The Big 3-0

For Paul's birthday, we went to My Son, the ruins of the Champa Kingdom near Hoi An, Vietnam. Since our stay in Hue had been so wet, we were worried about rain in Hoi An, especially for this trip to My Son. However, Paul's birthday ended up being one of the nicest weather days we had in Vietnam. We even saw the sun, which we were both beginning to think didn't appear in Vietnam.

As a part of his turning-thirty/ turning-a-new-leaf, Paul decided to wake up before 5am to go on the early morning trek to the ruins. (This also meant that we would be some of the only people there.) We reached our destination just after sunrise, had a cup of coffee as we waited for the park to open, and then drove up a rocky path to the sight of the ruins. Paul took many pictures of the sight, and I took many pictures of Paul, and we fell behind the tour group we had arrived with. They ended up waiting for us in the van while we bought bought a small statue commemorating our visit.

We returned to our hotel before ten, taking advantage of the free buffet breakfast, then spent time packing our belongings and showering, before we went on our next journey: finding the rice fields we could see from our balcony. Since Paul enjoys tormenting his travelling companions, we walked for about forty minutes in the wrong direction. He loved it: we got to see a bit of a real neighborhood, and he took some pictures of boats on the river. In the end, I went back to rest at our hotel while Paul found the fields for pictures.

Hoi An is a sleepy and picturesque little town. Because it lost much of it's trade to Danang, it wasn't wealthy enough to be bombed in the war; and thus managed to retain a lot of it's traditional architechture. The town itself is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We had a late lunch in a little cafe overlooking the river. Paul had a half-dozen mango shakes; we did a bit of shopping and picture-taking before catching our flight to Saigon.

Unfortunately, the traditional Patterson-family ice cream cake will have to wait until we return to Korea. All of the bakeries were closed by the time we reached Saigon.