Vietnam's Pagoda Day Trips

Vietnam, at first glance, is not a particularly religious country. Anyone who's seen ochre-clad monks begging for their morning rice on the back roads of neighboring Thailand or Cambodia will note their absence in Vietnam, and outside of festival months (or the weeks before university entrance exams), Vietnamese pagodas are rarely well-attended.

But spirituality is woven into Vietnamese daily life in ways that pique a visitor's senses. In every market, women hunt for the perfect rosebuds for family altars, or buy tissue-paper "ghost money," burned to provide ancestors a little pocket money in the afterlife. On the densest city blocks, banyan trees are transformed into impromptu temples, where passersby can offer up a choice papaya or plantain to a favorite incarnation of the Buddha.

Most Vietnamese today practice a fluid and inclusive blend of the Confucianism and Buddhism, and nearly a million more throw in a bit of Catholicism. (Those who look extra hard can even find pockets of Hinduism, Islam and Taoism.)

After South Vietnam's collapse in 1975, the Communist government loudly insisted it would protect freedom of religion, a claim some jailed Buddhist dissidents and blacklisted Mormon missionaries may find dubious. But it's true that little prevents most Vietnamese these days from practicing as they please. For those who want to check out this rich spiritual stew, here's seven spots easily accessible from three of Vietnam's largest cities.

Perfume Pagoda A trek to the country's holiest Buddhist temple offers a beautiful day trip outside Hanoi. Most of the year, small groups of visitors reach the pagoda's mountainous site by boat, rowed down the lovely Perfume River by incredibly strong elderly women. The two-hour hike to the uppermost pagoda, up a moderately steep slope through verdant forests, offers a great meditation opportunity. On the way up, catch your breath at the various smaller temples carved out of caves and perched on cliffs.

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