Morning tour to the land of Champa

Today we had booked a jeep tour to My Son, the land of Champa. We started at 8.30 am. The journey took us through various villages where we could observe the agricultural life a little bit – rice and vegetable cultivation, fishing, duck and poultry market, etc. For our standards, this is a very simple and certainly very tough life. The people here have little (materially at least) but socially certainly a lot – it is a huge community. And at lunchtime, everyone comes together to eat, no matter what 😀

Arriving at My Son, the largest sanctuary of Champa, we find ourselves in a beautifully laid out temple ruin complex surrounded by mountains.

The Champa Kingdom was the easternmost of the states culturally influenced by India.

It emerged in the 2nd/3rd century and existed until the 10th/11th century in Central Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. The Cham are a distinct ethnic group with their own culture and language. As Hindus, they worshipped Shiva, and later there were Buddhist and Muslim influences as well.

It is believed that the Cham are descendants of Malay-Polynesian sailors from Borneo; their language belongs to the Austronesian family. During the 1st and 2nd centuries BC, these sailors settled on the central coast of Vietnam.

My Son was largely destroyed by American bombs. Today, the Vietnamese government is supported by Polish experts and UNESCO in the restoration, as My Son was recognized as a World Heritage Site in 1995.

Okay - so much for the historical background 😲

We have two hours to explore the temple complex and we are amazed that people from so many centuries ago built such huge buildings with fired bricks. Even today, it is not entirely clear how the Cham managed to keep the bricks together. They apparently used a special paste made from a local oil.

The buildings are very beautiful. The Hindu decorations can still be partially recognized. We prefer not to think too long about the remaining sacrificial altars.

Our two hours that we agreed with our driver are quickly over, and we make our way back to the parking lot.

On the way back, we experience some reckless overtaking maneuvers from other road users - so there are traffic rowdies here too 😲

Back at the hotel, we decide to spend the afternoon here and relax a bit, or write postcards and blog entries.

In the evening, we have tickets for the water puppet theater, and afterwards, we want to enjoy the cozy evening atmosphere in the old town again 😊

The water puppet theater was really cute - the Vietnamese have a lot of fun with funny stories and let the puppets dance in the water.

Afterwards, we were drawn to the old town - there was pure romance everywhere, with colorful lanterns, sky lanterns, guitar music, and a night market. Everyone is super relaxed and enjoys the mild evening breeze by the river.

We enjoy it too and eventually cycle back to the hotel in a super relaxed manner - we almost know the way in our sleep now (okay, Stefan knows it, my inner navigation still needs a few updates 😀

Kerstin