Hoi An – Vietnam – 24/5/2016 – 25/5/2016

Day 9

Again after a hearty buffet breakfast, we were picked up by coach for our city tour of Hoi An. There were around 24 of us today. (We thought there would be a host of us travelling around as a group on our tour, but no we meet different people everyday. Today we met a couple from Singapore who spoke very good English. They too were travelling through Vietnam but independently. The whole morning was spent visiting My Son (pronounced me sun), the Holy Land -the ruins of Cham people which was an imperial city during the Cham dynasty. Here there was a large complex of religious relics that comprise more than 65 buildings. There are remains of some of these architectural sites standing today but our guide informed us that this site had been bombed by the Americans in the Vietnam War.  In 1999 UNESCO labelled the Cham architecture  in My Son as a World Cultural Heritage Site. Very interesting place, lots of history on how it was made, and the government are providing funds for it to be rebuilt. Thousands and thousands of original red bricks  are scattered everywhere and where possible they intend to use them again. We learnt the difference between temples and towers. The former has a door but no windows, whereas the latter had many ornate carved stone windows. They even have a museum on site as they are still finding ancient artefacts these days. We were so surprised to not only get so close to these buildings but able to enter a few. They are all in a very sad state and look as though they would fall over in a gust of wind. In the afternoon we (just Tina and I) had a different guide to tour Hoi An on foot.  Se took us to several old original houses, that still have the families living inside, after  7 or 8 generations, and to a 400 year old Japanese bridge (which is immersed on the reverse side of a VND 20,000 note. The area is next to a river which can flood every couple of years, so the bridge can be submerged under water for days throughout the rainy season. This bridge is so important to the Vietnamese that they built a temple adjoining it a couple of decades later. Very impressive. Back to the hotel and we now have “free time” until 10.30am tomorrow morning, but the problem is were exhausted! So a nap is in order.