My Son

This is actually pronounced 'mee son' and it has caused a lot of confusion because I am traveling with my son! The ruins were built by the Champa between 4 ad and 10 ad. A French couple and I had a pretty good time taking pictures with the headless Buddha; hopefully this is not too irreverent. If it had been inside a temple, I would never have dared, but it was outside....

My Son
Well, the day started really, really early. I was supposed to be picked up at 5:00 am, which is early enough, but while I was drying off at FOUR FIFTY, the room phone rang. They were there. Jesus H Christ. Anthony answered, I rushed. I didn’t even buckle my shoes. It turned out that I could have slowed down a bit; there was another guy from our hotel, and he wasn’t down for another 5 minutes.

Our bus stopped in front of another travel agency where we met up with some fellow travelers and we all had breakfast, but at that hour, few of us were in any condition to eat. I got a cup of VN coffee and a baguette, plain, and it lasted almost the whole hour until we got to the site.
The site was nice. Mostly, it was a chance to see the jungle in safety. Early in the morning, before the heat set in. Without a million other tourists running through the ruins. The ruins themselves were interesting enough, but I think the key to the whole trip was seeing them at that time of day. We were there by 6:19 am. The sun was still coming up behind the mountains, and the jungle life was still making cool noises (in other words, the bugs were still out).


The travel guide gave good information throughout the sites, but I had studied my Lonely Planet and the internet extensively, so she didn’t add much to what I already knew. You can Google “Cham” if you are interested in the history. I had a tendency to wander off and get photos where no one else was around. I even set up the auto function to take a couple of myself in them. A French couple also had a tendency to wander, and our paths crossed often. She had a GREAT eye, which I told her twice, as she always found the ‘treasures’ tucked into the sculptures.

As she talked, she frequently stated, “This was broken by the American bombs” at each and EVERY building and various statues. Finally, it was so ridiculous that it got to be a bit of a joke, and a guy from Holland kind of laughed, rolled his eyes, looked at me, and said, “Seems to be a running theme.” His wife and I laughed, too. My comment was no less PC, as I said, “Well, the VC used the place as a command headquarters. If they didn’t want it BOMBED, maybe they shouldn’t have used it as a COMMAND post.” (Like, maybe a hospital might have been a better choice?) Even the guy from Ireland LOL’d at that one. Not that war is funny. It's just that her beating the dead horse got a bit old for all of us.

It was a nice trip, and I’m glad I took the time to go see them, but if you decide to follow in my footsteps, FIND THE 5:00 AM TOUR. We passed no less than 3 busses as we traveled down the road leading away from the ruins, and they were packed. I doubt those people got any pictures without at least an arm or a head of a stranger in them.