We had arranged a day trip to see the remains of the ancient Champ kingdom, and this started at eight so we had an early start. Our guide Lua was right on time but unfortunately arrived at the moment the tour director was negotiating a room change as our shower had flooded the previous night and had done so a brain this morning. The hotel was very accommodating and agreed that when we returned from our trip our room would be changed.
Lua and her driver took us in a car the fifty or so kilometres to My Son, through fairly large villages surrounded by paddy fields in which large numbers of people laboured to plant the next rice harvest.
We arrived at My Son and walked for about ten minutes along a newly laid road to coach an electric bus up to the ruins. These ruins are older than Angor Wat, but they are built in the same style with much of the same iconography. Dancing girls, fearsome faces, Indian legends intermixed with Buddist symbols. There are several groups of buildings but in total it is much smaller than Angor, one group was destroyed by American bombing and the Vietnamese and German governments are working to restore it. We saw a group of musicians and dancers trying to recreate Cham customs and then it was back to the electric bus to return to the car.
The car took us to the river near Hoi An where caught a boat which cruised serenely along the river for a couple of hours before dropping us at a carpentry village, where Lua took us around a woodworking factory, which neither of us was really interested in as the main purpose was to sell us trinkets.
Back to boat we returned to Hoi An where were taken to a restaurant for lunch which was OK , but not great. As soon as we had finished lunch we were walked back to our hotel. All in all a n interesting day.
In the afternoon Rosemarie had a swim and I had a nap, who could ask for more?