they won't be able to see it on FB.

It is crazy beautiful outside of Hanoi.

Snake and Bird moonshine.... Even most Vietnamese only spring for a little bit of cobra wine... This is ridiculousness.

The rice fields and the electric lines and the mountains were an awkward juxtaposition   Geography, electricity/modernity and traditionalism.  It was unreal.

Road Trip...Vietnam Style

Last Saturday, we got out of Hanoi for a trip to a sacred site for Buddhists.  The Perfume Pagoda.  In order to get there we had to take a motorbike, bus and these lovely metal/plastic boats. The bus ride was two hours and the boat ride was an hour.  These boats were rowed by ladies.  Speculations were made in the boat as to why the men weren't rowing.  A general consensus was the men were drinking Bia Hoi leaving the hard work up to the ladies.  Par for the course here in Vietnam.  On the river and out of the noise of Hanoi was lovely.  Here are some scenes:

After about an hour and 50 boat hawkers later, we arrived at the first pagoda.  Here we learned the difference between pagodas and temples.  What is the difference you ask?  Pagodas are reserved for worshiping Buddha and temples are for all other forms of worship such as ancestor worship and asking for non-vegetarian foods.  At this point, we were still about an hour walk from the Perfume Pagoda.  We had two options, walk up the stairs and run the gauntlet of persistent hawkers or take the gondola up and skip most of the hawkers.  Jeff and I chose the gondola for a few reasons: 1. It was way too hot to walk for an hour up hill. (for us at least)  2. There was nothing to see during the walk up the hill except shanty booths trying to sell you lucky incense.

Anyway, we took the scenic gondola ride up. It was a gondola ride.  Terrified me and the little girl who was riding with us.  Luckily she screamed louder than me.

It was beautiful but I can see why there were so many bad reviews on www.tripadvisor.com.  I cannot imagine coming during Tet. During the months of January-April millions of people are clamoring up this mountain.  I can only imagine how terrible it would be.  I know many tourists visited and posted to Trip Advisor's website because of their bad experience.  Also, it is a pretty involved trip.  If you were in Hanoi for a week, I wouldn't recommend visiting the Perfume Pagoda.  If you have a month or more to spend in northern Vietnam, then see the Perfume Pagoda.  If  you are backpacking through Vietnam, skip it.  Luckily for us, we moved here and really enjoyed our time at the Perfume Pagoda.
-Janet

 

The Huong Tich cave and our ultimate destination on this expedition.