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Hoi An 2

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Architecture in Hoi An

Since Hoi An is on the Perfume river and susceptible to flooding, the older Chinese houses were built with 2-3 levels and a large balcony in the center of the house. When it flooded, the trading boats would sail in on the lower floor, a basket could be lowered down to the first floor with a rope and goods could be hoisted up through the center balcony.

Every where we see old fashioned Chinese murals of sea faring vessels and Sea faries. This is perhaps one of the most ornate cities in Hoi An. The locals still remember my grandfather Tong.

My Son Ruins

We went yesterday to see the great Champa Hoyland in My Son. The Champa were an Indian empire that ruled Central Vietnam between the 2nd and 15th centuries. There are still Champa descendants practicing their culture in Vietnam. This is the same empire that built Ankor Wat in Cambodia. My Son was the seat of their religious holyland, and the largest continously developed region in all of South East Asia. The Champa built temples there between the 4th and 13th centuries.

My Son was badly bombed by the Americans in the American War and pillaged by the Americans, Vietnamese, Chinese and Khmer for sculptures and valuable items. Today most of the temples are toppled and overrun with lichen and plants. However, this gives it a more romantic look, of a "lost civilization." The ruins are worth seeing, apparently, they had a complex religion with many water rituals based around fertility and animals. Even the pillaged ruins show complex sculptures of elephants, griffins, cows, the god Shiva and many goddesses. The ruins are surround by beautiful misty mountains and clear streams. If you go with a tour, take a bus back, not a boat.

A Typical Family

I would remiss in my writing if I did not say something about my great aunt Lan's wonderful hospitality to us and the state in which they are living. My cousin Phoung is the only wage earner in the family, supporting five people on a salary of $50/month. She teaches English for a local high school and tutors private pupils. Her salary now is considered better than average for a Vietnamese person. The five members of her family live in older house in Dalat built in the 1950s with a concrete foundation and one main room with three much smaller rooms. The main room serves at their kitchen, dining room and living room. Their most precious posessions are a tv and an old Honda motorbike.

My cousin is divorced and looking for an American citizen who would bring her to America where she believes that life would be better. She asked me to help with this.

The family has paid me every possible hospitality when we came to visit: they set us up in a hotel that they knew; they came to pick me up every morning and take me out to breakfast at one of the restaurants frequented by locals; they set me up with a local tourist taxi driver that drove us around Dalat; and insisted that we eat every evening meal with them.They cooked 3 courses for us every evening, eventhough I told them that we couldn't eat so much, and that they didn't have to bother. My aunt and cousin were very kind and Jeffrey and I are thinking of ways to get my cousin to America.

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