Hoi An and My Son

The Thu Bon river in Hoi An

Let's clear something up right away. This post isn't about some secret boy child of mine that I've squirrelled away with my new Vietnamese wife Hoi An. My Son is, in fact, a temple complex near the city of Hoi An in central Vietnam. Hoi An is a very picturesque town that doesn't seem to have been built up as much as every other town we'd been to so far on our journey. The vast majority of buildings were under 5-6 floors and in the older part of town, near the river, most were 3 or under. The river itself has a lazy sort of feel to it; slow and fairly wide it sort of ambles it's way through town; even the boats on it seemed quieter and slower. This feeling was perhaps exaggerated by the intense heat that was bombarding the town. By this point in the trip we had gotten used to temperatures in the low and mid thirties but this was another beast entirely. We could only manage about 15 minutes gentle exploration before we had to pile into the nearest cafe and seek shade; we know when we're beaten, leave the sun to the geckos. The phrase "mad dogs and Englishmen" was deployed.

The thing that Hoi An is famous for is it's tailoring industry. There are dozens of tailors in the town each one bursting at the seams with stacks of cloth piled floor to ceiling for you to choose from. For those that are not used to having clothes custom made which, let's be honest, is all of us, they provide a range of catalogues from all over the world for you to browse through. Just flick through and if you see something you like then they will measure you up and knock you up an exact replica. That simple. The next day you can go back to try it on and make sure the fit is good, if any alterations are required then they can all be done in a couple of hours. And there you have it, tailor made clothes at about a fifth of the price. It almost made me wish I had to wear something more smart than t-shirt and jeans at work. Almost.

As my wife was being measured up for her new clobber (she has to wear smart clothes every day) it gave us the opportunity to speak to the people that worked there. It was staffed by a group of women one of which had a young lad that was playing near by and whilst I was off scouring the town for cash Sue had a heart-to-heart with the mother. Now, ideology aside, there tends to be certain things that Communist and extreme socialist states do well. They may not be so keen on the old democracy, multiple political parties, freedom of speech, that sort of thing, but they tend to be pretty up on getting kids to read and write, health care and the more social aspects of life. Cuba is an excellent example; even though the barbaric and short sighted trade embargo of the US has kept it a third world country the children of Cuba can read and write better than their American counterparts; better than ours too. And if there was ever a country where I wanted to break a leg or fall horribly ill on holiday, then Cuba is the place to do it - their healthcare is second to none and free to all. It would appear that that is not the case in Vietnam.

The woman explained how people tend to get married fairly young and have a child as soon as possible after that; so far so normal. But then she revealed that healthcare is not free in Vietnam; indeed, to it's indigenous population, it's very expensive. The cost of having a baby is approximately six million Dong; now, this may only equate to £190, but that is more than 8 months wages to the average Vietnamese. The Government will foot this bill for them but they have to repay it all and it's so expensive for them that most Vietnamese have to wait many years before having their second child as they clear the debt and perhaps save towards the cost of their next. But the expense of parenthood doesn't end there; education, even at elementary level, is also not free. This was a bit of a bombshell for me. The cost at this level is subsidised by 50% by the Government but this still leaves a basic level of education out of reach of many Vietnamese. It is the children of these families, we were told, that roam the streets trying to sell you their wares.

She also told us that her husband worked for the Government; well, I thought, some hope here perhaps. An Insider, maybe they can work the system and get some benefits? Alas, no. The Government seems to have their employees between a rock and a hard place. You see, you can't really turn down a Government job, it's not the done thing and this difficult position means that the Government can get away with paying them very little and no one really complains. It doesn't come as a huge surprise that the lot of the Vietnamese, then, is not necessarily a joyous one; this was corroborated by other local people we spoke to in other towns, but I'll come to their stories in future posts.

Whilst much of this was going on I, as ever, was messing about with my camera and decided to try to lure the woman's son into a photo or two. After a while she noticed this and asked to see the photos, she looked very pleased by this, even a little overwhelmed, perhaps. "My son," she said. I suspected that she didn't have too many photos of the young scamp knocking around the place so I said that, if she had an e-mail address, I'd be more than willing to send her them once I got home. Happily, she did, and she seemed pleased to receive them.

