We had decided to drive, actually to be driven, from Hue to Hoi An, via the Hai Van pass, Da Nang and My Son. We had been hoping to leave the rainy, cloudy north of Vietnam behind and emerge into sunshine on the pass and have a fantastic view! It wasn't to be…….heavy rain, no view! And now I see that the old french name for the pass was Col des Nuages….or Cloud mountain!! So we would have been incredibly lucky to be able to see anything!
We drove on Highway 1, which is the main highway from Hue to Saigon, which was unbelievable in terms of traffic….. a 2 lane road, one lane either way! No wonder it takes 24 hours to reach Saigon. We kept having buses overtake us… thankfully our driver didn't try to compete!
We stopped to see some fishing boats which are used to fish the very large lagoon just south of Hue… I actually thought we had got to the sea…..
Water buffalos were grazing just off the road…..
and there were lots of oysters for sale….
Then we went over the pass……absolutely no view until we were about half way down on the south side……….
The fishing nets they use are surprising…. they are extremely large and they lower them into the water to catch the fish overnight..….
We wanted to visit the Cham museum in Da Nang which is just by the Dragon bridge…. on which there seemed to be few cars, but lots of motorbikes…...
We wanted to visit this museum to see what had been rescued from the My Son area before going there…….it is a fantastic museum, which gives an insight into the Cham culture…..
We needed to have lunch and decided to go to China Beach……
Yes…..this is pronounced close to what you think it might be!!
The view was superb….. but not the food! The restaurant was basically empty and we understood why once we got our bill! A very expensive lunch…. I think we were paying for the empty seats at out table!!
Then on to My Son…. which actually was quite a large area which took about 2 hours to walk around…. but the sun was finally out!
It had been a very, very long day so we were happy to finally get to our hotel in Hoi An….
the Vinh Hung Emerald Resort…..
We had booked a river view room……. which was great.
We found a good restaurant close by, Mango Mango, which we can recommend.
And where we had a fantastic night time view of the Japanese bridge...
We drove on Highway 1, which is the main highway from Hue to Saigon, which was unbelievable in terms of traffic….. a 2 lane road, one lane either way! No wonder it takes 24 hours to reach Saigon. We kept having buses overtake us… thankfully our driver didn't try to compete!
We stopped to see some fishing boats which are used to fish the very large lagoon just south of Hue… I actually thought we had got to the sea…..
Then we went over the pass……absolutely no view until we were about half way down on the south side……….
The fishing nets they use are surprising…. they are extremely large and they lower them into the water to catch the fish overnight..….
We wanted to visit this museum to see what had been rescued from the My Son area before going there…….it is a fantastic museum, which gives an insight into the Cham culture…..
We needed to have lunch and decided to go to China Beach……
The view was superb….. but not the food! The restaurant was basically empty and we understood why once we got our bill! A very expensive lunch…. I think we were paying for the empty seats at out table!!
Then on to My Son…. which actually was quite a large area which took about 2 hours to walk around…. but the sun was finally out!
Some artifacts were assembled in this temple, plus a few US bombs! Only when reading a notice there did we find out that one should not step off the walkways as there are a lot of still unexploded land mines!! We had been walking for quite a time by then….. and not always on the path!
My Son was almost totally destroyed by US B52 bombers!
the Vinh Hung Emerald Resort…..
We had booked a river view room……. which was great.
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