Huong Pagoda

This guide to Huong Pagoda outside Hanoi opens in 1770, when the feudal lord Trinh Sam climbed to a cave shaped like a dragon's jaw and had six words carved into the stone above him, still legible today. You'll hear the older legend of a wandering monk and the goddess Quan Am that drew pilgrims here long before the lord arrived, and the rituals visitors still perform beneath the stalactites. Come prepared for a steep climb after the boat ride up the gorge.