Blogs from My Son, South Central Coast, Vietnam, Asia

During our time in Hoi An as well as exploring the sites around Hoi An itself we took several day trips. First to the Holy City of My Son. The ancient Cham city of My Son is another Unesco world heritage site is tne of the most stunning sites in the area. The ruins are nestled in a lush valley surrounded by hills and the massive Hon Quap (Cat’s tooth mountain.) My Son became a religious centre in the late fourth century and was occupied until the 13th Century. The longest period of development of any city in the Mekong region. The ruins are about 35 kilometres from Hoi An. The ruins were interesting but I guess we’ve been spoilt as they pale into insignificance after the Angkor Wat ruins in Cambodia that we visited ... read more

A man knocked on our door at 7:55 and told us to hurry! So we were surprised and went downstairs and he took us on his motorbike to the place where the bus was going to pick us up at. He told us to have a seat at the restaurant there (the Candle I think...) and about 1 minute later told us no no! The bus is coming! It wasn't. But the woman in charge ran us out two baguettes to go and after waiting a little while longer, stole them back to hurry and add jelly and butter and a water bottle and some minibananas for dessert. The plain baguettes were free, but when she added the other stuff, we ended up paying her. She was really sweet. Anyways, the bus came, we dutifully took ... read more

Heute wollte ich mir die Cham-Ruinen in My Son ansehen. Die Cham hatten in früheren Zeiten ein bedeutendes hinduistisches Reich (Champa) in der südlichen Hälfte des heutigen Vietnams aufgebaut. Im Laufe der Jahrhunderte wurde dieses von den nach Süden vordrängenden Vietnamesen erobert. Heute bilden die Cham eine der zahleichen ethnischen Minderheiten Vietnams. Von ihrem einstigen Reich sind nur noch Ruinen übrig geblieben, darunter jene zum Weltkulturerbe erklärten Ruinen von My Son. Von der Tour in Hue war ich mit gemischten Gefühlen zurückgekehrt. Nicht, dass diese besonders schlecht war, aber es liegt mir einfach nicht, die ganze Zeit hinter einem Guide herzutrappeln. Ich möchte mir lieber das ansehen, was ich möchte und zwar in der Zeit, die ich brauche. Also entschloss ich mich, mir ein Xe Om, wie die Motorradtaxis hier genannt werden mit Fahrer für den ... read more

Day 39 Friday June 12, 2009 Rented a motorbike and took a scenic 35K trip to My Son village that is home to 4th century ruins and ancient buildings. Very impressive indeed. The builidngs and the architecture they used in that time period with no equipment is amazing. We only got to spend a little time there as our bus was leaving that night for Nha Trang. I stopped by a tailor shop and had a really cute red wool coat made. I had waited to the last minuted deciding whether or not to do it, but $35 for a custom made winter coat was too tempting. She was able to whip it up in 3 hours after taking my meaurements and the material I picked out to use. wow! At 6pm we took a sleeper ... read more

Dear Patrons, Welcome to our news letter. The Staff at Different Perspectives try to bring a clearer picture of current events effecting China and Asia. Although we believe the international media driven primarily by the western world's interests is bringing the public events as they happen we at Different Perspectives are independent and non biased without an agenda for prestige or monetary profit. We simply feel the western world may be somewhat isolated from news that is local to our office here in my Beijing, China. We hope you enjoy the news from a different perspective. __________________________________________________________________________________ Sunday August 24, 2008 Hoang Yen Hotel Rm. 102 Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Had coffee this morning with with my local Vietnamese friends and met a former South Vietnam Soldier. My former North Vietnamese (Vietcong)... read more