Perfume Pagoda

Chua Huong is not one pagoda but a scatter of shrines through a limestone massif south-west of Hanoi, and the journey is the practice: an hour poled and rowed up the Yen stream between karst hills, then a climb of stone steps - or the cable car - to Huong Tich, a large cave with an altar in it, stalactites that pilgrims touch for particular wishes, and a Nguyen-period inscription at the mouth calling it the finest cave under the southern sky. The festival from the first lunar month is the biggest pilgrimage in the north, running for weeks and drawing well over a million people.

What you actually see

• An hour by rowing boat - up the Yen stream between karst hills.
• The Huong Tich cave shrine - with an altar and named stalactites.
• A Nguyen-period inscription - at the cave mouth.
• The north's largest pilgrimage - weeks of it, from the first lunar month.

When to go

The festival months for the atmosphere; outside them for space. A full day.

Honest expectations

In festival season the crowds are enormous, the boats queue and the steps are a slow shuffle. Touting and pricing pressure at the landing are persistent. The cave is smoky with incense. Litter is a problem.

Nearby

Hanoi is north-east; Tam Chuc is south in Ha Nam.