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My Son Ruins
Situated at the foot of this iconic mountain We took the overnight train from Nha Trang to Danang Thursday night. This time it was the lower quality train--we had sleeping berths, but no blankets, the air conditioning freezing us out (I know, we should be complaining after the heat we've endured the whole trip so far), and many stops, with their attendant announcements--only in Vietnamese this time. So, we didn't sleep so well. Got to Danang an hour and a half late (10 a.m.), but that's, I guess, par for the course here.
We caught our mini-bus at the station, and headed straight for Hoi An, another 45 min. ride. This city is all about tailors; people come from all over the world to have suits, dresses, shirts, overcoats, shoes, etc. tailored at any of the (reportedly) 300 shops, at perhaps 10-20% what they would cost at home. The world famous Yaly's told us they have 300 tailors, themselves. Well, two of our group took full advantage of this, ordering up suits, overcoats and shirts Friday afternoon. They were all done Saturday afternoon, with several fittings in between. The rest of us wandered around this very relaxing town with hundreds of tiny shops. The old town has many
Hoi An
A quieter town, but still don't know how I got a photo with nobody on it old temples and assembly halls, some of which we were able to access even without buying the "high priced" admission tickets (90,000 Dong-$4.50) for five admittances. Eventually they all look the same anyways ("same, same, but different" is the most common expression in SE Asia). We could have rented bicycles for $0.75/day or motorbikes for $3/day but chose to walk. With the heat, the walking was at a very slow pace.
Yesterday, three of us (the three not needing repeated clothes fittings) went on an excellent day trip to My Son ruins, apparently a junior version of Ankor Wat in Cambodia, and less restored. The ruins deterioration from natural causes was significantly aided by American bombs, as they suspected the Viet Cong were hiding in the temples. The hour ride there was by bus, and it was great to get into the countryside, watch the farmers harvesting rice, and see all the rice being dried over tarps wherever there was a flat area (including taking up one lane of the highway in some places). My Son is in a beautiful jungle setting, as you'll see from the photos (if and when I get them uploaded). It is one of
Hoi An
River boat ride rentals are a popular option the main remnants of the Cham civilization which inhabited the central part of Vietnam for over a millenium before being gradually pushed out by the Viets from the north. The Cham were Hindu, having come originally from India. It was a wonderful occasion to relax, learn from our excellent guide, and experience nature. Returning to Hoi An, we took a boat trip for the last half, which included a meal. Altogether the bus ride, guide, boat trip and meal cost us $6.00 (plus $3.00 admission to the ruins.) Well worth it! After returning, I relaxed for a while, spent some more time wandering the shops--and buying a few things, before meeting the group for dinner together.
Sunday morning, we had only a couple of hours before catching a private bus to Hue. I started this blog, but then the power went out in the hotel, so am now finishing on Monday. Stopped at Marble Mtountain, where they had an amazing cave network with religious icons and carvings everywhere. The trip was very enjoyable, as we finally got to see more of the Vietnam countryside. Traversing one pass, we went through a tunnel approx. 10 km. long.
Hue (pronounced
Temple in Hoi An
Not sure what the dominant religion is, some thing Chinese, we think "whey") is the ancient capital of the empire, and so has within it the ancient walled city, and within that, protected by moat and walls, the citadel, or royal headquarters. It is now a major tourist attraction and two of us chose to explore it yesterday afternoon, hoping to catch a boat ride to some other ruins--tombs of the kings--this morning. But the schedule didn't allow us to take a regularly scheduled trip and the private tour was too costly, so I'm just catching up on blogging, journaling, etc, and going to the market later. We leave this afternoon for the overnight train to Hanoi.
Last night, three of us went to a "cultural event" on a dragon boat on the river. The lovely Vietnamese women in their glamorous outfits, provided the strange vocal music of the imperial era, accompanied by three musicians playing strange stringed instruments. All in all, the ancient traditions, both religious and otherwise, remind me a lot of the kinds of things we read about in the Old Testament.
Still hot, but maybe a little more bearable than earlier--or I'm just getting used to it.
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