HoiAn Day 4: My Són ruins

Today was and early wake up for a bus that ended up be half an hour late. After an hours drive (~45km) out to the complex we headed in by foot and were given a quick chat about the overall My Són complex. It's an ancient complex, with the earliest buildings being from the 4th century, built by the Cham people of central Vietnam when the country was still mildly feudal and had three seperate kingdoms. The Cham were the controllers of trade as they held the middle ground of the rivers, they were first exposed to Islam by traders then Hinduism from India. Buddhism stuck in the north and some of the south but the entire complex built by successive kings were all worshiping Hindu gods, mostly Shiva though.

There are 4-5 sections of buildings, labelled from A to K depending on the architect and time scale (king wise). Not many of the buildings are in good condition due to bombings from the war; from the way that the Cham built the towers I'm almost certain that all the towers would be standing and be structurally sound to this day if they had not been damaged. The Cham use double fired bricks, the bricks are fired first then the structures were built they then basically set the building on fire and fired the bricks again making them very dry (no mould/lichen) and making the structures incredibly stable using no mortar.

Some of the carvings were still in decent condition although many of the figures faces had been lost to erosion and damage. There are guards in every building group stopping people from walking/climbing on or near ruins, they just yell but they have a job to do. 

Our guide was good at passing on details about how the ceremonies would've taken place only for the audience of the king in the inner sanctuary. As well as the significance of some of the building types. 

It's a world heritage site so I'll include a link to its information page at the end.

I liked the site, what I didn't like were some of the people on the other tours. You don't walk in front of someone who is clearly taking a photo, stop and then take your own. Nor do you need to spend 10minutes trying to take a group shot or a selfie to the point where you can't actually see the site you're taking the picture at. Let alone people who just see the place a pile of rubble 'which probably would be like this anyway', which FYI I highly doubt that it would need any major restoration if a couple of bombs didn't go off in the middle of them. Does it come across that I don't like large tour groups even when I'm in one? It wasn't as bad as Cambodia granted but still annoying. 

After the hour return by bus we wandered and got some lunch at a place called Miss Ly's, bit pricy but the food was good. I still prefer street food, one I can see them making it and two it just tastes amazing and I've never felt I'll from it. You just go where the locals do, they know which places are good. Then just an afternoon of wandering and repacking of bags for our trip to Hue (hway, like Jose) tomorrow lunch time.

HoiAn Day 3: Final fittings & wanderings

A relaxed morning and breakfast found ourselves wandering around the old town looking at shops and some souvenirs. We went back to the book store and I got some art posters. We then wandered and looked at the Japanese covered bridge (requires an old town ticket) then wandered by the river, declining the quieter harassment of the local hawkers. We had lunch by the river made in front of us by an old Vietnamese woman, who seemed to appreciate the small gesture of politeness (if a person is older than you, you hand the money over with both hands) and saying thank you in Vietnamese. 

We continued our wanderings and found some pottery and some other small pieces before our final fittings. We had both had some minor alterations to a few of our pieces. Mine were all fine and she even agreed to have the collar on the vest pressed idea so it didn't gape. We agreed to come back at 5 to pick them all up. After that we headed to the shoe shop to take a look at the final products and we were both happy with the final results. You'll get one photo from me

I'm looking forward to breaking these in properly. All of the shoes are leather which for me means they will last at least 8yrs. After picking up all of our orders we decided to head out and try one of the local specialties call white rose (dumplings) it was nice but nothing amazing. We then wandered the markets while nicola looked for the little things to take home

HoiAn Day 2: Cooking School & fittings

An early start was required for this mornings cooking class. I got there early and managed to have a micro nap before we started with the market tour. The guide myself and some others had was very knowledgable and funny, he was willing to answer all of our questions and explained all the different ingredients and how to pick the freshest meat and seafood. 

Prawns: clear bodies, head inline, firm

Fish: clear eyes, no smell, flesh returns when pressed

Meat: 'wobbly' texture, meat is same colour when cut

After the market tour we got on a boat and went up river to the Red Bridge reasturant and cooking school. It was a nice ride, about an hour or so on the water. When we arrived we were treated to a complimentary drink (lime-tea punch: orange & like juice, tea, 7up and grenadine) and a tour of the herb garden. I knew some of the herbs and unfortunately I wasn't able to make notes on the many uses of each herb.

We then headed to a small pagoda and started our cooking lessons, our demonstrating chef was a lovely lady, good clear instructions and a good sense of humour. What we cooked today was

- Hoi An Pancake (rice water, prawn, pork and herbs)

- seafood salad, Vietnamese herbs in pinapple boat

- shrimp fresh rice paper rolls

- rice paper

- Vietnamese eggplant in hot pot

- tomato flowers & cucumber fan (decoration)

- peanut/fish and sweet & sour sauces

- steamed fish on vegetables (not demonstrated but tasty)

Our guide was really helpful and gave us an extra recipe booklet for the full day course which included 

- Pho 

- Lemongrass shrimp in banana leaves

- Claypot fish with fresh dill

- Grilled chicken and banana flower salad

Afterwards I headed back to the hotel and met Nicola before e headed to our first fitting. I am really happy with the way that the dresses, aoi dai and suit vest have turned out. There were some minor changes to make them slightly more fitted. And the shoes are fine with some minor changes to the fit. All of them will need softening when I get home, but I'm happy that all of these will last for many years. We just had a quiet night and a light dinner while I caught up on my blog posts