My Son Ruins near Hoi An and travel to Hue

Woke up early to head to My Son which is a bout an hours bus ride from Hoi An. Our tour bus picked us up from the hotel after we had a nice breakfast on the roof (An Phu hotel is one of the highest so we had a nice view). The roads are pretty good around Hoi An so it was a good bus ride out.

Once we neared My Son we got asked for the $3 entry fee to the heritage site by the tour guide. An American and Korean couple felt this to be unfair as the tour guide waited until we were nearly there to say we needed it and they felt it should be included in the tour fee. The obviously had not read a Lonely Planet or done any research about the country because all site like this have a separate entry fee.

The My Son ruins date back to the 7th century and were build by the Cham people (who still number in the hundreds of thousands but now mainly inhabit the Mekong Delta). Many of the temples are still standing despite the years and the bombing during the Vietnam War. It was an amazing place but humid and hot.

We caught the bus back to Hoi An and grabbed a quick lunch next to the hotel while we waited for our bus to Hue to arrive. In the end the lady who booked it for us turned up on a moped because apparently a taxi driver came to pick us up and take us to the bus stop but we showed the booking to every taxi that stopped and they all said no.... So in the end we got to the bus just in time to throw our bags in and jump on before it left.

The trip from Hoi An to Hue is only 120km but took u 5 hours due to the mountain range we had to cross (and go under in one instance in a 10km long tunnel). Half way up the mountain there had been a land slide which had toppled a small truck and caused the road to go from 4 lanes to 1, which made a long stop as the bus could only do about 5km a hour up the hill. Some of the scenery between Hoi An and Hue was breathtaking and a pity we did not have time to stay in some of these places.

We arrived in Hue about an hour early then anticipated and luckily a looked up from my book and saw a petrol station that said Hue (otherwise we may have missed it). We had a 2km walk from the bus station to our hotel which took 10 minutes.. then maybe another 20 minutes to find the hotel as it was hidden on a side alley. When we arrived at our $19 a night hotel we were greeted with a couch to rest on, fresh mango and lemonade. The lady working there provided a map and showed us where all the sights are in Hue. Later on she went to a restaurant and got us delivered dinner as we were both exhausted. Our dinner consisted for a late of spring rolls, some rice and beef in banana leaf dish, and a nice pork noodle soup... all for $4.

We retired early to bed in our very nice room but ended up watching Avatar on the TV with Vietnamese subtitles!

Mountains around My Son

 Shiva? carving on one of the temples

 A 'thing' in a temple.. think it does something with water... We listened...

Photo out the door of a temple. All their doorways face South... something religious...

 One of the still standing temples...

Bec and the temple of doom

 Doug and the temple of doom

 Another temple of doom....

 We are now inside a temple of doom... but seriously.. they were very beautiful

 .... i escaped the temple of doom

 Bec's temple of doom has seen better days...

 Carving on a big block on the ground....

 This is where they filmed Indiana Jones and the temple of doom....... ok well maybe not.... this is where they are repairing one of the temples that was damaged in the Vietnam War

 This is the script for the temple of doom... written in stone...

We lost our tour guide at this stage so not sure what it really is...

 Cute little bridges at the ruins... It was so hot we just wanted to jump in

View from the bus ride to Hue

Looked like a little fishing village about halfway between Hoi An and Hue... Bec was asleep...