first steps

I could tell you a lot of really interesting travel facts about the Perfume Pagoda. Set amongst the limestone hills and tropical forests of the Huong Mountain region, I could tell you about the network of magnificent Buddhist shrines set in limestone caves.

I could tell you about the strong women who shuttle tourists back and forth up the Yen River on flat-bottomed boats, or even about the deep respect (and consequent self-loathing) I developed for the joyful elderly Buddhist women overtaking me on the ridiculously hot and steep climb up to the main shrine. Or how I witnessed, for the first time ever, literal waves of steam pouring off my skin as the cool air of the cavernous shrine enveloped my tropically overheated body.

Or I could tell you about how I ended up sitting in a metal boat in the middle of an open river during a tropical deluge, feeling rainwater relentlessly seep in through my ambitiously named raincoat to drench my tickets, passport and about a hundred dollars worth of ratty Vietnamese dong, while waiting to be fried into oblivion by the enthusiastic lightning storm crashing down around me.

Or I guess I could just tell you about the bit where I saw a dog being chased by a chicken.