Travels of a working girl: Vietnam: Hoi An; Side trip to My Son ruins

I don't know how we managed to sneak in this trip since everyone was so occupied with their tailoring and shopping. Since the whole group was not really interested, Iz, A and I had to sign up with a private tour to take us to the My Son ruins. It was a morning excursion and it was a nice way to explore outside Hoi An instead of staying put and running around town just for fittings. Having to sign up with a private tour, it also meant that we were in a bus full of strangers and it was full! It's a two hour right to My Son ruins and many of the sites were bombed by the US during the Tet Offensive so like most of Vietnams, the ruins are incomplete and many of what is left is rock crumblings. Preservation efforts have also been weak, but now with UNESCO help, hopefully things will turn around.

My Son was built by the Champa kingdom (different from Vietnamese) till the Vietnamese conquered them and took over. Today, no Champa people live in Hoi An, but have been driven very far down south. The complexed is very heavily influenced by Hinduism as can be seen by the statues of Shiva, elephant carvings and there are many phallic symbols scattered around the area. For most though, you need a guide to point it out to you since many places have overgrown and are hard to make out. What is interesting though is that the complex was constructed with bricks and no mortar so the question is how did they make the bricks stick? There are theories but no answers... and it is a testament to the great building skill of the Champas that many of the buildings were very intact right up to the Tet Offensive.