Thursday, December 25, 2014

My Son, the Relics of the Oldest Civilization in South East Asia

We learned about Champa civilization in our secondary school history class many years ago. Champa together with old Kedah in Malaysia were the oldest civilizations in South East Asia. Today, most of the old Kedah's relics have lost due to the lack of preservation by the government, but a few of Champa's relics survived.

My Son temples were built by Champa Kings from the 4th to 13th century AD  to worship Shiva, which can be easily identified by the entrances that face east. The area were once amassed by 70 temples, and served as the center of religious ceremonies and burial sites for the kings and nobles. The first temple in My Son was believed to be built by Bhadravarman I between 380 - 413. The successors later continued building more temples in the surrounding area.

We departed to My Son (some sources name it as My Son Sanctuary) after taking a day rest at Danang. We had spent three days in Hue before that. We rented a car with driver for a whole day trip, from Danang to My Son, Hoi An, and then back to Danang. We paid USD50 for the car with the driver.

Starting from Happy Day Hotel at 8:30 am, our road trip to My Son took about 2 hours, as the heavy rain made our car moved with 30 - 40 km per hour most of the time. Luckily the rain turned lighter when we reached My Son and stopped 30 minutes later. There were very few signboards leading to My Son, you might need to plan in detail if you want to drive by your own. We strolled around My Son temples area for 2 hours 30 minutes.

If not because of raining, we should be able to see beautiful paddy fields along the road (upper left). The cows (upper right) and other animals could be seen along the road. Big signages could only be seen when we were close to the site (lower right). The arch with a big UNESCO logo on indicated that we were on the right track and really close to the site.

We reached the ticketing counter at around 10 am (upper left). From the counter to the entrance of the site is another 5 minutes of driving. Then, we stopped by a booth to hire an English speaking guide with VND 100,000 (upper right). Although quite informative, we could feel that he was hurrying us to walk around the area, and left us in the site after bringing us around for 35 minutes. Canteen (lower right) and toilets are available at the entrance. We need to take another 10 minutes walk to the site as vehicles are not allowed beyond the entrance.

Walking in the rain was no problem for us.

We were lucky to catch up with the Cham folk art performance. It was held in a hall (upper left), with Cham people performing their cultural dances (upper right), apsara dance (lower right) and musical instrument. The performance is scheduled on 9:30 am, 10:30 am. and 2:30 pm daily. By the way, the apsara dance in My Son is like "rock and roll" compared to "slow and graceful" apsara dance in Siem Reap.

This is the map of My Son. From the entrance, we will see Group C first. The dance performance hall is located somewhere before Group C temples. Group B, C, and D form the biggest collection of temples. Group A and G are on the other side of the stream. Group E and F are some 200 meters away from A and G. Group K is 300 meters away from Group E and F, which we can see it on our way out.

Group C is one of the most untouched collection of temples. These temples were built between 10th - 11th century.

Group B is located adjacent to Group C. The first temple of My Son was built there. The temple however was destroyed and rebuilt for several times. The relics that remain standing now were built between 11th - 13th century. Group D is located behind Group B.

 Group D temples.

Group A was formerly a part of Group D before a stream formed and divided them. This group is badly damaged, with just a few walls and an altar remain standing. These temples are believed to be some of the biggest and most magnificent within My Son, before the bombs turned them into rubbles. The entrance to the main temple of group A is facing west.

Group G is located on a small hill, with a few small structures remain standing. These structures were built around 12th - 13th centuries. The entrance of the main temple of this group is facing west. A similar hill temple, Phnom Bakheng in Siem Reap is the much bigger version of this temple.

If you are not sure about the meaning of "ruins", please go to see Group E and F. These two groups are the oldest among all, with a few structures dated back to 8th century.

Group K is far away from the others. It can be visited on our way out. The group contains only two small spearhead towers which were built around 11th century.

General architecture of the temples- the main temple contains lingam and yoni at the basement (upper left), with the entrance facing the middle temple and the monastery in a straight line (upper right). The monastery was the place for the preparation of ceremonies (lower left). Some of the main temples (Group B and C) were accompanied by a few of smaller structures, such as library.

