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| A tiny little Santa Claus and a lotus candle |
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| One of Hoi An's best lantern makers |
It is Christmas Eve and, here in Hoi An, everyone has come out onto the streets to enjoy some special Christmas events. There is an open air concert of some traditional dancing and singing as well as some with a wonderful voice is singing some Abba hits and I confess, I was feeling a little wistful so I bought a lotus candle and floated it down the river to wish all of my friends and family a peaceful Christmas from half way across the world.
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| Fireworks at the open air concert |
All the lantern stalls were a blaze of colour and there was a real buzz around the town which has been rather quiet this week. I bought two lanterns to put up for 'Tet', the Vietnamese New Year celebrations in early February.
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| The riverside |
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| The streets are lit by lantern light at night |
In the oldest part of town all the streets are closed to motorbikes and some to bicycles which all adds to the party atmosphere.
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| The night market on An Hoi Island |
This is still the rainy season for this part of Central Vietnam and the town suffers from flooding. Tonight, the river actually broke its banks and I cycled through a few centimetres of water to reach the concert by the bridge.
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| The largest remaining temple at My Son |
Earlier today, I went to visit the ancient site of the Cham temples at My Son, about 50 kilometres from Hoi An. This religious site which is comparable to Ankor in Cambodia, was deserted by the Cham in the 1500s as the Chinese drove them south to the Mekong Delta. The whole area quickly became overgrown by jungle and lay untouched until the French rediscovered it in the 1890s. My Son is older than Ankor by some 5-700 years and its architects used a method of mortarless brick building that repels any incursion of lichens and mould that still confounds modern day archaeologists.
Unfortunately, this magnificent relic was mostly destroyed in 1969 by American Bombs during the Vietnam War and now visitors have to walk amid deep bomb crators to view the 50 or more temples and monuments.
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| Bomb crator |
It was the Germans and Italians who came into clear the site of unexploded amunition and land mines so work could begin on restoring the relics some day.
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| Types of bomb that littered the site |
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| Conservation works |
The French have extensive and detailed records of the site as they found it and the Italian government is funding some experiments to discover how they were constructed so that rebuilding can begin.
This site was established for the worship of Shiva, the three in one god who is the Creator, Conservator and Destroyer, the characteristics of all men.
This Christmas let us wish for a more peaceful world in which we can all be more creative and conserve all the good things we have. Let there please be an end to mindless killing and destruction.
