Day 13: MySon, Silk factory and more

It took me like an hour to upload this post, the internet connection in this hotel really sucks (half an hour to download IrfanView so I can resize the photos to upload them).

Today we went to see MySon, a Hindu temple complex about 30km from Hoi-An.

It was the site of religious ceremony of kings of the Champa dynasty, and was also a burial place of Champa royals and national heroes.

According to our guide (this is what he said, I never checked the facts...) in the days of the french occupation the vietnamese people were split into two, the north and the south, the north was controlled by the communist party with Ho Chi Minh at their head and the south was under french control. After the french fell, the Americans took over and turned the government to a more western one. In a few years the north wanted to take back control over the south, this was done by the Vietcong who infiltrated the south and fought the Americans.

It was a very conflicted war, because many vietnamese people supported the US (mostly the younger ones, because at the south they could get better education and better jobs, and the western way life is more appealing to the young generation).

The MySon complex was heavily bombed by the Americans during the war (the Vietcong hid in the temples, and when they cooked, the Americans saw the smoke and bombed the hell out of the temples).

Here are some photos of the temples:

Here's another little lizard:

Later on we went to a silk factory and saw how silk was made, at first you can see the worms:

The worms become cocoons:

The cocoons are turned to silk strings by this machine:

And finally, silk fabric is created from the strings by this machine:

Afterwards I bought a boat (about 50cm long boat model), I always wanted something like that!, isn't it awsom?

By the way, an interesting fact: there are over 500 tailor shops in Hoi-An!