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My Son Ruins
My Son means "Beautiful Mountain" which is exactly what it was! So far on our trip throughout Vietnam we’ve managed to dodge the “organised tours” and have pretty much done things our own way. My Son was a different matter because it was too far from Hoi An to travel by bike, a hire car with driver would have cost $20 compared to the $5 per person fee charged to do it by minibus with a tour group. Obviously we opted for the cheap version and set off reluctantly with a bus full of other tourists.
My Son is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and was once the centre of Vietnam’s ancient kingdom of Champa, it served as a religious centre and possibly even as a burial place for the Cham monarchs. Today not much remains but the archaeologists are doing their best to restore what is left. The Monuments are in a valley surrounded by hills and the Hon Quap Mountain, it was very hot when we visited and an hour and a half was more than enough time to spend at the site. As part of “the tour” we got to travel back to
Hoi An by boat where we also had lunch (included in the ticket price),
A couple of relics
It's amazing what a bit of formaldehyde can do - beats oil of olay anyday of the week!! the boat stopped off en route at a small island close to Hoi An where the government have set up a craft village to benefit local people - basically it was a shopping precinct with a ferry jetty!!
For our last day in Hoi An we visited some more places of interest in the town including Tank Ky House. The house was built sometime in the 1800’s as a home for one of the local merchants, to the front is a small narrow street where most of the surrounding buildings have been turned into shops and cafes, to the back of the house is the river which floods the house from time to time, the height of the water is recorded on one of the pillars inside, one year it reached approximately 7 feet…….when this happens the furniture is moved upstairs to one of the bedrooms!! The house today is lived in by a lady who is the 7th generation of the original house owner - it’s like walking into a living museum.
After seeing the historical sites we had a look around the market where you can buy everything from Fish and Veg to T-shirts and coffee
Tan Ky House Kitchen
The current resident allows tourists visiting the house to spend a penny - not sure how much she charges to park your bike? pots. The market is on the edge of the river, we watched the fish being brought ashore and then loaded onto a stall in the market. After the market we crossed the Japanese covered bridge and had a browse in a few book shops and art shops…..if only we had room to shop!! I stopped at one shop to look at shoes but unfortunately they didn’t have the pair I liked in the right colour …….not a problem, the shop owner had her husband and son knock me a pair up in my desired colour in 25 minutes for the measly price of £1…..I love it when I get a bargain!!!
Our last night in Hoi An came around too quickly, we’d settled into the quaint town and didn’t want to leave but there were other places still on the itinerary and our time in Vietnam was ticking away!! We had a lovely dinner and a few beers in the Bia Hoi bar before popping into one of the more lively bars for a nightcap, just as we were about to pay the bill and leave the two girls that we met in Halong Bay walked into the bar,
Tan Ky House Interior
They must go through gallons of Mr Sheen in here it would have been rude to leave without saying hello so we had another couple of drinks with them and swapped a few travellers tales.
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Jon Redmond
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get me one!
Hope you stocked up with crushed goat bladder, I am pretty low at the moment! Hope you are ready for the monsoon in Widnes, it's a rather good one this year! See you soon! Jonny Red