After Hoi An we needed to get to Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park and there was no good way to do it. We hired a car service to drive us from our hotel to the Phong Nha Lake House where we staying that night.
We drove through Danang, and it made me envious that we did not have time to go there. We stopped at the Hai Van Quan pass on the way to Hue. When we got to Hue we visited the imperial city and the Thien Mu Pagoda. This is one of my regrets. I did not do enough research about Hue before I got there and our driver dropped us off at a magnificent citadel that I didn’t know anything about it. If I would have done 30 minutes of pre-reading I would 1) enjoyed it more and 2) realized we needed more than an hour to explore the grounds. It’s a very incredible complex and I wish I would have had more time to get lost in it.
One fascinating thing we experienced was the singing monks in the Thien Mu Pagoda. In English, it is called the Pagoda of the Celestial Lady. I think it is a Buddhist temple, but I am not sure. The prayers were very beautiful to listen to, and I was pleased to experience it. This is not my video, but it is precisely what we experienced.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGNr3lGU5v0]
After the pagoda, we grabbed some beers and jumped back in the car. Our driver then drove us to a cute little hotel on a lake near the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park. It was dark when we arrived, so we weren’t able to take in the prettiness of the lake until the next morning.
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