The sculptures and bass relief are badly damaged by weather (upper row). Many of the sculptures had been moved into the monastery to avoid further damage (lower row). Many of them have been moved to the museum in Danang as well.

Visiting My Son need a lot of walking, with bridges across the stream (upper left), walkway across the wood (upper right) and dirt path around the temples (lower right). Bomb craters are scattered around the area.

My Son ruins is much less stunning than Angkor Wat and Bayon in Cambodia, or Borobudur and Prambanan temples in Indonesia. Even with all 70 temples remain standing, My Son is still far inferior compared to Bagan in Myanmar. However, as one of the oldest site of civilization in South East Asia, it is worth all the effort for us to visit it. As Old Kedah civilization in Lembah Bujang has basically cannot be traced anymore, My Son is the only place that we can go to catch the bit and pieces about the glory of the past civilization.

Well, visiting My Son have nothing to do with "enjoy" or "fun". The site is really a remote area with toilets and canteen available only at the entrance. So, we should go to toilet before exploring the area for hours without "toilet break". Drinking water is essential, as the humid surrounding will make us sweat a lot. Snacks might be needed to keep us moving forward. Shoes are recommended, but sandals and shorts might be a better choice during rainy season. The site was not friendly to wheelchair, but it can be accessed by those with walking aids. Umbrella is important too, as the weather is hard to predict. Visitors to My Son are not encouraged to walk beyond the designated walking paths to avoid stepping on land mine.

As we browsed through internet, the information regarding My Son was really limited: reading the information in Wikipedia, MySonSanctuary.com, and from the book "Vietnam" by Nick Ray. On the other hand, we are quite sceptical about the information provided in Wikitravel regarding the exploitation of My Son resources by outsiders. We would recommend that we should visit My Son and Hoi An first, before we visit the Museum of Cham Sculpture in Danang.

We took a short rest at the canteen. The food and drinks were sold with reasonable prices. We left My Son around 1 pm and continued our trip to Hoi An. We will share our experience in Hoi An in our next post. Follow us now for more updates. 

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Friday, December 5, 2014

Hue- Food, Accommodation, Shopping and Moving Around

We stayed in Hue for 3 days 2 nights, visiting several places of interest such as the tombs of Nguyen emperors and the Citadel of Hue. These UNESCO heritage sites were really must visit places in Hue. To get around Hue, let us start with accommodation.

Accommodation
Finding a place to stay is easy, from high class expensive resorts beside Huong River to the small family-run guest houses between the streets, the choice is yours. However, we would recommend to stay somewhere within the boundary of four roads- Le Loi, Nguyen Chong Tru, Le Quy Don, and Hung Vuong. That is the area where many tourists gathered. Night market along the esplanade, eateries, shops, Truong Tien Bridge, and even the Citadel of Hue are within walking distance from that area.

We stayed in Holiday Diamond Hotel, which ranked high in Tripadvisor with a reason- outstanding service with only USD24 per room per night. We arrived late at around 6:15 pm.We were immediately served with welcoming drinks and fruits. The hotel staff explained briefly on the attractions in Hue and approximate fees for the tours before leading us to our room. The room was readied with high speed wifi, flat screen TV with satellite programs, safe box, wardrobe with hangers, coffee making facility, mini bar, water heater for bathroom, hair drier, and even fruit served everyday. We were surprised by very nice buffet breakfast with more than 30 items on the menu. By the way, if you wonder where can you get the best "bun-bo", the beef noodle of Hue in the city, our answer is- Holiday Diamond Hotel. However, the dish was not listed in the menu, so you might need to ask the waiter to prepare one for you.

Holiday Diamond is small, and located some 30 meters from the main Nguyen Cong Tru Street, which is not accessible by car. The location might bring some difficulty in case of raining, but the location itself promises quiet environment and a good night sleep. The staff were helpful, with a few of them could speak very good English. The stay at Holiday Diamond Hotel was a very good experience and we really learnt a lesson on how to "win by service". We would like to express our special gratitude to all the staff, especially Anna. She had helped us a lot in finding good deals for the local tour and recommending good local food around Hue.

