After a hot, sweaty, uncomfortable bus journey we arrived in Hoi Ann tired and stressed. We found a hotel and passed out for the majority of the day before heading out to check out Hoi An’s most famous attribute – its tailor made clothes.

Hoi An is a pretty little town full of quaint old style buildings heavily influenced by the French colonial style with a bit of Chinese influence thrown in. These buildings either contain or are nestled between literally hundreds of clothes shops.

The first day we barley walked 100 yards from our hotel before we been sucked in by the first clothes shop. This was the pattern for the next three days. That first afternoon I was fairly restrained only purchasing pair of black trousers, but as afternoon turned into evening I made another purchase then the following day I went on a spending frenzy! I figured I’d have very few opportunities to get clothes tailor made especially for as little 7.50GBP per item.

By the end of our three days in Hoi An we hadn’t seen any tourist attractions but I had purchased three pairs of trousers, one pair of shorts, five long skirts, one long dress (to wear to my cousins’ wedding in America next year), two short dresses, two short skirts, two tops and a winter jacket!!! All tailor made for the princely sum of 150GBP in total – not bad really.

On our final day in Hoi An we decided we really should see something of the area and booked an early morning trip to My Son. According to the guide book My Son is: “Vietnam’s most evocative Cham site,” although it does say it’s no Vietnamese Angkor Wat. But once again we compared it to the temples of Angkor and it fell somewhat short of their amazing architecture.

It didn’t help that the trip had been falsely advertised as allowing us to watch the sun come up over the temples when in reality we watched the sun come up sat outside our hotel waiting for the bus that was 45 minutes late. It then took an hour to drive to My Son and the ticket office didn’t open until 7pm, so even if the bus had been on time it would have been impossible to watch the sun come up there.

The guide was incredibly annoying speaking English so fast we could barley understand him. He was also one of those guides who believed the whole group should follow him around hanging off his every word and shepherded us around alike a group of sheep.

According to the Vietnam rough guide:

Excavations at My Son have revealed that Cham kings were buried there as early as the fourth century, indicating that the site was established by the early Champa capital of Simhapiura, situated some 30km back towards the highway. The stone towers and sanctuaries you see today were erected between the seventh and thirteenth centuries, with successive dynasties adding more and more temples to this holy place, until in its prime it comprised some 70 buildings. The area was considered the domain of the gods and god kings, and living on site would have been an attendant population of priests, dancers and servants.

We wondered around taking photos with half an ear on what the guide was saying. Eventually he set us free to wonder around by ourselves and we ended up spending ages playing with a plant that appears to die when you touch it then comes back to life when you’ve gone.

After that we went back to the bus and were driven back to Hoi An where we boarded the bus for Hue.

* Posted by j150vsc on 09/09/2007.