Hoi An and My Son

This morning we travelled by bus to My Son which is aout 35km out of Hoi An and translates to mean Beautiful Mountain. Built between the 4th and 14th Centuries these temples combine Cham culture and Hindu religious symbols. It is an extremely interesting place and is listed as a world heritage site as well. Unfortunately the atmosphere as spoiled by the masses of tourists- but Tim and I seperated from the group and managed to get soem good shots minus all the tourists. Many of the sites have been destroyed from age and the war- but what was left was beautiful. We spent a couple of hours here wandering through the jungle and looking at these temples. Tim and I wandered off the official path and made our way through a muddy hidden path to find a small ruin others didn't see. Nice to be naughty!

We then came home and spent the afternoon relaxing over lunch, dinner and then some drinks at the Before and Now bar- this place mixed revolutionary images with pop culture- Che Guevara in a Coke adertisement for example. There was an art work that had portraits of Che, Kafka, Ho Chi, Stalin, Lennin, Marx, Maralyn Monroe, Jennifer, Garner, Mao, Nelson Mandela. This guy told us that art exhibits in Vietnam have to be authorised by the government and that images of Stalin and Lennin couldn't be placed beneath other images of poeple. It was a good place with the end of happy hour marked by a great bronze gong!