Monday, December 25, 2006
12 December, 2006
Another really early morning as we headed to My Son β the ancient kingdom of the Champa. This was the site of the most important Cham intellectual and religious centre. The Cham people (who came from Indonesia originally) would come here to pray and perhaps have burials for Cham monarchs. It is set in a valley and is surrounded by mountains, really tranquil and beautiful. The Cham towers are amazing and until today researchers have yet to figure out how the Chams first built these structures and how they managed to get the baked bricks to stick together. During the American War, this region was completely devastated and many structures were bombed. There are 10 structures that are in tact and they are trying to restore as much as possible but the βnew; brickwork does not look the same! We walked around and then we got dropped off at a boat and did a river cruise along the Mekong stopping at a tiny wood carvings village. We had a lovely swim when we got back to the hotel and then we tried to drink the undrinkable- second class mulberry wine - no good. We had dinner with Frank and Louise β an awesome meal of fish in banana leaf β the best snapper ever! We also had a bucket or two of some vodka concoction and we had to finally say good-bye to our friends since we were off to Hue tomorrow.
Another really early morning as we headed to My Son β the ancient kingdom of the Champa. This was the site of the most important Cham intellectual and religious centre. The Cham people (who came from Indonesia originally) would come here to pray and perhaps have burials for Cham monarchs. It is set in a valley and is surrounded by mountains, really tranquil and beautiful. The Cham towers are amazing and until today researchers have yet to figure out how the Chams first built these structures and how they managed to get the baked bricks to stick together. During the American War, this region was completely devastated and many structures were bombed. There are 10 structures that are in tact and they are trying to restore as much as possible but the βnew; brickwork does not look the same! We walked around and then we got dropped off at a boat and did a river cruise along the Mekong stopping at a tiny wood carvings village. We had a lovely swim when we got back to the hotel and then we tried to drink the undrinkable- second class mulberry wine - no good. We had dinner with Frank and Louise β an awesome meal of fish in banana leaf β the best snapper ever! We also had a bucket or two of some vodka concoction and we had to finally say good-bye to our friends since we were off to Hue tomorrow.
# posted by Heidi & Richard's travels @ 8:27 AM 
