Traquility base: The reflection of a tree-covered hill on Truoi Lake.

Drive 30km from the ancient citadel Hue, take a right turn after Truoi Bridge in Phu Loc District, then go 10km on a road bound on both sides by bamboo to reach the lake.

 

The banks of the two-hectare lake touch the feet of four mountains.

 

The mountains, which are foothills on the northern side of Bach Ma (White Horse) Mountain Range, are covered by primary forest. Bach Ma, reaches 1,444m above sea level and is slightly cooler than Da Lat City in the Central Highlands. The French started building their resort villas in Bach Ma since 1925.

 

The mountains now serve as a tourism site and a nature reserve – known as Bach Ma National Park, famous for its amazing white clouds that look like horses on the mountain peaks all year round.

 

Everyone knows Bach Ma Mountains but Truoi Lake is a well-kept secret. "The lake’s low tourist profile has kept it clean from rubbish," says Tran Thi Le, who runs the only boat services on the lake.

 

Le says the lake’s crystal clear water is thanks to the mountain streams, which feed it. "The water is extremely cool as well," the 56-year-old boat-woman says.

 

Water from the lake now supplies an adjacent reservoir in the district’s Loc Hoa Commune that supplies water for households and farming. To control the water level in the reservoir a unique dam with a tower built in the Nguyen dynasty style has been constructed at the lake mouth.

 

"I have never seen any kind of water in my hometown as clear as in this lake and the water is really cool," says Nguyen Hong Linh, a young girl from Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta, as she splashes around excitedly.

 

Because the lake supplies the reservoir, residents hope it will stay clean forever.

 

The only service on the lake is Le’s and her colleagues’ boat service, which costs VND15,000 each person to cross the lake to the pagoda on the other side or VND300,000 per trip around the lake or to go further upstream to visit some waterfalls.

 

"Tourists often want a tour to take photographs," Le says.

 

There is another service on the lake banks – a hat renting service for VND3,000 per hat or VND7,000 to buy. The seller is quite faithful and friendly.

 

Pagoda under cloud

 

 

Steps to heaven: The 173 stairs to the recently built Truc Lam Bach Ma Zen Monastery.

A pagoda on top of one of the mountains is silhouetted against the sky.

 

Truc Lam Bach Ma is the nation’s fourth Zen monastery belonging to the Vietnamese Buddhist zen sect. It was built only last year and the other the ones are in Quang Ninh Province’s Yen Tu, Vinh Phuc Province’s Tay Thien and Da Lat City’s Phuong Hoang mountains.

 

It has traditional pagoda gates, bell towers and halls for Buddhist practice.

 

It is an amazing experience to climb the 173 stairs to its gates. In Buddhist theory, one of the ways to see Buddha or to be zen is to clear the mind. Climbing up the stairs, while keeping count of the number of steps and breaths, blanks your mind. Amazingly there are no thoughts during the climb.

 

Zen zenith: View of Truoi Lake from the gates of Truc Lam Bach Ma Zen Monastery.

The lake is also used as a tool for Buddhist practice. When you travel on it, thanks to its beauty, transparency and peace, you take light breaths and make gentle movements to not disturb the water surface. That’s a meditative practice in Buddhist theory. Buddhists consider the lake as a place to wash the guilt from their body before seeing Buddha.

 

 Looking back at the boat from the pagoda gates before going back down the stairs, one can see the sitting Buddha on a tree covered hill jutting into the lake. The Buddha, who is a welcome to the pagoda, looks at peace in nature.

Not far from Hue City and Lang Co Beach Tourism Zone, Truoi Lake and its Zen monastery are a reminder of Hue’s poetry and its Buddhist tradition.