Vietnam: Hoi-An and My Son

  Hoi An, Vietnam
Monday, February 26, 2007

I didn't spend a huge amount of time in Hoi An, two nights to be exact. Just enough time to get meself some pants made and take a trip out to the Cham Temples in My Son.

Hoi An

A lot of people would have heard of Hoi An especially anyone traveling through Vietnam. It is a mecca for tourist who want to have hand made clothes stitched up for them.

I went with a couple of guys who were staying out in China Beach with with the intention of

01 The old gang back together

spending a bit of time there. The town itself is quiet small but is absolutely covered in tailor shops. So as you walk down the street all you get is various people trying to get you into their shops to some clothes done up. A lot of people come here and get a blast of new suits and dresses made before sending em home. I met a German couple who had to buy a new suitcase just to fit what they had bought here. I went and got nothing that fancy just a few pants made up, the cost of which was something like 26 Eur.

The service itself is bloody quick with the majority ready to have a final fitting done the next day.

04 The Hoi An market

Besides the tailor shops and street stalls (where I stocked up on very cheap t-shirts) there was nothing much else in Hoi An to keep me there, which is why I went back to Hoa's Place for another few days. All in all I spent 2 days there then spent one more afternoon there because the rest of the gang had arrived on and wanted to see it. If your looking for tailor made clothes then it is definitely the spot to go to.

Cham Temples, My Son

On my second day in Hoi An we booked a trip out to see the Cham Temples in Hoi An. The Cham Temples are a UNESCO world heritage site. The site dates back to the 4th century AD and originally consisted of over 70 buildings although there are only the remains of 20 or

10 Cham Temples 3

so there today. Most of the most significant buildings were destroyed due to heavy bombings in this area during the Vietnamese war. It was sad to think of what would have been here. But its also amazing to think that the ones still standing could have survived seeing as though there are numerous bomb craters still dotted all over the site.

The pictures I got were of Site A which has the most still standing structures. Unfortunately after those pics my camera died but I still managed to get the best of the pics as the other sites are little more then mounds of rubble.

Brief History lesson of Cham Temples

The country itself has plenty of Cham temples all over. The next bit I lifted from some website.

18 Cham Temples

"My Son was a center for spirituality and worship during the reign of the Champa Kingdom. The My Son Sanctuary, which exemplifies the height of Cham architectural achievement, is a large complex of religious monuments originally comprised of more than 70 structures; the vestiges of 25 of these structures remain today. The builders of My Son were the nobility of the Champa Kingdom who derived their cultural and spiritual influences almost exclusively from India. The archaeological site represents the longest continuous occupation for religious purposes, not only of the Cham Kingdom, but also within Southeast Asia as a whole. The site was inhabited from the 4th until the 15th century AD, far longer than any of the other Indian-influenced sites in the region including the more famous sites of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, Borobudur in Indonesia, Pagan in Myanmar, or Ayutthaya in Thailand."

Couldn't have written it better myself. Well I think thats enough culture for the moment.....