Day 19: Ruins and Hoi An old quarter.

Friday, 11/8/2024

Woke at 6:00am and showered.  Very tired today.  Dressed and got cameras ready for my excursion to My Son.

I went over for breakfast after dropping laundry off at the front desk.  I was the first person at the buffet right as it opened.

Sat outside on the covered patio and enjoyed my meal.  As I was finishing, Jerry and Atti arrived for breakfast.  Then a bit later Mark arrived followed shortly by Pierre and Tammy.

Breakfast patio.

Talked a bit with the group until it was time for me to go up to reception for my ride pickup time.  Said my goodbyes to all but Mark as they will all leave in the next few hours while I am out.

Came back to room to grab the cameras and my hat, then went to the lobby around 7:40am.

My ride is scheduled to be here between 7:45 and 8:00am.  At 7:45am I went and stood in the open doorway to see the parking lot where they would pull up.

Spent the time talking with one of the hotel staff that worked in the reception area.

At 7:50am he called to get a status and again at 8:10am as they had not yet showed up.  They were running behind he said. 

My ride finally showed up at 8:15am.  I was the last person to be picked up by the van which now had 13 people plus the guide and driver on board.

We drove out of Hoi An while the guide talked about the history of the Cham people who built the My Son site we were going to visit today.

After about 40 minutes of driving, we stopped at a local place that makes the edible rice paper used in the local cuisine.  They showed us the process, let us sample a few things made with the paper and allowed those who wanted the chance to create a sheet using the same tools.

Making edible rice paper.

I did not attempt that, but took a few photos and walked over to see the pigs in the pen nearby and even pet one, they seemed quite friendly.

Friendly pigs.

We then boarded the van again and continued on to the My Son ruin which is another UNESCO site.

Arriving at My Son site.

We exited the van and waited while the guide went over to pick up our tickets, except for two women who for some reason had booked the transport, but would be buying the tickets themselves.

Once we were all ready, we went through the gate and got into electric carts that would drive us the 2km (1.2 miles) up the hill to the actual site.

The entire complex was originally for use by the Cham royal family and few others were allowed here, and the remote valley location meant many did not even know it existed.

My Son site map.  Visited Group E, G and B-C-D. (and took photos of Group H from trail)

Once at the site, we hiked up a paved pathway to visit some of the building sites that have been excavated as well as cleared of mines, which were used heavily in this region during the past wars.

My Son walkway. (Very slippery morning rains)

The first site was not much to see, the remains of what was probably a main gate entering the area.

The next site was Group E, and had much larger buildings and was in better shape, but most were only partially there.  Some efforts at restoration had been going on though.  I did bump into Mark at this area, he was going in reverse order through the site, but did not have a guide, just going solo.

Group E buildings.

Statue of Nandi from Hindu mythology.

The next site was Group G, and it was smaller again, but had one nicely preserved/restored building you could explore.  We also walked by a nice pond with some water based flowers in it on the way there.

Flower in the water.

Group G building.

The final section was Group B-C-D, and was the main location and largest grouping, with several really well preserved/restored buildings and most of larger constructions.

Buildings in the BCD grouping.

The BCD group of buildings.

During all this, the guide would describe what the sections were most likely for, though some of this is speculation as the writing system used by the Cham during much of the sites use has not been fully translated.

I took several photos and walked among the buildings with the 360-camera, so hopefully that footage will turn out okay.

The site was quite crowded around the final set of buildings, so hard to get pictures or video without dozens of people, but did my best.

When we were finished with the main building group, we were to meet at the theater at a certain time for a local dance performance.

The dancers are descendants of the Cham people, who were driven out of this region in the 14th century, and now mostly live in the south of Vietnam, Laos, and a few other countries (the US being one).  But a few are invited back to perform at the site each year.

The dances were intriguing and I enjoyed the music, but we only stayed for 3 of the performances, not sure how many they would do, but guide indicated it was almost over.

One of the dances by the Cham dancers.

We walked a long distance back toward the main gate where I took a short detour up a small flight of steps to photograph the building ruins of Group H.  The walk was surrounded by thick jungle foliage and there were many butterflies going about.

Butterfly visiting a flower.

We arrived at the gate and then took the electric carts back to the main entry where we found and boarded the van.

We then drove into one of the nearby villages to stop at a local restaurant for lunch.  It was a smaller affair than we had eaten on the ride, but mostly similar foods.  

Once done with lunch we headed back to Hoi An.  However, we stopped about 3 km (about 2 miles) out of town and boarded a boat on the river to ride it to the main dock in the Hoi An old quarter.

Basically the same kind of boat and much of the same route I had seen the day before, actually went right past my hotel. I should have just had them drop me off.

Once back on land, the van picked us up and started to return us to our hotels.

A few people were asking to be let off in other spots around the old quarter, and I myself got off with another group as I was only a few blocks from the hotel and needed to stop for some drinks anyway.  I also figured would be faster walking than waiting to drive in these narrow and congested streets.

I arrived back at the hotel and found Joe sitting poolside reading, so spent a few minutes talking with him.  He had basically been in the pool or sitting there most the day, taking a day off from doing anything.

I then tried to get into my room, but door would not open.  After a few tries the key pad for the card just started to beep.

I went down to reception to make sure the card had not gone bad, or they had messed up and forgot to extend my key for the 2nd night.  The card was good and they had the night setup, so they dug out the physical lock key and we went over to the room.  The guy tried a few times using my card and the master card as well, but lock just kept beeping.

