In the lands of Cham & Khmer — Part 2

After a couple of action-packed days in Saigon, we headed to Da Nang. As I mentioned in my previous post, the only reason to include Da Nang in our itinerary was that of its proximity to My Son. But we were surprised that Da Nang had more to offer than what we expected of it.

After seeing the hustle-bustle of Saigon, it was so refreshing to see Da Nang. We reached Da Nang at night, delayed by a couple of hours because of supremely inefficient Jet Star Pacific airlines. Da Nang was dazzling, full of bright colors and sparsely populated hence less traffic as compared to Saigon. We passed by a couple of colorful bridges, whilst on our way to the lodging. The dragon bridge stood out.

The My Khe beach was within half a kilometer from the place where we stayed. We had the best of view from the hotel & it was spectacular. The next morning, we finished the usual buffet breakfast and waited for our tour guide to visit My Son sanctuary. A point to mention about the food - If you are from India, there are high chances that you won't like the food here which is so bland and mostly boiled. Even if you are a non-vegetarian, you may not like the food which is completely deprived of any spices which we Indians are so fond of. That's one compromise which you have to make.

A storm is in the offing

My Khe in the early morning

Our group for the day consisted of mainly Australians and a New Zealand couple. We befriended an old Queensland lady Mary Margaret, who was a great company for us throughout the end of the tour. I had heard, Aussies deride many things. That seemed true when I conversed with her more. Our common despisement of the Chinese endeared her to me more. She talked about various things from politics to policy to investment to culture. Her son is currently in the US and her late husband was working in Sheraton Hotels. She is well read and well traveled (had toured the length and breadth of India and had stayed for 5 months!). She also mentioned she had witnessed the infamous Tienman Square massacre.

Mary and us

My Son has a very long history. Perhaps one of the longest I've ever known - this dates back to 4th century. I learned that Balamon Cham, the indigenous Hindu population (now just a few thousands in number) is one of a very few groups of people outside India that are still surviving and with a culture dating back thousands of years. The other most prominent group is Hindus of Bali. We were fortunate to witness some of the Balamon Cham people and their performance live.

Entrance to My Son

Balamon Cham troupe

The main temple

The desecrated Shiva Linga

In front of the temple

But sadly to my despair, My Son now looks nowhere magnificent or grand, as most of the temple structure is either abandoned or destroyed by the carpet bombing by the US during its war on Vietnam. It's aptly called now, unfortunately - My Son ruins. Indian government - perhaps in a limited capacity - is involved in its reconstruction & also has donated an amount for the same.

For lunch, we wanted to have Indian food. Fortunately, it was easily available. We went to Maharaja restaurant, run by a Bangalorean man (originally from Delhi). The food was authentic Indian, really yummy and totally worth it. He studied engineering in Bangalore but decided to involve in the hotel business and he said he is doing pretty well. His father is running a restaurant in Tokyo from the last 25 years he said. His father is a Punjabi & mother a Mangalorean. He suggested we visit the cable car of Ba Na Hills. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to complete it. We bid adieu and wished him the best.

Maharaja Restaurant, Da Nang

In my many conversations, what I have observed is the two main groups of people that have gone outside India and doing well are Punjabis and Gujaratis. These are the two groups that have the killer instinct and entrepreneurial spirit. It feels great when you meet your fellow countrymen outside the country and have a conversation with them and listen to their story. 

The next morning, we visited My Khe beach, which was once voted by Forbes as one of the top 10 beaches in the world. My Khe was beautiful, peaceful & less crowded. We couldn't spend more time because there was a storm coming from South China and it started raining non-stop in Da Nang. We left for Hanoi in the noon. 

Hanoi is one of the oldest cities in this part of the world and also one of the densely populated one. Our hotel was in Hàng Bạc area. I felt the locality was kind of similar to old Delhi - small lanes, narrow roads, old buildings, and too many people. Food tours are very famous in Hanoi. Vietnam in general, Hanoi, in particular, has too many eateries - you can find them in every nook and corner. 

The next day we covered too many places of interest - Ho Chi Minh museum, the museum of ethnology, the west lake, Trấn Quốc Pagoda, Confucius temple and many more. We did meet two people of Indian origin in the tour - one lady from Malaysia and one man from Kenya (both are third gen migrants from India). We became friends with a middle-aged sister duo from South Africa - one of them lives in Canada and the other in Botswana. We hit off a good conversation with them as they grew up with Indian families in South Africa and the Indians in South Africa or Botswana are really doing well. 

The West Lake

Temple of Literature

Oldest Pagoda of Hanoi

Lacquer painting

We kept two complete days for Hanoi. The second day was completely dedicated to Halong Bay, which is around 180 km from Hanoi. We had booked for the cruise and lunch. This is the first time we ever went for lunch over the cruise. It was a thrilling experience. The very sight of Halong Bay floors you. It is so beautiful, picturesque. We went in a small boat for some distance after some time. It felt like a Lords of the rings set to me. It was surreal. Halong Bay is worth every penny. 

The Picturesque Halong Bay

One more capture

Inside the cruise

While coming back from Halong Bay to Hanoi, our tour guide talked many interesting points. I'll present it to you as he said - Hanoi is one of the oldest cities which has a history of over 1000 years. the population of Vietnam is about 90 million. Vietnam basically is made of 54 different ethnic groups. Viet is one of the main ethnic group - hence the name Vietnam. China has invaded Vietnam many times & has the border dispute with it (with which of its neighboring country, it doesn't have?!) 

Vietnamese eat almost everything. Some special delicacies would be prepared using - grasshopper, silkworm, rat, dog, cat & snake. The reason for this, he said that there was a severe dearth of food at one point in time. So, Vietnamese for the sake of survival started eating almost everything. Of course, dog meat or cat meat are special and are not available in all restaurants and they are expensive. He narrated an interesting story of an Indonesian man who wanted to try snake meat and he ate the live heart of the snake which was still beating. He turned sick the same night but recovered early morning. When our guide went to bid adieu to him to airport thinking he'll never again visit Vietnam or try such food, he whispered in his ears - "Next time, it's a cat". Our guide was mightily impressed.

In the next concluding post, we'll see Siem Reap and the one & only - Angkor Wat!