My Very Own World

Mountains accompanying rivers -Perfume Pagoda,Huong Son,Vietnam.

在越南河內的時候，早就耳聞香山香水寺(Perfume Pagoda)和香山洞穴(Huong Tich Cave)大名。
Note,"Huong" = 香，用台語發音較近似。

Before I went for touring around in Vietnam,I had already heard of The Perfume Pagoda,and The Huong Tich Cave.
Note,"Huong" pronounced as "香" in Taiwanese.

這個景點是位於北部大城河內和中部主城市順化之間，通常旅客都是參加越南的當地團，由河內出發，直接買一日行程即可，我忘記多少錢了，沒辦法我去過太多地方，記不清楚，而且當天我還好像有喝酒，Wahahahaha~，反正印象中沒有很貴，包括中午一餐，大概1、2千左右吧，當日來回，我是上網訂的，所以想去的話，上網搜尋就有一票旅行社有營運這一條，如果再往北的行程，當然就是Sapa的梯田景觀，可是我不想跑去鄉下看梯田，所以只有買香山團。

Huong Son is located between northern city Hanoi and the main middle city,Hue. Tourists usually attend local tour agency's one-day package,starting from Honai.I forgot its price,sorry for that,for I've been visiting too many places to remember every details.Espcially,I seemed to be drunk on that day,wahahaha.Anyway,it shouldn't be expensive as I remembered.
It's about NT$1,000-2,000,including one meal for lunch.It was an one-day tour.I booked on line.So,if you're interested,you can google it yourself.There are dozens of this type tour agencies and I believe there must be one that suits you.
If you like to go further norther,you'll find the tour to Sapa for stairs of rice fields.But I didn't go to Sapa for rice fields.I had only bought the tour to the Perfume Son.

本想自己去玩就好，無奈該地處於偏僻山區，路途遙遠，除非包車，那就很貴了，
而且要到山腳下，還要經過水道(划船約要1小時)才能接近，再來要換纜車上山，然後再爬一段山路的階梯，才到最後面的高潮"香水洞"。

The location is far from easy accessibility.Besides it is a long distance from Hanoi.Unless I chartered a taxi if I wanted to go alone,then it would be very expensive by transporting this way.
Besides,tourists need to travel the river(same name as my middle name.Ha)for about 1 hour to reach the foot of the hill first,then change to the cable car,and then keep on walking for another 20 minutes to get to the final climax(destination),the Perfume Tich Cave.

通往山腳下前的水道，大家覺得很好玩，水質非常乾淨和清澈，由於多年前水道有改道過，水都已經淹過岸邊本來是墓地的地方，形成特殊景象，我國人認為祖墳淹水是不吉利的，好奇當地政府和這些墳墓所有權的家屬不知為何不處理，然而，通過水道的過程非常恬靜、悠閒，和風吹徐下，身心獲得美好的休憩。
這幾年這個水道夏季端午時也成為舉辦龍舟大賽的場地。

We all enjoyed the rowing along the waterway(river).The river was sbsolutely clean and could be see through.The local people told us that the waterway had changed its courses many years ago,and submerged the river banks,where were lands of tombs,and created the unique sight.
In my people's eyes,ancesters' tombs got flooded is an ominous sign to family.I wondered why domestic government and graves' owners didn't tackle this matter.
Even though seeing those eerie and unusual sights,it was still a pleasant and tranquilt time with breeze blowing over the river.We all felt relaxed to some extent.
The waterway also has been the location of holding dragonboat racing in recent years.

到岸下船後，過收票口往上走，就可以參觀此行重點之一:

We headed towards the ticket check point after getting off the boat.Right away we started our first tourist site , The Perfume Pogoda.

天香寶剎。
香山寺廟群之中最為著名的寺廟就是天香寶剎。
寶剎是佛寺，拜觀音菩薩為主神，偏院有紀念古時帝皇祠院，後頭也有昔日駐寺高僧埋骨佛塔。

Perfume Pogoda is just one of a dozen of temples in Huong Son,and also the most famous one.
It hosts Buddhisattva Guon Yin,a Buddhist Temple.There are side houses for people to worship royal family from old time.There are also small pagodas of deceased old monks in the backyard.

寶剎建物規矩，前面為山門，中間有鐘樓，後面有主殿，兩側各有偏殿，飛簷屋瓦的東方古風使人自然發出思古幽情，各區域一路往上高築，由下往上望，一殿比一殿高，同時，由上往下，卻有登高望遠寬闊視野。

The layout of the Perfume Pagoda is quite fitted to regular temples'.The guarding gate is in the front,bell tower in the middle,major basilica in the back,and sides houses in the planks.Red roof tiles,and protruding upward roof corners,which makes up ancient oriental style, a style that would make you feel getting back in time.
The temple built several layers and each layer is gradually higher than its previous one,if you see it from the first layer(the guarding gate,the front gate),if you see it from the top(the major basilica,you would find the sight broad and far.

回到山門前的餐廳用好午膳後，往叉路去改換搭乘登山纜車，出纜車車站後，就是向著著名的香山洞穴去，香山洞穴是一大鐘乳石洞穴，雖然哀嘆令人讚嘆的自然景觀總是被人為破壞，但是如果有人去過馬來西亞黑風洞的話，就會了解為什麼洞穴裡頭佈滿神壇了，這是亞洲習俗，人們相信山中讓人驚嘆的美景一定是有神仙存在其間的，神仙不住這，還要住哪?

Gathered back to the restaurant that's in front of pagoda's first gate,at where we enjoyed our lunch.There's another path from here leading to the cable car station.
Exited from the station,we walked to the well-known Perfume Cave(Perfume Tich Cave).It is an enormous stalactitic cave.
With a glance at it,I exclaimed to wonder why grand natural sites would frequently end up being sabotaged by humans.Its interior space was occupied by Buddhist altars.However,if you have been in the Black Cave in Malaysia,you would understand this phenomenon about why altars filled in caves,which is an Asian custom.People believe that great caves in mountains are the abodes of fairies,deities,or Gods, or where else could these Gods live in?Ha...

香山洞穴穴頂和兩壁，各有奇岩怪石，有的像僧侶、像情侶等等。
也許你認為人類總是迷信，喜歡穿鑿附會之說，但是香山洞穴也是越南主要信仰中心之一，每年6月初的集會，都會吸引上萬人與會。

The celing,and the both walls are formed with diversely weird shapes of rocks.Some are like monks,lovers,elephants and so on.
You might think superstition is a part of being humans,and it's no strange that people love folklores.Nonetheless,Perfume Cave is one of religion centers in Vietnam.It attracts thousands of people coming here to worship their deities in the beginning of June every year.

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