Hoi An Things to Do

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My Son Sanctuary is an archaeological site of the Champa Kingdom in Hoi An. During the period between 4th and 13th century, the Cham had been settling here for farming, fishing, and seaborne trade. The Champa Kingdom had chosen this site for its kingdom due to its surrounding beauty of mountains in a small valley where were suitable to built Hindu temples as religious center. Many Champa architecture temples were built between 6th to 10th century. During 13th century, the power of Champa had slowly declined and was taken by Viet Nam. During 15th century, the son was no longer used as a place for worship and later was ruined by Vietnam during Wars.

We left Hoi An town at 8:30am, arrived My Son at 9:30am. It started with a short briefing of the site and the history. It continued to show us the site with more detail archaeological history from one site to another. It was a huge compound. Unfortunately, almost 80% of the temples and sculptural monuments had been ruined. Basically, you will not see any impressive temples, but an archaeological sites with ruins temples.

It was a great experience for me just to see this beautiful site with rich historical remnant. It was just US$7.80 for the day trip. wow..

We continued our tour to Kim Bong Village by boat.

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Do a tour to My Son. The scenery is good on the way there, passing by many fields of Rice, and lovely mountain views.

At My Son, the guide told my group about the site, then we had about 1.5hours to look around on our own, this was plenty of time.
On the way back, I came back by boat, ( you have a choice, either boat or bus) we stopped at a carpentry village. I didn't find it very interesting at all.

Back in the Boat again, we happened to pull up beside a Fisherman as he is throwing his net into the water. Guess what.... He had a fish, but it was dead and on a piece of string, a set up for the tourist's. Of course he came alongside the Boat with his hand held out wanting money for the demonstration!

This was the end of the tour, and we were dropped off at the markets, and you find your own way back to your hotel.
A good tour.

It cost me $10us,(2008).......
this included bus, boat, and basic lunch of rice, banana and water.

It did not include the entrance fee of 60,000dong.

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A tour to Cham Island is a nice days outing.

I was picked up by bus and taken to a port where I boarded the boat. I could sit downstairs or up on the top open deck, this is what I did, as I'd rather take photo's from there than from behind glass.
I was given a bottle of Water and 2 cup cakes for breakfast, [nice!] and these were FREE!
The trip to the island took about 1.5 hours. It was quite interesting as lots of fishing boats with their fishing nets were out on the water.

The town on the island is in a pretty little cove. Lots of basket boats are here and the people don't pressure you to buy like in Hoi an, a nice respite. It was enjoyable watching the locals get on with their life.
We went out on the boat for snorkelling, a bit cold and windy the day we went. Onto another nice secluded cove, just our group for lunch and rest and recreation on a sandy beach with palm trees, this was so lovely!

Then it was time to return to the Boat, and head back to the mainland, where a bus took me back to my Hotel.

A word of warning for the trip back.....
The wind had come up and the sea was very rough, so if you suffer from sea sickness, take some tablets with you.
Also, everybody was frozen, except for me, as I took a cardigan with me, and even that was not quite warm enough. There was nowhere to get away from the cold wind! Take something warm with you, even in warmer weather, as the return trip may be cold!

In 2008, I paid $19 for this tour after checking with many travel agencies. Check around, as prices DO VARY!
I see a tour in 2011 cost $32us......including lunch, but this is by speedboat which is the faster boat.

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Tran Tu Nhac, an intelligent mandarin who lived during the reign of King Gia Long (around 200 years ago), built this house. In late 1802, he and some others were sent to China as the King's envoys. Before departure, he wanted to leave something to his offspring and show his gratitude towards his ancestors. So he had this house built. Like other family chapels in Hoi An, the Tran house is situated in the middle of a 1,500 sq m garden with high surrounding walls and a gate. Ornamental plants. flowers, fruit trees and several century-old plants are grown in the front. The architecture of the house bears the Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese styles, and it has remained almost the same as two centuries ago. The house is made of precious wood and is composed of three compartments and two lean-tos. Its roof is covered with pan-tiles. The wood, columns and beams are decorated with refined carvings. The house is divided into two parts: the main one is used as the worshipping place, and the other one, as the living space for the clan's head and for receiving guests.

We went on a 3 day 2 night cruise through Handspan on the Dragon Pearl. It was a great 3 days. I would recommend going for a more expensive tour (Such as through handspan) because what you pay for is what you get. The boat we were on was great, although the service wasn't 5 star quality (one of our friends dropped a glass and had to pay for it. And eating seafood for lunch and dinner for 3 days wore a bit thin. We chose the kayaking option and spend one day exploring Halong Bay with the help our tour guide, Ngoc (who was great).

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I've never taken a cooking class, but the one at the Red Bridge Cooking school was highly recommended, and I figure, well, I love Vietnamese food, so what a fun thing to do!

The classes are held twice during the day, a morning and an evening. You meet at a restaurant, have a morning appropriate beverage, take a tour of the nearby market, take a boat trip on the river to the cooking school, learn about Vietnamese herbs from the cooking school's garden, watch the chef cook, try your hand at cooking yourself, eat, and then take the boat ride back to town. (Well, that's for most people. The chef decided to take me around, so I went back into town via motorbike...a bit more fun, really!)

Now, about the cooking: Despite being an unrepentant 'foodie,' I have learned that I should never think of changing my career and trying to enter culinary school, but it was fun all the same.

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Hoi An most famous landmark variously known as the Pagoda Bridge, the Faraway People's Bridge and popularly known as the Japanese Covered Bridge (Cau Nhat Ban). Its popular name reflects a long-standing belief that it was built by the Japanese although no documentary evidence exists to support this. It was built in the 16th century, perhaps even earlier. On its north side, there is a pagoda, Japanese in style, for the protection of sailors. Statues represent 2 dogs at the west end and 2 monkeys at the east; it is said that the bridge was begun in the year of the monkey and finished in the year of the dog. Scholars have pointed out that this would mean a 2 years period of construction, an inordinately long time for such a small bridge and maintain that the 2 animals represent points of the compass, WSW (monkey) and NW (dog). Father Benigne Vachet, a missionary who lived in Hoi An between 1673 and 1683, noted in his memoirs that the bridge was the haunt of beggars and fortune tellers hoping to benefit from the stream of people crossing over it.

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The bridge was built by the Japanese trading community in the early 17th Century to link them with the Chinese quarter on the other side of a small stream. (It has been rebuilt--it's not all original.)

There are guardians at both ends of the bridge—One side has a pair of dog gods; the other end has a pair of monkey gods. There's also a shrine in the center of the bridge.