Yen Tu
has been referred to as the center of Vietnamese Buddhism and, like most of the
sacred Buddhist temples, the magic of Yen Tu lies in the journey. Consisting of a series of temples following
the monk king’s pilgrimage to enlightenment, Yen Tu
stretches 6000 meters (about 6 hours of walking) from the valley floor all the
way up to the cloud-wrapped, mountain top Dong Pagoda, 1,068 m above sea level.
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| Garden walkway in the Yen Tu Pagoda |
The
series of relics and protected landscapes make up the area on UNESCO’s list of
tentative world heritage sites and it is well worth a spot. The 6 km trek up the mountain is well worth
the effort and many of the Vietnamese visitors do just that. The trek is not at all an easy one though. The 6 km journey is all up a seemingly
endless path of stone stairs with the occasional temple to give you
relief. If trudging up these steps is
not for you, there is the also the option of taking a series of two gondolas to
the top.
My Experience
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| Stupas at the Hue Quang Garden Pagoda |
I had
first come across Yen Tu when I was mapping out all of the UNESCO World
Heritage sites in Vietnam. It was on
their tentative list so I decided to mark it on my map and try to make it out
there if possible. After doing a little research
I found out that Yen Tu is considered by some as the capital of Buddhism in
Vietnam. I also found that it was first
created as a sacred site by a king, who after abdicating his throne and
becoming a monk, made the pilgrimage to the top of Yen Tu creating temples and
pagodas along the way. Beyond this, there
wasn’t much information on blogs about Yen Tu, so on my way back from Halong Bay I decided to jump off the beaten path and make the journey myself.
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| Stairs to Yen Tu Pagoda |
I had no idea what I was getting myself into
when I started the journey. The owner of
the hotel we were staying at told us to follow the road up for 4 km and we
would find the start. That’s not to
bad. It was a bit of a hike, but there was
a shop along the way to buy a cold drink and some fruit. Finally making it to the end of the road we
walked through a huge compound that is still partially under construction. It was a beautiful place though and along the
side there were an array of shops for tourists to buy souvenirs or the faithful
to buy offerings.
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| Giai Oan bridge |
Once through
all of the shops, you cross a bridge over a beautiful little stream and are
given the choice of either taking the first gondola or venturing further up the
path to start your ascent. I, of course,
wanted to make the journey by foot (to the dismay of Jade). A short walk up the path brought us to the
first temple and the ticket booth for the mountain.
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| First series of stone stairs leading to the top |
From
the ticket booth, the rest of the way up the mountain is a constant stair case. In the beginning it is only a gradual climb,
but that quickly changes and the stairs begin to become steeper and steeper. While you climb the stairs, there isn’t much
to see between stops. The trees that
line the trail block any view of the mountain range or the valley outside,
leaving you only the view of the worn stone steps, tread by the faithful for
over 700 years.
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| View of Hue Quang Garden Pagoda from above |
About
500m into the climb you come to a section of the trail lined with tall, green
pine trees, reportedly planted by the monk king himself as he made the ascent. This ends at the Hue Quang Garden Pagoda. This is a small area with numerous stupas
housing the remains of many of the monks that have served these pagodas, a
small pond and garden, and a marble statue of the monk king, Tran Nhan Tong.
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| Hoa Yen Pagoda |
Following this is a short
staircase to Hoa Yen Pagoda, the halfway point of the climb and the transition
point for the two gondolas. Because of
the gondola switch you will find far more tourists milling around this area. You can easily distinguish them from those
that made the climb by the lack of sweat that is bore by those of us that made
the hike. It is from this pagoda that
for the first time you will get a great view of the mountain range around you
and, on a clear day, serves a great spot to take some great scenic photos.
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| Van Tieu Pagoda |
As we made our ascent from the
Hoa Yen Pagoda, it began to rain. A
small drizzle at first, it quickly turned into a down pour. We were already wet from the sweat of our
climb, so the rain wasn’t going to make to much of a difference, but it still put
a bit of a drain on our moods as we continued climbing a staircase that seemed
to never end. While still in the rain,
we finally came to Van Tieu Pagoda. The
pagodas began to become milestones in our climb. Having seen a map of the climb, these points
of interests were our only knowledge of how far we had climbed and, more
importantly, how much further we had to go.
We didn’t spend as much time here as we did in the other temples due to
the rain. But as we began to leave we were baffled when
we, already drenched, were offered rain coats to stay dry.
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| Direction signs for the different pagodas on our way up the mountain |
From the Van Tieu Pagoda we had
the choice of either going straight up the mountain or taking a detour of 230m to see another temple. Since we were
hiking up the mountain I wanted to see all of the temples on the way up, so we
took the detour and quickly came to the Bao Sai Pagoda. By this time, it was already beginning to be
late in the afternoon and we knew we needed to get up to the top soon so we
could make our descent while it was still light.
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| The trouble with trying to take photos during the rain |
I had decided that I was just
going to hop into the temple, take a quick picture, and then continue on our
way up the mountain, but this isn’t what happened. When I entered the temple, there was a monk inside
who offered me a seat to rest and get out of the rain and asked Jade to enter
as well. Not wanting to turn down a monk’s
offer we obliged and took a seat and after asking us a few questions the monk
left. As we admired the architecture of
the temple we began talking about what to do next, when the monk returned to
ask if we wanted to eat dinner with him.
