Tran Quoc Pagoda

The air was cool as it had rained the night before, and it was pleasant to wander around the Truc Bach Lake district, clearly another place for relaxation for the locals.



As a Sydney-sider, I feel pretty lucky in that I'm spoiled for choices in terms of water views...perhaps the lake would have looked better on a sunny day

It was a nice neighbourhood though! fairly quiet, not many cars, even saw a rooster walking around! it was nice to just poke around the suburb

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random snapshots

hire me hire me!

Looks like there's massive competition going on here!

why don't more ppl paint their couches? it's funky XD

what the...and why?

a lonesome silvereye

keeping of songbirds is pretty popular here, and this is a common sight, and always one bird per cage. They do sound nice, but I'm not a fan of keeping animals in cages

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Truc Bach lake is separated from West lake by a causeway, which we crossed to get to Trấn Quốc Pagoda

I can't believe there were people fishing right out the front of a temple!

Chùa Trấn Quốc (鎭國寺) was built in 545 under the reign of King Ly Nam De under the name of Khai Quoc (Founding Nation). In the time of King Le Kinh Tong (1600-1618), it was moved from the Hồng Hà's left bank (Red River) to its current location, on an island in the West Lake, and renamed Trấn Quốc (Defending Nation).



The buildings seemed to be in great condition, probably because the existing building originated from the last repair work done in 1815, and more recent work have been done as well







China ruled Vietnam from 111 BC - 938 AD and Chinese characters were adopted for writing, which sometimes helped me get a better understanding of the place. In the 13th century, the Vietnamese developed a script called Chữ Nôm. It's based on Chinese characters but looked the world to me to be even more complicated. Anyway, everyone uses the Quốc Ngữ now (aka national language, developed by a French Jesuit missionary in the first half of the 17th century)

A large group of Taiwanese pilgrims arrived and began circling this tree. It was a gift from the Indian Prime Minister Razendia Prasat on his visit to Vietnam in 1959. The cutting was taken from the Bodhi tree under which Buddha achieved englightment!



the courtyard, dominated by a 3 dimensional landscape of mountain and sea

seems to be a fairly standard component in temple courtyards; this one is particularly big and impressive

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The temple grounds were actually quite impressive, but I couldn't capture it with my camera. Anyway, Trấn Quốc Pagoda is the oldest Pagoda in Hanoi, and definitely worth a visit.

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buying water chestnut

This was such a surprise 'hit'! Water chestnut has a hard, brown exterior, and really crunchy, juicy white interior; it was so addictive and really quenched my thirst! I also got some green mango with chilli, all for ~20,000 d.

During my time there, USD$1 = ~ 19,300 Vietnamese Dong