Handpicked experience · Da Nang
Da Nang, Vietnam
Hindu towers built by a seafaring people whose language is closer to Malay than Vietnamese — in brickwork nobody has since managed to copy.
My Son Sanctuary- one of the central temple of Hinduism in Southeast Asia and a legacy of Vietnam.
Explore an exceptionally well-preserved example of a South-East Asian trading port dating from the 15th to the 19th century- Hoi An.
A Hindu sanctuary in a country that is not Hindu
Masonry that modern restoration has failed to match
A valley quiet enough at opening to hear the birds
An afternoon in Hoi An with no fixed schedule
A private car, so the two halves flex to suit you
A private day from Da Nang to the My Son sanctuary, ideally starting at first light, then on to Hoi An for the afternoon, with a car and driver for seven to nine hours.
My Son was built by the Cham, who ruled the central coast for over a thousand years as the kingdom of Champa — a maritime, Hindu civilisation whose language belongs to the Austronesian family, closer to Malay than to Vietnamese.
The sanctuary is dedicated principally to Shiva, and the towers held lingams rather than Buddha figures. Construction ran from around the fourth century to the fourteenth, meaning some of what you walk past was already ancient when the rest was being built.
The Cham were not erased. Their descendants live in Vietnam today, mostly further south, some Hindu and many Muslim, with their own language and script. This is a working piece of their history rather than a ruin belonging to nobody.
Look closely at an undamaged wall and you will struggle to find the joints. Cham towers are built of fired brick laid with almost no visible mortar, and how they did it is still argued over — a resin from the dầu rái tree, a mortar of brick dust, or firing the whole assembled structure like a single object.
The evidence for the difficulty is on the site itself. Twentieth-century repairs used ordinary cement and modern brick, and a century later those sections are weathering badly and are instantly distinguishable from the original work standing beside them. The old brick is the part that has lasted.
The valley was bombed in 1969, and the largest and finest tower, known as A1, was destroyed along with much of its group. Craters are still visible between the temples, and clearance of unexploded ordnance was necessary before the site could be opened to visitors at all.
This is stated plainly on site rather than hidden, and it is worth knowing before you arrive so that the gaps make sense. What survives is a fraction of what stood a century ago.
Entrance tickets to My Son are not part of this booking, so carry local notes. The site opens early and the first hour is by far the best: cooler, quieter, and the low sun brings out the carving on the brick in a way midday flattens.
There is little shade among the temple groups, and the ground is uneven. In Hoi An the afternoon is yours, so tell your driver when and where you want collecting rather than committing to a fixed hour before you have seen the place.
Open it to pick a date and work out the price.
What the fare covers, and what to budget for separately.
The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
The Cham, who ruled the central coast for over a thousand years as the kingdom of Champa — a maritime, Hindu civilisation, not a Vietnamese one.
Their language belongs to the Austronesian family, closer to Malay than to Vietnamese, and the sanctuary is dedicated principally to Shiva.
Around a hundred and sixty thousand people identify as Cham in Vietnam, with communities in Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan keeping temple rituals that descend from the ones performed here.
There is almost no visible mortar. How the Cham achieved joints that tight is still argued over — a tree resin, a brick-dust mortar, or firing the assembled structure as one object.
Not successfully. Twentieth-century repairs used ordinary cement and modern brick, and a century on those sections weather badly and stand out immediately from the original beside them.
The valley was bombed in 1969. The largest and finest tower, A1, was destroyed with much of its group, and craters remain between the temples.
Only after clearance. Unexploded ordnance had to be removed before visitors could be admitted at all, which is stated plainly on site.
The first hour is cooler and quieter, and low sun lifts the carving out of the brick in a way that midday light flattens completely.