The outlook of the hotel (upper left), which the front door leads to the lobby (upper right). Holiday Diamond Hotel is connected to the main street through a lane (lower right), where a sign of the hotel can be seen from the main road. This little lane was shared by two other hotels.

The room is big for two with cozy design (upper left). Coffee, tea, fruits, and drinking water were complementary (upper right). Local fruits were served as welcoming refreshment (lower left) and during the buffet breakfast.

Food
Hue offers various types of local food. Although eateries can be found at every corner of the area, not many of them serve nice local food. We tried as many as possible during our stay- pork rib rice, chicken rice, beef noodle, spring rolls, grilled minced pork on lemongrass stick, rice paper roll with BBQ pork, and many more.

Located at 28 Vo Thi Sau Street, Thanh Na Restaurant is just 5 minutes by foot from our hotel (upper left). It was a place where local people gathered (upper right). During our visit, we found that none of the staff could speak English. Luckily, the menu was prepared with simple translation. So, we could get what we want by pointing at the dishes on the menu. The price of chicken leg served with rice and vegetable was VND 55,000 (lower left), while pork was served with much cheaper at VND 30,000. Fried noodle with beef was served at VND 50,000. The taste, really delicious, especially when we were hungry. We took two meals (one dinner and one supper) at this restaurant during our stay in Hue.

We had a supper at Golden Rice Restaurant at 40 Pham Ngu Lao Street (upper left) with good atmosphere (upper right). The price for three fresh spring rolls with beef was VND 59,000 (lower left), and the "bun-bo" or rice noodle soup with beef and pork was served with VND 55,000. The food was average and a bit expensive. But the service was good- staff were attentive and could speak in simple English. The second floor of the restaurant was air-conditioned.

The eateries beside the roadside might not be the cheaper choice (upper left), if it is close to the Citadel of Hue (upper right). We spent our lunch time at a small eatery beside the citadel. The price, VND 50,000 for 4 spring rolls (lower left), VND 50,000 for vegetable and pork rice paper roll (Nem Lui Heo), and VND 70,000 for fried pork without rice.

The Hanh was located at a corner of Pho Duc Chinh. By foot, it was around 15 minutes away from our hotel.The restaurant offered delicious traditional food with relatively cheap price- 6 nen-lui (pork with lemongrass stick) with VND 60,000 (upper left), fried and fresh spring rolls (upper and lower right) with VND 40,000 respectively, and ban cuon (rice paper roll it yourself with vegetable and pork) with VND 30,000 for a portion of 4 person! Cheap, delicious, and highly recommended, but we need to do a little bit of walking to get there.

The Hanh is located at a corner, the street was quiet.

Must try food in Hue- Rice paper roll. We can wrap it, roll it, fold it, or in anyway we like, with pork, beef, or simply vegetable. Next is bun bo, or the beef noodle. If you are a big fan of Hanoi's beef noodle, then you may want to try this- the taste, a bit more spicy and sour compared to the one that we tried in Hanoi. Nen-lui is special, but the taste was nothing extraordinary, while we prefer Hanoi's spring roll than the one in Hue. Overall, the food in Hue was good, but the price was not as cheap as we thought.
Shopping
What to buy in Hue? Many will tell that we can buy silk, bamboo works, and wooden items there. Incense made by natural woods can be purchased as well. If you like one of these thing- bamboo hat, bamboo fan, wooden carved items, or clothes made by silk, then Hue is a place for you. For us, we are not interested in any of them. But we did get some souvenirs with bargained price.

Night market beside Truong Tien Bridge was the only night market at Hue. Locals went there to get what they need, so the price of the items were expected to be cheap. Please do bargain "extensively", starting from 1/3 of the price, or even 1/5 of the original price. It would then end up with a deal somewhere around half of the original price. The clothes, food, fruits, and some other items were marked with very attractive prices, but most of them had no price tags on them. We learnt from others that we should insist to pay in Dong. Paying in USD gives a sign of "we are rich" and will close the door of bargaining.

