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Day Forty-Five
My Son, Old Markets & Travelling to Nha Trang
Early start as we had been advised that if we wanted to My Son (ancient city of Cham) then it was best to get there very early before all the tour people bombard the place. We had the hotel breakfast which consisted of omelette & bread & a cup of tea with the horrible condensed sweet milk that all the Asian people love to use.
After breakfast we asked the lady on the reception desk about getting a public bus to My Son like me & Andy had done yesterday to Danang & the Marble Mountains. She told us that there was no direct public bus & that it was hard for us to get there without having to take a taxi or having a private car with driver. We began to question her about My Son & she started to be so rude. She was becoming quite agressive & at that point I had to walk away & go & sit down out of the way or I was going to end up punching her.
I let Ana & Andy sort out about how we could get a taxi & see how much it was going to cost us. We understood that My Son was outside of Hoi An but we didn't think that it would be that diffcut to reach by ourselves. The reception lady said that a car with a private driver would cost $25 & that he would take us, let us look around & then bring him back when we wanted. As we would all be clubbing together we thought that it wasn't that costly so we got the reception lady to order us a car. We went to the stone benches outside the hotel to wait for the car turn up. We were only sitting there for about 10 minutes when the car showed up.
We got in to the nice plush car & we drove off towards the outskirts of town. It wasn't long before we all drifted off in the car. I was so tired with having a late night & then getting up extremely early. All I can remember of the journey was the muffled voices of Andy & the driver talking. Before I knew it we was there! We had arrived in what looked like a big nature park. Threre was lots of greenery & big massive trees. The area looked stunning! The driver took us towards the ticket office where we got our tickets & then got back in to the car. We then drove to a car park where the driver pointed for us to get out & walk to. We agreed that we would return to the car in about 2 hours time.
Off we trekked down this lane & in to what looked liked the woods. We walked for about 10 minutes till we reached the actual entrance. Once our ticket had been checked we where in. There was a big map of the relics so we could see where was what. There was 5 spots where we could go & view the different relics so we decided to start & number one & then follow the path around to see where it would take us.
In the first place there was lots of old crumbly buildings which are the relics for the Cham civilisation. It showed houses & temples of the Cham people. Actually outside of one of the crumbling relics was a statue of a penis because they believed that having this symbolised in such a way meant that it will bring good reproduction to the people. You could see that the monuments & buildings where very old & that it would be extremely hard to keep them from crumbling anymore.
We moved to the next set of ruins & you could see that along what once was a full structure was lovely details of gods carved in to the stone. There was one building that was so badly damaged that they had built a surrounding which had a roof so they could protect what remaining building there was. It was fascinating to think that people one live this way & it was hard to imagine people in this village & how they lived.
Next we walked down an extremely long pathway which had lots of high trees lined up either side of the walkway. Every so often amongst the trees there would be an opening which showed more relics. We walked right to the end of the pathway without realising that we had actually seen all the relics & the path delibrately takes you along that route & to the exit. We went around the car park looking for our driver only to find him watching other men gambling in the cafe seating area. We got back in to the car & headed back to Hoi An. We had told the driver that we didn't want to go back to the hotel but we would like to be dropped off at the old town & the markets so that we could have a look around before our bus came to pick us up to take us to Nha Trang.
On the journey back instead of falling sleep this time we conked out. I felt so shattered & I still wasn't feeling very well from Hue. We had arrived in the old town where we got dropped off & to see things in the dayligt it was totally different than in the night. Along the river bank there was lots of old Vietnamese women asking would we like to go on a boat trip along the river. We carried on walking further down & the view along the river was really nice. Me & Andy said that we would definately like to come back & spend more time in Hoi An on another trip. We walked along to the river & we found shops & a lovely bridge that we had not seen before. The bridge ran across a small section of the river & it was an enclosed bridge so as you walked through there was religous shrines in there which was totally different from what we had seen before.
Ana said that she wanted to head straight to the markets & that she didn't want to walk around that area so we said our goodbyes & agreed that if we don't see her in the markets later then we would just see her in the hotel. We crossed over the bridge to the other side so that we could go & explore. There was lots of little gifts shops that were hidden away from the main strip & there was also a few small temples dotted around. We walked around for a while enjoying the gorgeous hot sun & fabulous scenery.
We strolled up to the markets passing more & more tailor shops. Every 2 minutes we got asked whether we would like a pair of leather shoes made or a new suit. I can't even begin to tell you how many dress & clothes shops there were - I just wanted to buy everything. We got to the market area & there was lots of fruit, vegetables & fish sellers. We walked around watching the locals cook food & prepare fruit & vegetables. Most of the women sat on the floor on tiny little stools with pieces of round wood as chopping boards where they would chop up meat with big cleavers & de-scale the fish & throw them in to big bowls. There was no denying that the food wasn't fresh. I could have spent all day walking around the market as thats where you get to see real Vietnamese life.
The sun was getting hotter & the time was ticking on. We had finally caughty up with Ana in the market & we made the decision to head back to the hotel as our bus would be collecting us shortly for the overnight transfer to Nha Trang.
Back in the hotel we sat playing pool on the internet to pass the time away until the bus came. It was a little late but we were glad when it turned up. We collected our things & put our big bags on to the bus. We grabbed some beds & rested our bones as it was going to be a long journey. On the bus I sat & listened to music, wrote a big of my blog & then I fell straight to sleep only to woken up by the bus pulling in to a service station. I decided that it would be a good idea to get off the bus to go to the toilet & to strech my legs as God knows when we will next be stopping.
Back on the bus & no time for messing around, I went straight back to sleep - totally shattered! See you in the morning Nha Trang................
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