Day 23 Saigon to Da Nang and Hoi-an

Arrived in Da Nang and were met by Hao our guide and Vu driver who took us to the Cham museum of sculpture which is near the Dragon Bridge. Inside the museum, there are many sculptures from various centuries mostly 7th to 12th and taken from several nearby historical sites such as My Son sanctuary. The museum houses the world’s largest collection of Cham sculptures.
Many of the sculptures have Hindu-like statues of gods, goddess, dancers, elephants, birds etc. which were part of the art and culture religion during the Champa kingdom from 192 through 1832. Our guide gave us a good history on the region and the prior occupancy and ethnic groups of the country.

Then we checked in at our fabulous beachfront hotel on the South China Sea coast and off to Hoi An for lunch at a well known cooking school and market restaurant Ms Vy’s. We ate an assortment of local and regional dishes – spring rolls, duck, chicken and rice. After lunch we meandered around Hội An,  a city on Vietnam’s central coast known for its well-preserved Ancient Town, cut through with canals. The former port city’s melting-pot history is reflected in its architecture, a mix of eras and styles from wooden Chinese shop houses and temples to colorful French colonial buildings, ornate Vietnamese tube houses and the iconic Japanese Covered Bridge with its pagoda. It is filled with shops, restaurants, temples, street vendors and tourists walking and biking throughout the area.  Happy hour followed with bevvies on a roof top bar overlooking the river.