The Trip between Hue and Hoi An
We had a tour booked that was supposed to bring us for one full day from Hue to Hoi An.
Lang Co Beach -> Hai Van Pass -> Golden Bridge -> Marble Mountains -> Hoi An
We started the tour in the early morning and, unfortunately, we had to skip the beach because of the typhoon that had passed a week ago, the effects were still pretty visible everywhere. Hue was partially underwater, and so were parts of the countryside. So we went directly to the location of the Golden Bridge – the Ba-Na hills. I’ve seen photos only of that bridge and had no idea about the sheer size of this place. I thought you stop the car, maybe go up some stairs and voila – Golden Bridge! But no 😀 They had a full-scale French-themed park on top of several hills connected between each other with cable cars and each cable car would start and end at a “train station” named after a French city. The place was HUGE and full of soooo many cool and interesting things, I wish we had more time. But when we parked the driver told us he would be waiting there and somehow i thought we had no more than an hour or two and thought it was enough (didn’t know yet what I just described). So we went up the escalators and then queued for a bit and on to the first Cable car which brings you to a little square with a fountain with golden figures in the middle, horses or something. Then, to your right, you have a French village-style paved street with a real Church and it’s really amazing. The issue was.. we had no idea where we were, had no map at that time, and the fog was so intense we couldn’t see further than maybe 5m ahead.
Now when i look at the map we did quite a circle around while being lost 😀 We went up with 09 to 30, then to the right to walk around the French square part between 32 and 33 and then went back to the left towards 22 and we had no idea where to go so we went towards 43 and 42, the castle there and there was nothing so we returned and were baffled – where is the Golden Bridge? 😀 Then we realized we had to go to Louvre station and get the cable car to Bordeaux station. I am also pretty sure we sa 16, the gardens and nearby was a giant Chess board and inside the garden was a girl with a dress made of flowers. Super beautiful. They had a hedge maze also and very interesting statues made of parts of the body, a hand statue, pointing up with the index finger, a head statue with plants inside to look like its hair, and giant feet statues. Very interesting to experience these places and I believe without the mist it wouldn’t have been the same at all. I actually love the fact that there was mist. Well, it contradicted the place’s name “Sun world” but it’s ok 😀 FINALLY, we found THE bridge 😀 Well.. we couldn’t really see much of it, but we were there nonetheless haha 😀 And ofc it’s the most crowded place so it’s impossible to take a photo. The Bridge continued the theme with the giant arms and legs and head statues and was also very interesting – two giant hands made of stone, holding the Golden Bridge. One of our tour guides has told me that this was the latest attraction in the country and everyone wanted to go there. The whole French style of architecture was very interesting to Asian people and this place was really well built from that perspective. Even I felt like i’m in a French province while walking around the area at the top right on the map below.
What I really loved about this place is something so simple – they have built this whole thing WITH a thought for nature. Yes, they have obviously cut part of the trees on top of the hills but the did not cut more than 5 sq.m of area for each cable car pillar. Unike the cable car in Bulgaria when you go skiing, which goes through the trees so the trees must be cut off, the cable car here was VERY high up above all trees and there we virtually no trees cut off. The lush surroundings and the mist that was hovering over the trees and you go into that with the cable car, it was an amazing feeling. So finally, we came down from 18 (Marseilles station) to 05 (Hoi An station) and down to the parking lot. We then walked around the Hoi An Garden 04, lush gardens full of amazing plants, statues of huge metal flowers over you as you walk the paths, beautiful architecture buildings, of the Asian style – the style interesting to me haha 😀
And then we continued down to the Marble Mountains.
We were also supposed to see the Hai Van Pass, but bc of the fog we couldn’t, i think it was completely closed or so. When we arrived at the Marble Mountains, we parked and went to get the elevator, there’s an elevator that brings you to the top of that mountain, which was more like a rock you go on top of. There, you see this gooorgeous place, full of temples, statues, pagodas, and everything is crafted with so much detail, i totally loved it. There were Budda temples carved into the rock. Everything, the pagodas, the statues and pretty much everything was covered in colorful tile mosaic and you really didn’t know where to look first. It was really awesome. This was one of my favourite places on the trip in general. The tree roots were crawling over the rock and basically finding their way down to some soil to get nutritions. It was amazing to see a little bench you can sit on, surrounded by tree roots all around. And of course, just outside the place, you can find many people selling their works of marble. Super nice statues and varying from tiny to huge size, real artwork. The view from the top of the cliff was also super nice – you could see the city and other rocks like the one you were standing on, at random places, totally not in place, but I can assume that this was once covered in marble rock everywhere and now there’s just so much left..
Hoi An
Hoi An is a small picturesque town south of Da Nang which impresses today with the numerous boats and lanterns and a night market. However it has over 2000 years worth of history and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site not without a reason. Cham people’s original kingdom stretched between Hue and Pham Thiet. Hoi An was their commercial capital and My Son – the spiritual one. The Cham people were Hindu but because the Hoi An capital was a big trading center, they traded a lot with the arabs and not long after many people converted to Islam. Chinese who were escaping the Ming Dynasty, fled from China into Hoi An and then further south where they established Saigon as a major trading port. Another big influence in Hoi An was finally Vietnamese, but the influence is very recent and so it is better to visit Hue to see more of the traditional Vietnamese culture and heritage since Hoi An isn’t very rich on it. However, today they’ve built a whole island to dedicate to the famous show called “Memories Show”. This is a show that tells the history of the town and this is probably one of the major highlights of the trip. This was really totally unexpected and so different from anything I’ve ever seen before, it was really an unforgettable experience. I couldn’t stop watching in awe the whole time. This was a truly unique experience! This is a MUST SEE if you go to Vietnam! You won’t regret it.
Hoi An Memories Show
A 1-hour recording of the famous Hoi An Memories Show can be watched here (not my recording, it is forbidden to record, but somebody did anyway): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ejh_mFNUAOU
My Son
My Son is pronounced by the locals as “me son” where “my” sounds like “me” in English. My Son is a temple which is super beautiful and resembles the Angkor park temples in CambodiaThe My Son temples, constructed by the Champa Kingdom between the 3rd and 14th centuries, served as a significant Hindu religious center dedicated to the god Shiva, reflecting the Indian influence on Cham culture. The temples were used for royal ceremonies and religious rituals until the fall of the Champa Kingdom to the Vietnamese in the 15th century, which led to a decline in their significance. We checked out the temples and walked only on the marked paths because the area was bombed during the Vietnam War and you could see craters from bombs and there may still be landmines that lay beneath the surface and are not discovered. Vietcong troops (communist-backed military group) used to hide in the temple and that’s why it was so heavily bombed and destroyed to a big extent. Today, they have reconstructed a good portion of it. The temples are absolutely stunning and beautiful. At the end of the visit we watched a dance show there and they offered us some fruit.
We also saw a lady weaving textile using a traditional backstrap loom or a similar wooden weaving machine. This method of weaving is common among the Cham people, the ethnic group historically associated with the My Son area and the Champa Kingdom. The Cham are known for their weaving skills, especially in creating intricate patterns and textiles, which they have been practicing for centuries as part of their cultural heritage. The resulting fabric is used to make the traditional sarong-style skirt worn by Cham women on special occasions or sold to local customers in the village. The Cham people are recognized by the government as one of Vietnam’s 54 ethnic groups. They sang for us and gave us some fruit too.
