We took a boat ride down the Perfume River (got this name because once there were plenty of flowers along the banks). First we landed on a small village and then continued on to see Thien Mu Pagoda and Monastery, with a school on the complex. To me, the most interesting part was seeing those very young student monks, age between 11 and 16, who were just passing through the campus. They looked so different from the adult monks because each of them had a tuft of long hair hanging down from the forehead. The hair was the ID showing they were students. I searched for more details online, and learned that when a novice enters a Vietnamese monastery, his head would be shaven except for the front, and one spot on each side. When he passes the first exam, one of the tufts on the sides would be shaven. After successfully passing two stages, he would only have the tuft on the top front left, and because this bunch has never been cut, it can get quite long.

Then we went to see two imperial tombs - Emperor Tu Duc's and Emperor Khai Dinh's. The emperors all started to have their tombs built with a palace while they were still alive. Tu Duc even used this huge compound (including a lake) as a second home for himself, the queen as well as his 104 concubines. He designed it himself, but sources said eventually he was not buried here in order to avoid his grave from being looted. The 200 laborers who buried him were all beheaded afterwards so that no one could tell where he was buried with all his treasure. How cruel.

The tomb of Emperor Khai Dinh was much smaller, but designed and decorated in a much more lavish way. It took 11 years to build and wasn't completed before his death. A tour of these tombs was just like a visit to see different types of architecture.

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