Southern Vietnam: Da Nang & Saigon

Long time no entry lol. Haven't been posting since November last year!! Anyway, finally working to finish #VietVietPao series (series???). This was actually supposed to be the 3rd to the last since I was planning to do a separate one for Saigon, but I was stupid & I lost my iPhone 6 where all my Saigon photos were so I'll just put everything here instead.

My Son Ruins

There's nothing much that you can do in Hoi An except admiring the beautiful old houses in the town center. It's like Siem Reap without the Angkor Wat, the chillest of the chill. So I read up on some possible side trips I could do from Hoi An and the most interesting thing that I stumbled upon was a few kilometers on the western side of the town, the My Son ruins.

Town As Old As Time

The sun was setting when I woke up in the middle of road somewhere along the Vietnamese countryside. That was my last day in Hue and I was en route to Hoi An from a sketchy shuttle bus that I booked online. The average travel time between the two towns is usually around 3 hours via private car, but I took an open bus and the driver had to drop other tourists off in Da Nang so the trip lasted about 5 hours to Hoi An. We left Hue around 4:30 PM and it was already 8:00 when we arrived in Da Nang, the highly urbanized city in central Vietnam, about 30km from Hoi An.

Thien Mu Pagoda & The Nguyen Imperial Tombs

Located on the Ha Khe Hill on the northern bank of the Perfume River is the site where, according to legends, an old lady appeared to the locals and foretold that one day a lord will build a pagoda on this hill that will bring peace to the land. Upon hearing the story, one of the Nguyen Lords fulfilled the prophecy and erected the Thien Mu Pagoda.