Around Hoi An

Today we hired some bicycles and cycled in the areas around Hoi An. There are lots of lovely green fields, small villages and miles of beach to explore.

Sunset on a bridge near Hoi An

Not much else to say on it really. It was a great day in which we saw lots of nice stuff. It was good to watch people outside of the tourist area going about their daily lives. I've attached some more photos below. Tomorrow we're of to Hue which is about 120k north of hear. It's the last big city in Vietnam I've not visited and it used to be home to the emperors of Vietnam.

Green fields around Hoi An

Vegetable garden near Hoi An

People working around Hoi An

One of the rivers along a path near Hoi An

My Son - Cham temples

Today we went on a day trip to the Cham temples. This was about an hour from Hoi An and we went as part of a tour. I've been looking forward to this for a long time as I quite like looking around old temples.

My Son - Cham temples

The temples were great! There were a number of different sites which had Cham towers on them. All ranging from about a thousand to several hundred years old. The Cham people used to be a civilisation in the middle of Vietnam that came from Indonesia. There is a big Hindu influence in the carving on the buildings. They were around at the same time as the Khmers in Cambodia. The temples were lost to the jungle before being found by the French in the early 1900s who immediately cut off all the heads on the statues and sent them back to Paris to be put on display at La Louvre museum.

Some of the amazing carvings

The brickwork is pretty cool too. People are still not sure how they made the bricks or how they got them to stick together. (no cement). A lot of them have really stood the test of time and fairing a lot better than some of those that have been restored.

More Cham temples

Sadly, In the war with America the US deliberately bombed a number of these building so some of the biggest (20 meters tall) and oldest (around 1,000 years old) are now piles of rubble. There were also a lot of large bomb craters from the B-52 bombers. The reason they bombed this site was because VC troops were hiding here.

Hoi An Town

We arrived at Hoi An town and have been spending the day looking around the place. it's a small riverside town that used to be the major Vietnamese port hundreds of years ago. Many different countries used to come here to trade before trading moved to Danang up the road. All the building here are a hundred or so years old and the town looks like it did at that time.

The streets of Hoi An

The streets are small and the buildings are lovely. Sadly 90% of the shops are tailors and pretty much everything here revolves around tourism.

Hoi An streets

However it is a lovely place and well worth a visit. Our hotel is great with a lovely swimming pool on the roof. Everything is walking distance and there are some nice places to explore on bicycle which we will do tomorrow.

The Japanese bridge

We're off on a day trip to My Son tomorrow which is a collection of old Cham temples dating back about a thousand years.

Danang and Hai Van pass

We arrived in Danang in the early hours of Friday morning after our one hour flight was delayed by three hours. Our hotel was nice and near the beach. We hired a motorbike to see the city as it's quite big. Its the third biggest city in Vietnam after Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Danang Beach

 
We biked around the city which was nice and quite. It has a big river running through it and a big beach on the other side of one of the Islands. There are lots of mountains surrounding the city which make it look quite pretty.

View from up the mountain

 

In the afternoon we drove the motorbike up one of the mountains to the 'Hai Van pass' This is a road that connects Danang to Hue through the mountains and has great views and scenery. They went along this road on top gear a few years ago. It was pretty amazing. We biked it for about an hour and stopped at the top of one of the hills which had an old war building on it.

Me on the Hai Van pass

Danang is nice place but a little quite. ILA has a school here so I could live here if I wanted. As its warm, in the evening there are lots of people playing sports on the beach and swimming in the sea which is very appealing. Tomorrow were off to Hoi An which is a nice little town about 35kmv south or here.

Holiday to the middle of Vietnam

Its Holiday time again. I have about 10 days off now and am flying to explore the middle of Vietnam. The three places I'm going to are Danang, Hoi An and Hue. I'm quite excited as there's lots to see and do. I'll also be doing a day trip to a place called My Son which has lots of temple ruins.

I fly on Thursday 1st August from Ho Chi Minh City to Danang. I'll be spending two days in Danang where I plan to hire a motorbike and explore. Then its off to Hoi An for a few days with a trip to My Son and finally a train to Hue for a day. I've got an extra couple of flexi days so the Itinerary could change.

The Cabling in Vietnam

Only one week till my holiday so still working hard with not much to report. This weeks picture is of the cabling which you see on every street in the city. As you can see it's a mess and not very organised. I've always thought they must have no idea what any of it is. I Think its a combination of all types of cables.

The Vietnamese cables.

This picture reminded me of one morning at my house when the power went out. Now, this is nothing unusual in Vietnam as there are frequent power cuts but the power usually comes back on quickly, however on this day it didn't. Eventually, with no air-con my room got uncomfortably hot so I left the house. At the end of the road were a load of repair men who had taken the who pole containing the cables down and had them laying on the road. They were all stood around scratching their heads trying to work out what cable is what. I'm not sure what time the power went back on as I didn't both to go back home till late that night.

Statues on roundabouts

Not much to report so just another quick update. This weeks picture is of one of the many roundabouts which have a statue on it. It's quite a nice picture as it has the bitexico tower in the background. Not many of the locals know who these peopl are who have been made into stautes. Fortuantly this one had a name on it and it's of a chap called Tran Hung Dao.

Tran Hung Dao

I googled him and it turns out he was a milary leader in the 1300s. He is famous for his triple victories over the mighty Mongol Yuan Dynasty under Kublai Khan which are considered among some of the 'greatest military feats in world history'.

In two weeks time I will be going on holiday. It's 90% likely I'll be going to Hoi An, Danang and Hui for 10 days. I'm looking forward to it as I'm working hard at the moment and frankly a bit knackered.