He suspected the battery in the lock had failed (as did I), so they left the physical key with me for now until they could get it fixed.

I sat in the room for about 20 minutes with it beeping every 10 seconds or so until he showed back up with new batteries and got them replaced.  We then tested the lock with the card and it worked.

Back in the room I sat and cooled off for a bit, then went over to reception to return the physical key and to see if they knew where I could find a place selling blank journals.  I had filled the one I bought in Hanoi and needed another.

They gave me the name of a shop and marked it on a simple, low detail map of the old quarter.  Was about a 1.5km (1 mile) walk.

I started over to this location which was farther than I had walked before, and took some time to look at a few temples I walked past, one which was quite large with a large pool in front.

Temple in the midst of the Hoi An old quarter.

I eventually reached the shop location, but nothing was there, at least not the type of store I was looking for, nor did I see the name of the store.  I walked around the area a few times, just to make sure he might have marked it off a bit, or put it on the wrong side of the street or intersection, but found nothing.

While walking down an alley behind where it was supposed to be, thinking it might be in the shops down there, a woman came along side me and started asking questions, making small talk.  She said no book or stationary shops were there, and then tried to tell me where one was, but her directions were a bit confusing, and at this point she then tried to direct me to the tailor shop she likely worked for.

Kind of shocked she walked with me as long as she did, most of the business touts usually give up if you walk beyond the business they are working for.

After following her directions I ended up in same position, nothing to be found.  I finally decided to try and find it online, but the name did not come up.  But after doing some cross checks on stationary stores, I found an alternative spelling for the business name and found it on the map, 1 block over from where the guy had told me it was.

The girls’ directions might have been correct, she just did not specify the distance correctly to me.

I walked the extra block down the street to the next road and then up it.  I actually missed the shop first time I walked by it, but backtracked while watching the map and found it.  From the street it did not look like a stationary shop, and I was looking at goods, not signs the first time by.

Once inside the shop though, the back wall was full of paper and other writing materials.  I found a bunch of journals and picked out one that met my needs and bought it.

I then walked back toward the hotel, but took a different route to check out some of the other parts of the old quarter I had not yet walked through.  I stopped in a clothing store to see if I could find a pair of shorts to buy.

I had only brought the one pair of convertible jeans/shorts with me, and the 2nd pair I had bought in Hanoi at the beginning of the trip had broken within a day, and later in Laos when I tried to use them, they fell apart beyond even being wearable so  I tossed them in trash.

This meant my shorts had not been laundered in a few weeks, and were a bit dirty.  I only wore them a few hours each night, but had still eaten and walked a lot while in them, so needed to wash them, but had nothing to wear while they were in the laundry.  I had also never wanted to risk a sink wash as I doubt they would have dried in just the few hours I was sleeping.

I did find a pair, but the price was bit high, but did talk them down 20% and decided to buy them.

I then stopped again to buy another drink or two for the evening and then headed back to hotel.

I started to repack the two bags, getting all the riding gear put into one and the rest into the other, just as it had been on the flight over.  

I then laid down on the bed to stretch out and ended up taking a 30 or 40 minute nap.

I was woken by the doorbell when they were bringing my laundry back that I had dropped off that morning.

I went ahead and packed up that stuff as well.  Finally, everything was packed that I would not be using that evening or first thing in the morning.

I then sat at the desk and started to write in the new journal to get it caught up to the present time.  I was not even done with the first page when the pen ran out of ink.  Again!

I decided to put the rest of the stuff in the bags and make sure everything would zip up correctly so I would not have to fight it in the morning.  While zipping the big bag with the riding gear the pull tab pulled off the zipper.  I tried to put it back on and bend it back to hold it, but the zipper just snapped at that point!

So, I can still zip the bag as it has two, but it can no longer be locked with the bag lock, and this is the bag that gets checked on the plane and is out of my control.  Never fails.

I went out to see if I could find a shop to sell me a pen, but when I went outside I saw Joe sitting in front of his room nearby talking on the phone.  As I started to walk by, he hung up and we started to talk.  I mentioned my mission to find a pen, but he said he had one he did need and went inside to get it.

I dropped the pen off, but we had also decided to go wander the market street and old quarter to take photos.

He had already eaten at the small food market they hold in the main courtyard with the free samples, so was not going to join me for dinner, but I was good to wander a bit first as I had not yet decided where to eat.  Figured I would stop for dinner about 7:00pm since I was used to eating around then anyway.

We roamed over to the street market first and looked around, and he stopped to buy some rolled ice cream, just like I had seen Pierre and Tammy eating back in Laos.

We then crossed over the canal and wandered in the main section of the old quarter taking photos and checking out the various shops.

Boats on the canal again tonight.

Street of shops.

Street shops and the bank of the canal.

Eventually I took off on my own to find food and decided to eat at a little burger joint on the main waterfront.  Had a really good burger and fries, but the Coke they gave me was flat or something, tasted horrible.

Then I walked back to the hotel, relaxed a bit, and finished up the days journal entry now that I had a pen.

Tomorrow, I have to be up early to catch my 8:00am car to the Danang train station.  Then I will need to buy a ticket to Dong Hoi and hopefully will be able to get on the train around 10:00am which will get me in about 4:00pm.  This should give me time to find a hotel before it gets totally dark.  But there are 4 departures throughout the day if I cannot make the first one.

Should be an interesting experience as I heard that the train route has some decent views along the way, just not very fast. It is a 6-hour ride.

Goodnight!