Hoi An, and its environs, by day

(Note: In my fatigue yesterday I kept calling Hoi An Hanoi in my blog entry below! Sorry about the confusion! Two very different places.)

I peddled around Hoi An yesterday, deciding to explore the local area rather than take a bus to the My Son ruins 50 kilometers away to see some Cham temples and monuments -- what's left of them, that is, after the Americans pretty much decimated the ruins during the war. (A tough decision and I'm still debating whether I made the right choice -- wracked with self-doubt as usual!)

Besides karsts, the Vietnamese are keen on their Cham ruins. (The Champa kingdom extended from central Vietnam down to the southern delta between the 7th and 15th centuries, and the Cham grew wealthy with maritime trade, exporting sandalwood (I love sandalwood incense and perfume!) and slaves (less fond of slaves). Part of the Vietnamese fascination with the Cham people, besides I think the whole autochthonous allure, might have to do with their sensual, enigmatic worships of a form of Shiva Hinduism (Shaivism), which they picked up by doing so much trade with India. (Later, after exposure to Arab traders, many Cham adopted Islam. Fickle. Too bad Christian evangelists never got their hands on them.)

Anyway, that's all about the lost trip I never took. Here's some photos of the lowlands around Hoi An.

My bike!
A little home on the banks of a greenish brown river. The sky is forever overcast here. Did the Cham people enjoy clear skies, pre-smog? Or is this monochrome sooty sky an eternal meteorological phenomenon in Vietnam? I'm going to look into this today. One picture I did not include here is the beach -- it's mind-bogglingly gross, strewn with litter and all sorts of crap. Rather sad. As Laura Winthrop said (the girl who insures travelers against being kidnapped), "Plastic bags have been the worst invention for the planet of all time."

Here's some traditional pottery made in a neighboring town of Hoi An, called Thanh Ha. Ceramics -- much better than plastic.

Little chicks in the market. Other fowl sightings of the day: people carrying chickens and one duck upside down ready for slaughter. And I saw a group of men circled around two red and blue cocks, watching them fight. I stopped and looked for a while -- thankfully, the cocks seemed more intent on circling each other with their necks entwined rather than doing any serious damage. (Although one cock did have a bit of a nick on his back that the other bird kept going for. Mmm, sad.)

Back to lovely Hoi An.