From her son to My Son.

This temple complex is the largest and most complete in Vietnam but is not actually all that large and can be given a pretty thorough inspection in an hour or so. There are approximately 30 structures still intact of which about two thirds are still in good condition. There used to be more than double this amount but time, nature and war has taken it's toll. My son was established by the Cham people in the 4th century and was still in use and occupied right up until the 13th century, a remarkable achievement. Unusually, the culture here is not contemporaneous to the nearby Khmer civilisation but the more distant Hindu peoples of Java; although the architecture is similar to that found in Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

Building 7 from Group C, try to ignore Sue and Eleanor taking shelter in the shade

This masterpiece of the Champa Kingdom was eventually abandoned as the Cham people moved south to avoid an increasing Chinese presence from the north. Over the centuries it was completely swallowed by the jungle, this made it useful as a base of operation for the Viet Cong during what they call the American Aggressive War. For several years this was deemed a Free Fire Zone, which basically means that if a leaf fluttered suspiciously then the American response was to bomb the place back to the Stone Age. This policy was only changed when a French archaeologist wrote to President Nixon explaining the damage they were doing to this important monument.

Buildings 1, 3 & 4 from B Group

Dedicated to Shiva, it was a complete mystery for many years how it was these shrines were all held together, there being no sign of any mortar holding the bricks together. It is now thought that they built up the bricks and used some sort of resin derived from local plant life between the bricks. They would then essentially bury the entire structure in wood and soil and set light to the whole shebang effectively creating a huge kiln and firing the entire building at once. They would then dig out the finished shrine, decorate it and add in the statues.

Now a UNESCO World Heritage site, the complex is starting to get the protection it needs. My Son is one of the most popular tourist destinations in this region of Vietnam and is often swamped by coach loads of people. We wanted to avoid this and so made our own way there as the sun was rising; even so the temperature was dauntingly high already. Our early start meant that we had the ruins to ourselves, the only people we saw there were a team of archaeologists working on the Group G structures and a team of gardeners that have to fight a constant battle to hold back the jungle from taking the ruins hostage once more.

Buildings 3 & 4 from Group B

If you ever plan to go to My Son then don't expect Angkor Wat, they're not comparable; but if you make the effort to have some time there away from the crowds then you can look forward to getting a taste of a long gone but once rich, widespread and little known civilisation.

The Sky at Night

Briefly Vietnam's tallest building, the 79 floors of the Bitexco Financial Tower stand at 269 metres high and dominate the skyline of Ho Chi Minh City. On the 55th floor, just below the helipad, there is a viewing deck with 360 views of the city. Based on the national flower of Vietnam, the lotus flower, the ideal time to go up is just as the sun is setting, that's what we did. The following photos are all 2 or 3 separate ones that have been blended together. They're far from perfect, however, there are rogue window frames and reflections all over the shop. I quite like them, though.

Vietnam

Vietnam, then. It's quite a country. The first country I've gone too in Asia and, based on my experiences there, hopefully not the last. We started by arriving in the capital, Hanoi, in the north of the country; a frenetic, hustle and bustle type of place where crossing the road is a genuinely exciting endeavour. The older part of the city is full of narrow, twisting streets where if a bar runs out of room to seat it's guests it simply starts putting them out in the road, even if that means restricting flow to one lane - not that vehicles stick to any given lane.

One of Hanoi's more open and less busy streets

From Hanoi we moved on to Ha Long Bay, a place I had wanted to visit for many years. Sadly it was cloudy nearly the whole time we were there but I still enjoyed seeing this most unusual of seascapes. Vast outcrops of limestone soar out of the sea in a seemingly random manner; carpeted in trees and without any apparent flat areas they take on an ethereal aspect, especially in the early morning haze.

