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Published: June 28th 2009
The journey from Hue to Danang was the last leg done by train on our trip. At the Hue train station we were confined to a waiting room with no air conditioning and no windows were open and, of course, the train was late. The train for Hanoi arrived and they opened the doors of the waiting room so we all got out and placed ourselves on the platform according to our carriage number. The platform itself is a huge market where train passengers can buy fruits, cakes, biscuits, pot noodles aplenty, nuts, etc, etc. The amount of business going on across the rails with passengers in the Hanoi train was a real show, as our train approached business started to be conducted in matter of seconds and it was scary to see people running across the tracks in front of the new train approaching. The train journey from Hue to Danang is one of the most scenic ones in Vietnam if not in the world. We very much enjoyed it and couldn't resist taking loads of pictures. We happened to have a Swiss photographer in our carriage who gave us a free course on photography and on photo-shop. At the
end of the three-our train journey we had another 40 minutes by car to our destination, the city of Hoi An.
Hoi An's glorious time was when the trade with China and Japan was flourishing as it had a port on the Thu Bon river. Today it is a very touristic place. A bit too touristic. Reminds me of Benidorm!
In the first day we just toured the city and visited the local market. The next day we rented a motorbike to visit My Son. My Son is 45 Km from Hoi An. To be honest, this saved our passage in the Hoi An area. Declared a World heritage site by UNESCO in 1999, it is one of Vietnam's most ancient monuments. My Son is one of the most important centers of the Cham Kingdom. The temples were built in brick and date back to the early 8th century and remained a place of worship until the 15th century. Like Angkor in Cambodia, the influence of Hinduism is visible at My Son. More desctruction has been done to the site over the last 40 years than in the previous 400. The Viet Congs based themselves in this area
and consequently the site has been heavily damaged by American fire. In some parts all we see is a pile of bricks.
We fell in love with the site. That made us look forward even more to visiting Angkor in Cambodia.
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