For 3USD on top of the 5USD paid for the My Son tour, we got back to Hoi An by boat instead of bus (lunch included in price!)
We had a stopover in a village across the river from the destination, where we had the opportunity to see the locals engaged in various crafts like ship repairing, wood working, painting. Everything under the close guidance of the Communist Party, of course!
Too bad we couldn’t buy any of their work due to space constrains aboard Palomina…
This is, for me, the singe most interesting item I’ve seen during this trip. Built during 1000 years (from 4th to 14th centuries) by the Champas kings as a burial and worship place, the site was largely destroyed by US air raids in the ’60s.
Fortunately, enough was left so we can see something and imagine the rest. Note: the heads of the statues are replicas. The originals are at the Louvre in Paris, removed during the colonial times.
We decided to go visit My Son archaeological site, located just 40km West of Hoi An. Lesson learned: don’t rely on “GPS->Find route” when you are in jungle or else a 40km trip might become a 1 day adventure, like it happened to us.
After spending 2hrs to advance through 500m of dirt (we were already almost there) we decided to call a strategic retreat and look for alternatives.
Hue was the imperial capital of Vietnam from early 1800s until 1945. The emperor built, in many stages, a complete residence surrounded by fortified walls and water trenches.
Many buildings were lost in 1968 to US bombers (Tet offensive). Whatever was left remained in decay for decades until being recently restored. Side by side you can see new and old structures. Very unique perspectives.
