Hello guys. Have you had any memorable trip recently?
My last weekend was perfect when I went with my friends to visit one of the famous destinations in Quang Nam and recognized by UNESCO as a World Cultural Heritage, which is My Son Sanctuary. It’s located in Duy Phu commune, Duy Xuyen district, Quang Nam province, about 69 km from Da Nang city. This is my first time coming here even though it's in my hometown, the reason is that it's quite far from my house. And now, I am going to introduce to you some locations in My Son Sanctuary through my photos.
On this trip, I also made new friends who I had not met before. We had the opportunity to meet through my best friend, who initiated this trip with her friends. I'm in my free time to do a project so I also want to join in with her, that's why I met them. Our house is quite far away so we decided to meet near my house. After the meeting, we started to leave at 8:15 am to go there by motorbike. This was our first time to My Son Sanctuary so our companion is Google Maps.
Along the way, you can see stone statues on concrete pillars, surrounded by hills with thousands of Tram trees on both sides of the road. On the way, it started to rain, fortunately the rain was not heavy and long. After the rain, the air is so fresh, it's great to hang out.
Finally, after 30 minutes driving motorbike, we arrived. It's more than I imagined before, it's very large and covered with huge green mountains. We parked the motorbike outside and started walking into the gate.
You had to buy tickets to visit at the ticket counter. For local people, the ticket price is 100.000 VND ⇔ $4,4, and for foreigners it is 150.000 VND ⇔ $6,7. We went in a group of 10 people, and we are all students so we got 2 free tickets. It is a reasonable price to admire the architecture and services here. To the right of the ticket gate are souvenir stalls, you can view and buy as gifts for loved ones or keep as a memory.
After entering the gate, we continued to walk about 500 meters. Because it rained before, the road was a bit wet and slippery. I think if it's sunny, the surrounding scenery will be better so you should check the weather forecast in advance if you plan to visit this place.
This is a bridge crossing a small stream which is also the official gate to enter the My Son Sanctuary including many Champa temples in different zones and Chăm Folk Art Performance Hall. Along both sides of the bridge are decorated with red flags of Vietnam.
On the other side of the bridge is a shuttle to My Son Site 2km (free service). You will be transported to the temples by “Tuc Tuc” car, it takes 5 minutes to commute. During the journey, you can admire the charming scenery on both sides of the road, there are small vertical streams with clear water.
After 5 minutes of traveling by car, we arrived and here is a view of the mountain covered white clouds in the distance. It really attracts me with the grandeur and poetic beauty of nature.
After going up a small slope, you will see group H of the sanctuary. This is a diagram of the group H. It was constructed on a small hill and consisted of four constructions: the main sanctuary kanla (it was opened to the East), hall mandapa, tower-gate gopura and treasury tower/ tower of fire kosagrha. It was raining so the way up was very slippery, there was a lot of moss clinging to the bricks so we had to move carefully.
Right below the foot of Group H is a Chăm Folk Art Performance Hall where you can watch the performance of the typical Cham dances of the artists here.
After waiting for about 5 minutes, you will admire the unique performances from the dancers. The graceful dances on the cheerful music make me feel very excited. Cham girls are extremely gorgeous in their traditional dresses and dances. One of the special things is that while dancing, the girls always have smiles on their lips, expressing their joy and love for life.
In addition, there is a unique combination of Sakanai trumpet and Ginang drum sound creating an extremely heroic sound. In order to perform an extremely methodical performance like this, the trumpeter needs to practice a good vocal cord to be able to prolong his breath without missing a beat. I was very surprised when I saw this performance because the artist held his breath very well when he took one breath in a row for about minute.
Besides the flexible dances with long costumes, there are dances with sexy bodies of the girls, extremely delicate and accented shapes. This is considered one of the typical dances in the great festivals of the Champa people.
After enjoying the special performances, we continue to move to another area of the sanctuary place which is the group BCD.
Art and architecture through the layout of temples and towers has a great influence of Indian style. The Sanctuary is made up of multiple tower clusters, each with a large tower (Kalan) in the center and numerous smaller sub-towers surrounding it.
Linga and Yoni are worshiped quite popularly by the Champa people and have their own characteristics. People have symbolized (Linga and Yoni) to worship Siva, considering Linga as the expression of positive characteristics, Yoni as the expression of negative characteristics of the god.
After about 2 hours of sightseeing and taking pictures here, we returned to the gate by Tuc Tuc car. The trip ended with a lot of knowledge about Champa culture through the historic site - My Son Sanctuary. I feel very grateful for the trip because it gives me not only knowledge but also new friends.