Items available at the market. Some music instruments were sold too.

The incense and bamboo work factory was not attractive, at least for the one that we had visited on our way to Tu Duc's tomb. The items were much expensive than what we found in Dong Ba Market.

Dong Ba Market is located at Tran Hung Dao, some 3 minutes from Truong Tien Bridge. It is one of the oldest market in Hue (upper left). We could find local fruits (upper right), local bamboo work (lower left), groceries, and many others there. Again, when we asked for price, the offer would always be in USD. When we said that we would pay in Dong, the price immediately went down by 20%. When we asked for a discount, then the prices went down further by 70%. It was the offer we got for one of the silk product.

Food stalls at Dong Ba Market (upper left), groceries (upper right), gold products (lower right), and red prawns sold in Dong Ba.

Dong Ba is not a big market. It was not a pleasant place- poor ventilation, squeezy and humid. So, if you don't like to go to wet market, then Dong Ba may not be a place for you.

Truong Tien Plaza is just beside Dong Ba Market (upper left), fully air conditioned, with a supermarket (upper right) and a fast food outlet (lower left) at ground floor, and a food court and departmental store at the second floor.

Transportation
The best way to go to Hue from Da Nang International Airport is by taxi. The taxi ticket counter was located in the airport arrival hall, and the price was fixed at VND1.15 million per trip for 5 seaters sedan (approximately USD55). Of course, we have to pay more if we wish to use Hai Van Pass, as we shared in our previous post.

Many hotel and tour operators were waiting for their customers outside of the arrival hall (upper left), with the taxi station located at the same level (upper right). The check in counters (lower left) and the departure hall of the airport was clean with modern look.

The standard taxi fares from Danang International Airport to Ba Na, Hoi An, Lang Co Bay, My Son, and Hue were shown in the airport.

Bicycle and motorbike can be rented on daily basis in Hue, with quite a low price.  Riding on our own can be economical, but only if you can adapt to the Vietnam style of driving. You can visit Wikitravel for more information on the transportation in Hue. For us, we used rented car with driver for a one-day trip, from 9 am to 5 pm, with USD45 on our second day in Hue to visit the emperors' tombs and the citadel of Hue. The metered taxi could be a good option for short trips around the tourism area, with the fee calculated in Dong. 

Street
From our hotel at Nguyen Cong Tru Street we had walked around the main tourism streets- Le Loi, Vo Thi Sau, Ben Nghe and places in vicinity. The street was safe both during the day and night. However, we need to be careful about the traffic. Most of the people in Hue follow the traffic lights, but we still need to follow the "Vietnam rules" as in Hanoi and Danang. Electric powered bicycles could be the "deadliest", as these silent vehicles moved very fast without any noise.

Hue in day time (upper row). Some streets can be very quiet, while others can be very busy. The streets at tourism area are basically closed to the traffic (lower left). The night life area was concentrated around Le Loi Street, Doi Chun, Pham Ngu Lao Street, Vo Thi Sau Street and places in vicinity.

One thing that we need to keep in mind- watch out for the incoming traffic (upper left). Locals with their daily activities around the market area (upper right and lower right). The electric powered bicycle was very popular around hue.

Most of the people in Hue could not understand English. Their body language was not as good as what we could find in the night market of Bangkok, or the hawkers in Hanoi. A map is important, but not a must.

After staying in Hue for 3 days, we continued our trip to My Son, Hoi An, and Danang. Follow us now for more updates.

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Sunday, November 23, 2014

Imperial City of Hue and Museum of Royal Fine Arts

Imperial City of Hue was built in 1802 by Emperor Gia Long and completed by his son, Minh Mang in 1833. The city was the residence of the emperors till 1945. The Imperial City of Hue is 2.5 km long and 2.5 km wide with three circles of defensive walls. The outermost circle of wall is approximately 6 m high and 21 m thick with 10 entrances and 24 bastions. The second circle is the the Citadel of Hue (Kinh Thanh Hue), while at the center of the citadel houses the third circle- Forbidden Purple City.