From Ha Long bay we moved on to Hue (pronounced Hway, possibly. See below) which is famed for it's Imperial City. Formerly a capital of it's country, I'm afraid to say that by the time we got this far I had all but given up on trying to learn Vietnamese. I normally pride myself on learning, at the very least, how to say hello, goodbye, please and thank you in any given language but, like many oriental languages, Vietnamese is tonal. This means that even if you figure out how the word should be pronounced, which is hard enough, the tone in which you say it can completely change it's meaning. For example, the word ba, I had looked it up as it is the word for Mrs/Madam. Can't be too complicated, can it? Two letters, and both of them pronounced how you might expect. However, each vowel in Vietnamese can be said with up to 6 different tones; mid-level, low falling, high rising, and so on. Each of these tones confers a different meaning to the word. Ba, then, depending on what tone you say it in can indeed mean Mrs, or it can mean three, grandmother, aunt, any, waste or poisoned food. Interact at your peril. Most people looked at me with a puzzled look, some with amusement and some mercifully came to my rescue with vastly superior English. I found Arabic easier than this; Vietnamese totally defeated me.

Statue and pagoda in Hue's Imperial City

Hue gave way to Hoi An, probably the most traditionally picturesque town we stayed in. Hoi An is renowned for it's tailoring industry; every third or fourth shop is a tailors and their rates are invariably very good. Walk into their shop and they will offer you a range of everyday western catalogues like the Next Directory, all you have to do is pick out what you want and they will make it to measure; in less than 24 hours. My wife got shirts, skirts and a jacket for about seventy pounds. Bargain. Furthermore, they'll hold onto your details for you so, so long as you don't change shape too much, you can e-mail in an order at a later date and have them ship it over to you; all of which is far cheaper than the high street.

They were quite keen on lanterns in Hoi An

Based out of Hoi An we went on a trip to the My Son temple complex. Closely related to the larger and more well known complex of Ankor Wat in Cambodia, the My Son site was constantly occupied for 1,000 years. It was also home to a Viet Cong base during the war and therefore had holy hell pounded out of it by American B-52s; it is also recommended that you do not stray from the footpaths as the area is not yet fully cleared of land mines. Despite this, there is still lots left to inspire the imagination, as I suspect the designers of the Uncharted series may know.

An overnight train and a long bus ride brought us to our first stop in the south of the country, Da Lat. At 2,000m above sea level it had a very different feel to the rest of the country and the temperatures were mercifully lower.

The view en route to the Elephant waterfalls

Another hop skip and a jump brought us to Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon but renamed in honour of their revolutionary leader. Ho Chi Minh City is actually larger than the capital, Hanoi, and, as it was mostly held by the Americans during the war, is generally more intact.

The moped - the workhorse of Vietnam

From there it is easy enough to go on an extended trip into the Mekong river delta. Here, the Mekong river sprawls out into a huge fan shape criss-crossing hundreds of miles with meandering water ways. Known as the rice bowl of Vietnam, it is the harnessing of this region that changed the country from a net importer of rice to the world's 4th largest exporter in just ten years.

Sue took this photo of the delta. It goes on like this for quite a long time.

This is just a taster of what I saw over the trip and I intend to write more detailed posts about each of these places and to tell the stories of some of the people I met over the coming months. I would just like to say thank you to all the people that helped make it run so smoothly and, of course, my travelling companions Sue and Eleanor for making it such a great trip.

Overnight Train

We recently took an overnight train from Danang to Nha Trang and I took some photos out of the window with my camera phone. I've no real idea how they, or this post, will look as I am doing it all on my phone using some random free WiFi. Hopefully they will give you a taster of the central Vietnamese low lands though. Back in 5 days!

Countdown to Vietnam

Unless technology has defeated me I am currently somewhere over the Middle East on my way to Vietnam with my wife and a good friend of ours. We'll be spending just over two weeks travelling from Hanoi in the north to Ho Chi Minh City in the south. We decided to save Cambodia for another trip as we wanted to do Vietnam some justice and not rush around too much. As it is I think we're taking in about 6 or 7 different areas, there'll be lots of trains and buses and hopefully good opportunities to see a good chunk of the country.

My trusty camera will never be far from my side and with any luck it will survive the end of the rainy season without too much trouble. Hopefully my two beautiful companions will be open to some portrait work, something I am determined to practice whilst out there. I should have some proper posts up in a few weeks time.