A pagoda built from millions of seashells and coral — there is nothing else like it in Vietnam
Shell and coral architecture unique in Vietnam
The 39-metre Bảo Tích tower, faced by hand in millions of shells
The "eighteen levels of hell" tunnel — an unusual walk-through
Use your phone torch in the eighteen-levels tunnel — it is dark and the ceiling is low; come in the morning, when low sun sets the shells glittering at their best.
From 1968 the monks of Từ Vân pagoda began something that should not have been possible: gathering by hand the shells and coral washed up on the Cam Ranh shore, and building their temple out of them. Decades later the result is the Bảo Tích tower, 39 metres high and faced entirely in millions of glittering shells — the largest shell-built structure in Vietnam — together with a tunnel of coral, the "eighteen levels of hell", illustrating the teaching of cause and effect.
The Shell Pagoda has a rough, strange beauty unlike any other temple: every wall, column and statue glints with mother-of-pearl in the sun. It is near Bãi Dài and Cam Ranh airport, which makes it the ideal stop on the last day of a trip heading south.
Come to Nha Trang without eating gỏi cá mai and the trip is not complete
One family, one recipe, nearly 50 years. Fish landed that morning, rolled in rice paper and dipped in a secret fish sauce — the same taste since 1977.
