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2 July: Hoi Ann

We headed out for breakfast to one of the adjacent restaurants, not the same one as the day before. On the way we were given a message by the hotel manager, J & B had found an artisan shop where the traditional art of weaving silk was performed and provided us with the details. We sat down at the restaurant and ordered two dishes of Mi Quan - there is not a lot of different dishes and we really liked these. After breakfast we walked 20m down the street to Sinh Cafe and waited for the bus to arrive. We boarded and continued around town, picking up 6 more passengers, before heading for My Son.

It was a hours drive through rice paddies and rural Vietnam, before we reached My Son. Built in the 9th century by the Cham people, who later built the Ankor wat temples. The temples were not as awe inspiring as those of Ankor Wat, but still amazing to admire. The temples were first discovered by a Frenchman in 1890, and are considered a UNESCO world heritage site. The astonishing thing about the temples that have archaeologists baffled are how they managed to keep the structure together. No form of cement or adhesive appears to have been used and the bricks sit one on top of another with not even a cm between them left exposed. It was recently speculated that tree gum glue or a type of sugar cane honey was used. Strange to think it could have lasted for over a thousand years with storms and other natural disasters only affecting them in part. Unfortunately of the 70 temples that once existed only 20 now exist, many were severely damaged by the bombing of American B52 planes. At one of the ruins, two bomb craters lie exposed on either side of it engulfed with fauna, both 10m in width and at least 3 or 4m deep.

After the visit we returned to our bus, where we waited another 20 minutes for the rest of the group to accumulate, before driving to our second destination. Just before one of the bridges we disembarked and headed down to the river, from here we would take a boat right into Hoi An. We were served a plate of rice and vegetables each with a banana and water. The last stop of the day was at a wood artisans shop or should I say many of them, for another 40 minutes we went from shop to shop, no one willing to commit to a purchase of the products. After this we were dropped off at the pier having completed the day trip.

We headed back through the market buying fruit as we went along, mango's, bananas and pineapples. Back home there was only time to drop them in the fridge, eat some and shower, before we had to be at HI for the second fitting. I was the first to fit my suit and shirts, no big problems and overall I was happy, wish I could say the same for Leanne. For one or other reason they had inaccurate measurements and had skew seams. It was a process and neither of us were sure whether they would be able to fix some of the clothes....

Frustrated we headed down to the river and met up with J & B for another beer. There we discussed our day and listened to theirs, before heading off to dinner. A set of restaurants on the street owned by a variety of different shops all serving their own specialties. We opted for the fried eggplant with toppings, rice, stir fried vegetables and deep fried spring rolls. When it came the table was filled with food, a feast for the eyes and taste. After dinner we headed off to the silk making factory for a quick stroll through it, we weren't able to get the whole process and many of the people who showed the different steps could not be there, so we decided to come back the next day. The day had come to a close and we headed back after greeting John and Barbra.