Ngo Mon  (午门) which faces the south is the entrance for visitors. It is where the entrance ticket can be bought. The Hue Citadel with the a total area of 600 m x 600 m is a huge complex. A quick walk around the area might take about 1 - 2 hours. Entering Ngo Mon around 2:30 pm, we took more than 1 hour and 30 minutes to take just a glance inside the city. It was an exhausting trip since we had visited the emperors' tombs for the entire morning.

Ngo Mon leads to two lakes with a bridge in the middle, connecting Ngo Mon to Tai Ho Palace. The Forbidden Purple City was located behind the Tai Ho Palace. However, most of the Forbidden Purple City had been destroyed during the Battle of Hue in 1968. Surrounding the forbidden city are some of the remaining structures which have luckily spared by American bombers. Let us tour around with some of the photos in the city.

We entered the Imperial City of Hue through Ngan Gate. The bridge crossed over the moat allowed only one way traffic.

Flag tower opposite of Ngo Mon was built by Emperor Gia Long. The tower was fixed with eight cannons and two sentry boxes. The flag tower was not open to public during our visit. We saw a similar design at Thang Long Citadel in Hanoi too. Maybe building a flag tower opposite of citadel was favoured by Vietnamese emperors.

To our disappointment, Ngo Mon was under restoration during our visit.

The bridge that connects Ngo Mon to Tai Ho Palace (太和殿). Tai Ho Palace and Ngo Mon were the venues for official ceremonies.

These photos show the area behind Tai Ho Palace, which once the Forbidden Purple City.

Some of the corridors in the forbidden city have been rebuilt according to the original design of the palace (upper row). Private residence of the emperor's mother and grandmother are shown in lower row.

Beyond this gate lies Hung Mieu, The Mieu, and Hien Lam Pavilion. We had too little time and energy left to proceed beyond the gate. We stopped briefly at the Royal Theater, Trieu Mieu, and Thai Mieu on our way out through Hien Nhon Gate.

Royal Treasury is located opposite of Trieu Mieu and Thai Mieu. Both Trieu Mieu and Thai Mieu were under heavy restoration during our visit.

We officially left the citadel through Hien Nhon Gate at around 4 pm.

The moat and wall of citadel outside of Hien Nhon Gate.

This is the aerial map of Citadel of Hue. We entered through Ngo Mon, walked through Tai Ho Palace to the forbidden city, followed by the residence of the emperor's mother and grandmother. Then, we visited royal theatre before going out through Hien Nhon Gate on the right side of this map. A very detailed map is provided by justinbe.

The Citadel of Hue is huge. There were no food and drinks sold inside the citadel area during our visit, and most of the places were not covered. Bringing our own bottle of water and umbrella are important to keep us hydrated while keep us away from blazing sun or soaking rain. Comfortable footwear  is important to keep us going. Although the information provided on the site was simple, but it was enough for us to learn the background, some history, and the functions of the buildings. A very small map was provided on the backside of our entrance ticket. We found that the bigger map that provided by our hotel was a better one.

From Hien Nhon Gate, we took a five-minute walk to the Museum or Royal Fine Arts. It is a place where some of the items gathered from the citadel are displayed. The museum is not big, and the items were not very attractive as well. However, it does provide some picture about the life of the royal family.

The entrance fee of the museum was included in the ticket for the citadel. By the way, free shutter from the citadel to the museum was provided during our visit, while photo taking was not allowed in the museum. We have to leave our shoes outside, but we didn't lost any of ours.

The museum is just a small building. The ticket checking counter was empty during our visit, so literally anyone, with or without ticket could enter the museum.

Cannons displayed around the compound of the museum.

We spent around 30 minutes in the museum. We can't say the museum is a must visit place in Hue, but since we had paid for the entrance and it was located nearby the citadel, so spending half an hour in to visit the museum should not be a problem. Exhausted, we took a rest back in our hotel, before we went out to hunt for local delicacies for dinner. We will share more about our experience in Hue soon. Follow us now on Facebook for lastest update.

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