Again, I didn’t want to turn down his offer, plus we were both super
hungry, so we said we would join him. The
dinner was really good and was far more than we expected. They even prepared sausages even though they
themselves couldn’t eat them. The pagoda
doesn’t see many visitors, it being off the main path, so he was elated to have
us there.
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| Talking with the monk at the Bao Sai Pagoda |
After dinner the monk asked us
to stay the night there at the pagoda, but this request we had to decline even
though it would have been really nice to have stayed. We really wanted to make it to the top before
sunset, plus all of our clothes were wet and the we already had a hotel room at
the bottom of the mountain. He was very persistent
that we stay, not wanting us to venture down the trail at night. He warned us of the danger of traversing the possible
slippery steps at night and that there might be snakes as well (something I didn’t
tell Jade till we had reached the bottom later that night). We told him we had a headlamp and would be
careful and left his company as the rain began to let up.
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| The Buddha King Tran Nhan Tong Statue |
From here on the trail exhibits
a different character and ‘walking on clouds’ takes on a literal meaning. The clouds that for most of our hike loomed
above us and poured its rain upon us were now amidst us. No longer in the rain, our hunger abated, and
having a renewed since of the hike we journeyed further up the mountain. We made good time from here on out and soon
made it to out next stop, the statue of the Buddha King Tran Nhan Tong. A large bronze statue of the monk king turned Buddha, sitting in a meditative pose atop a lotus flower. The statue is truly impressive, standing
12.6m high and looming in the clouds at 912m above sea level. The statue also marks the final ascent to the
top. It is at this point that the second
gondola ends and all visitors that wish to make it to the top must walk.
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| Dong Pagoda |
Known as Heaven’s Gate, the hike
from here on isn’t so bad. Either strengthened
by the knowledge that the top is near or pushed further by faith, visitors
trudge up the final ascent with relative easy.
About 2/3 of the way up, the stone steps begin to fade out and steps
carved out of the solid rock take their place. Reaching Dong Pagoda at the peak, 1,068m above
sea level, is the ultimate goal. Upon
reaching the top we were more than thrilled to both be there and to be done
with the climb. Looking out from this
mountain peak, there was nothing but clouds.
The view of the surrounding landscape was engulfed in a white mist so
thick that we could only see a few meters in front of us. We were told that this mountain top is always
encircled by clouds, but on a clear day you can see out over a sea of clouds.
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| Buddha King Tran Nhan Tong Statue as the sun in setting |
Having gotten our rest at the top
it was time to start making our way down the mountain. The sun was already setting and we knew that
we wouldn’t make it far before the darkness of the night would overtake us and
the trail would become even harder to traverse.
We made it only back to the Buddha statue just below before it was too
dark to see and I had to pull out my headlamp to light the way. We made better time going down but it was
just as hard. Taking each step on weak
and trembling knees, down stairs made stepper by the darkness was not ideal,
but we made it down easy enough. By the
time we reached the bottom there were no people to be found and we started to
make our way down the road towards our hotel.
Fortunately, a truck of monks passed by and we were able to hitch a ride
the rest of the way back.
Prices
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| Yen Tu map |
There
are two ways to venture up Yen Tu, hiking or taking the gondolas (you could do
a mixture of the two). The hike is up 6
km of stairs and is fairly strenuous but is how most of the faithful get to the
top. There are also two different gondolas
that go up different sections of the mountain.
The first one starts near the gate and ends at the Hoa Yen Pagoda
(halfway point). From there it is a
short walk down an even path to the second gondola. This gondola will take you
to the Buddha King Tran Nhan Tong Statue and you will have to hike the final
200m to the top.
To hike Yen Tu: 40,000 VND/1.76 USD
To Take the Gondola:
One way (one gondola) - 150,000 VND/17.82 USD
Round trip (one gondola) – 250,000 VND/29.27 USD
Round trip (both gondolas) – 300,000 VND/35.64 USD
How to Get There
There is no local bus from Hanoi
to Nam Mau, the town at the base of the mountain, so to get to Yen Tu from
Hanoi you will need to get a local bus at the Giam Lam Bus Station headed for
Halong Bay. You will then get off in Uông
Bí, a town south of Yen Tu. Tell the
driver that you want to go to Yen Tu and he will stop at the correct bus
stop. From this bus stop you will have
to take a taxi or moto taxi to Nam Mau where, unless you got a very early
start, you will want to stay for the night.
From town it is about 4 km to the beginning. For this distance you can either rent a taxi
or walk like we did.
Where to Stay
Nam
Mau has two hotels in town. We stayed at
the Khách
Sạn-Nhà Hàng
Ngọc
Hải
for 150,000 VND/6.56 USD and it was nice.
You can also stay in nearby Uông Bí, where there are plenty of options,
and then take a taxi to the beginning of the hike (for this option you will
want to make sure that you give yourself enough time to get back down in time
to find a taxi back to Uông Bí).
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