My Son Holy City and Marble Mountain

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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 13^th 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 in 2007

We booked a tour that took us by bus to the ruins but brought us back to Hoi An down the river by boat where we were given traditional Vietnamese food (Rice and veggies basically!)

We stopped of on the way back on a small island on the river to watch boat building and wander through the tiny streets there.



The next day we hired a bike to get to the beach 4 kilometres away. It was quite nice and relaxed there and good to be able to swim in the sea..

We had an amusing time just watching the cafe owners run down the beach with their menus in hand every time any tourists passed by. They would wave and start calling then the owner from the neighbouring cafe would do the same only wave more vigoursly and call louder. All to no avail, most people just shook their heads. To be fair though the food at the restaurant we'd parked our bike in served really good cheap food. I must admit I was quite glad to hand the bike back at the end of the day, driving on the roads over here is not for the faint hearted!



Lastly we visited Marble Mountain. This consists of five marble outcrops that were once islands. There are natural caves sheltering Hindu and Buddhist sanctuaries and a picturesque Pagoda. We climbed to the top of the highest one where the views of the surrounding countryside were amazing. None of the other tourists had ventured this far up so we had the summit to ourselves, it was so peaceful, wild flowers grew here and there and brightly coloured butterflies fluttered around us. We didn’t linger long as there was no shade and the sun was beating down.



We had a quick look in the many shops selling marble statues, ornaments etc when we reached the bottom but resisted all attempts to make us buy anything.

Imagine a marble statue in my backpack!!!



Next stop: Hue

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