MY SON HOLYLAND

---

Hi everyone, one week down....weather has thrown everything at us......stinking hot and muggy (yes, just like the words to that famous song from the movie - Good Morning Vietnam) and continual rain - but the temperature has dropped to 25 degrees. I think I am becoming "more local" and an now only changing my clothes once a day as I couldn't keep up with the washing and more so the drying in this weather....haven't yet succumbed to taking my washing outside to be done even though it is only 10,000 for 1 lb - about A$0.80......quite expensive when you can get a pot of local beer for A$0.20......

We have done a couple of tourist things since being here - one the cooking course and the other a trip out to the My Son area. This site is set in the jungle about 55km from Hoi An and are the most important remains of the ancient kingdom of Champa and is also a Unesco World Heritage site. Mike and I have seen better preserved Champa towers on our first visit to Vietnam but this site was an important intellectual and religious centre.

The area became a religious centre under King Bhadravarman in the late 4th century and was constantly occupied until the 13th century. The site is divided into sections and connected by paths...some areas are unaccessable as they are unsafe and hoping to be restored (money always being an issue) but there is a group of archaeologists working there at the moment.

Most of the temples were dedicated to Cham kings associated with divinities, particularly Shiva, who was regarded as the founder and protector of Champa's dynasties. The buildings are unique because researchers have yet to figure out for certain how the builders managed to get the baked bricks to stick together. One theory is that they used a paste prepared with a botanical oil that is indigenous to central Vietnam.

During the American War this region was completely devastated and depopulated as the site was bombed extensively by the Americans....however the guide book tells us that the American bombing failed to destroy about 20 of the remaining 25 towers, although of these 20 nearly all of them sustained extensive damage.

After our hot and exhausting visit to My Son we travelled downstream about 30km back to HoiAn where we had a simple lunch on the boat stopping off at the woodcarvers village. Our group bought up big here - feeling good with themselves that the money was going direct to the families...both Michael and Merri bought carved wooden buddha's.....yes, our buddha collection has started.

Each morning excursion has been followed by a quiet afternoon under the fan or an air conditioner.

---

Photos

My Son area
View of the area surrounding MySon monuments

Display inside one of the monuments
including shell casings from the American War

Inside monument
one building has been made safe and includes some relics

My Son monument
view through doorway to doorway to ........

front step
nice entrance

My Son monument
note the tooling on the end of this cross beam...fitted perfectly into the two uprights...possibly an entrance

My Son monument
good guard 'dog'

Comments

[Linny]

Memories!
Hi Ros and Michael - Your photos are bringing back memories for us thsi time! Take care - enjoy! Love xx Linny

[zainab]

"TravelBlog (Roslyn Amiss) - No Reply" Add sender to Contacts
Hi How are you . I miss you too much and I hope you replay my email to what are you doing and feeling know . regards

[rma]

Hello from Roslyn
Hi Zainab Hope you and your family are all well. We have been very busy here and doing a lot of work helping local people cleaning up after the typhoon that hit here last week.....so we are a little bit tired at the moment but we are well. Our time away is going very fast - it is nearly a month already. Regards, roslyn