Hoi-An and the My Son Temples

We arrived into Hoi-An at about 5:30 and were greeted by a throng of people wanting us to use their hotel. We had arranged with out Hué hotel (family connections) to stay at a specific hotel in Hoi An and there were two tiny Vietnamese girls dressed in pink waiting to collect us. When they saw our luggage they looked a bit worried and we realised that they intended to drive us to the hotel by moto. It was certainly a precarious ride with my big backpack on my back, holding onto my hand luggage with one hand and the moto with my other hand. Her hair kept blowing in my face and there wasn't anything I could do about it!!

The hotel was just what we needed: two beds, aircon and a bathroom. We showered, unpacked a bit then headed out for dinner and the England game. It took us about 15 minutes to walk to the centre past a million tailors, shoe stores and other various shops. We found a bar called 'Treats' that had a projector TV and were just settling down with the menu when someone said to us "England Sucks" (note: we were both wearing our England shirts). We looked up to see Fernando and Shana sat there!

It was good to see them and catch up. They had had a worse experience with the trains than we had: they caught the 7pm train but it took 18 hours instead of the advertised 12. I think I'm glad ours left at 11. Do the bus next time! Fernando wasn't happy and we learned the Brazilian word for 'Son of a Bitch'! They had only done the beach so far at Hoi An and a whole heap of shopping.

We were up early the next morning to visit the My (pronounced Me) Son temples just outside Hoi An. The minibus collected us and dropped off at the entrance. The group was particularly chatty which was a bonus. We met a Vietnamese American guy called Kevin who was particularly chatty.

When we got to the site we had a complicated arrangement of buses to get in where our first minibus dropped us off outside the site, we crossed a small bridge, then another bus took us 100 metres to the area we were going to start our walk from. Our guide sat us down in front of a big map of the site and pointed out the main temples we were going to visit. They were given the very original classifications by letter.

We walked up into the temple area. The first group was B, C and D. Our guide gave us a short introductory talk. The temples were from the Cham Kingdom which was what Central Vietnam was originally before they were conquered by the Vietnamese a few hundred years ago. The temples were not in good shape and also suffered during the war when American troops used some as target practice. We were then left to our own devices to wander around. It was a shame that we hardly knew anything about them though.

Group A was most interesting as it was the ones used for target practice. We could poke our heads into all the temples. Like the Cambodians, the Cham didn't get round to inventing the archway which gave all the temples a slight run down look, as if they were about to fall over.

We were then ferried back to our minibuses and then returned to Hoi An via the river and a nice boat trip down some river that I have no idea what it was called. We were served lunch on the boat and then we stopped at a village where they made crafts. It was very interesting to see it being made, and the finished products were really good and also suprisingly cheap! We both made a few purchases and then headed back to the boats and headed back to Hoi An.

We had a bit of our own shopping in the evening and had some shoes made specially for scary prices i.e. $10 US for a pair! Wait to see how good they are though!

The following day was another early start for a trip out to Cham Island about 10km off the coast. It was a very weird start as we were the only people on the minibus and then sat on the dock for about half an hour waiting for something to happen. Eventually we boarded the boat with four Vietnamese tourists and we set off.

It took us about an hour to get cross over to the Island but it was an enjoyable journey nonetheless. We arrived at the little fishing village on the island - the only inhabitation there. It was fun wandering around as we only spotted one other white face while we were there. We got to see the villagers preparing and selling their catches - mainly shellfish and octopus, and we even saw a minor fight between two vendors: one a pregnant lady and a guy. The lady won hands down!! We also got to see an ice factory where they produced ice to keep the fish fresh.

Our guide gave us their local delicacy which was a pastry ball wrapped in some kind of fruit. It was pretty disgusting to be honest.

We hopped back on the boat and headed to a small bay for some snorkelling, which was good fun although there weren't too many fish. I nearly got left behind as everyone had finished and was just waiting for me. We then continued round to a beach where we had (unfortunately for Dave) a seafood lunch which was fantastic. Nice and fresh. The rest of the afternoon was spent sunbathing, swimming and snorkelling. The snorkelling was much better here and I saw a conga eel hiding under a rock.

We headed back about half three and got back to our hotel about five. We spent the evening getting some clothes fitted. Kind of weird as they gave us a next catalogue and we just picked out styles. The girls in our guesthouse all seemed to be going crazy over the clothes and coming back with bags and bags every evening! Met a couple in the evening who had beentravelingg for 11 months so far!!

Got up early (seeing a trend here?) to do a bit of a walking tour round Hoi An. It is a fascinating place with lots of Vietnamese architecture. Definitely my favourite place in Vietnam so far.

I wandered down into the centre to the Japanese covered bridge which is very similar to the one in Hue. I crossed over and wandered along the street for about half a mile before heading back for breakfast at a little cafe overlooking the bridge. The architecture of Hoi An is very traditionally Vietnamese including the fact that they all have two eyes above the door which are the eyes of the house. Hoi An is also made more picturesque by the trees with pink and purple flowers.

I headed down to the docks and then wandered along the harbour front which was bustling with boats and stalls. Weirdly, I wasn't getting too much hassle either which was a pleasant change. At the end of the harbour the road turned inland and I came to a Vietnamese market. It was good to be out of the hot sun and the market itself was fascinating. I was completely ignored in here as this was a market for Vietnamese.

I continued to wander round the streets and slowly headed back to the guesthouse to collect Dave and we went for our fittings and to collect a pair of Dave's shoes that needed to be corrected. We finished off the day by playing pool before being collected by bus to head to Nha Trang.