Danang/Hue/HoiAn 2025 - Danang Cham Sculpture Museum Level 2

 

I was surprised that the path leading up to the second floor looked rather modern. I was expecting stairs, maybe dark stairs way leading up. But this design is so opened! And so bright!

There were some history section of this 100 year old museum. It used to be a house I think, or maybe a government building, before being turned into this lovely museum. 

There were less heavy-weighted items on display at the second floor, like embroidery. 

At the hall way around the second floor, there were also miniature replica of ancient Cham temples or tombs. I really like these, especially since I've seen many in Angkor Wat. All these were replica of actual sites, and their names were displayed on each one.

Here is an example of one. 

Stones with writing on them, and probably a deity's feet, or what is left of it. Do you see the round things below with a dot? Those are actually designs that looked like nipples. Female forms, fertility, nature. It was after all, a very agricultural and farming society. So the female breast was something adored in the culture that they often put this design in their sculpture. 

This sculpture just looks interesting to me. Looked like an old western man with mustasche.

This one was also interesting because they showed wheels!

They also have a section which was like an archive, and they just dumped whatever that cannot be categorised here. Perhaps it was just overwhelming amount of sculptures that they have. Or perhaps they are waiting for some area to complete renovation first before displaying there. But it was still fun to walk around these and you felt like you are in an old antique shop looking for treasures.

And among those treasures you found these! Lol. I've actually brighten up the photos before posting them here. It was rather dark in the archive room. 

Danang/Hue/HoiAn 2025 - Danang Cham Sculpture Museum Level 1 (2/2)

This blog is all the lovely sculpture that I found inside the Cham Sculpture Museum, Danang. We probably spent around an hour inside the museum, and it was rather lovely. I like taking photographs of those exhibit I find beautiful and touching, so that I may display them here on my blog. I take this blog like a personal museum and art gallery of my life :) And I want it to be filled with things I love. 

All these lovely sculptures not only captures the artistic talent and workmanship of the people who created them, but I think it also captured the love and worship of their gods and religion. I am always fascinated by religious art, even though I am an atheist my whole life.

Some were similar in looks and it was hard to tell them apart after a while.

So much work must have gone into each pieces.

Some reminded me of Indonesia Bali style sculptures. Or those guardians in Bangkok Palace. All originating from the same source, Hinduism. Yet they have also morphed into their own intepertation of each culture.

This one even looked Japanese!

Some in meditative post.

Others in the dance of life.

Some, I guess, just standing there..... There was a story about this lady. I just can't remember it.....

But how elegant they look.

This one was kinda like a whole piece put together like a jigsaw puzzle. At that time I didn't knew it yet, but this now looks like a tomb, or something inside a mausoleum. Kinda like a rich man's tombstone. Cause now that I look back on this, it reminded me like how one of the mausoleum looked like in Hue.....

This is the front view of it. What do you think?

I love that you could still see the greens and natural sunlight outside. It had been raining slightly when we stepped into the museum. So it was rather humid. A very appropriate vibe of a Cham Museum :P

I leave you here with some elephant sculpture.

Danang/Hue/HoiAn 2025 - Danang Cham Sculpture Museum Level 1 (1/2)

 

After a light lunch/tea, we took another short work to visit our first attraction. I wasn't sure if my friend was interested in museums, but I've asked if it was ok for us to stop by here before we proceed to the Dragon Bridge area. The entrance was only around 2sgd, so I guess that's why she didn't object. This was the Cham Sculpture Museum. The reason I wanted to visit this museum was because my cousin actually told me it was quite worth a visit, plus after visiting Angkor Wat, I think Cham sculptures are so beautiful and I wanted to see more of them. 

The main entrance of the museum was actually under renovation when we were there. But from inside the museum, we could see that they have kept all the ancient trees growing there. I think these trees add to the vibe of Cham Culture. I bet it would be lovely once the renovation has been completed. 

The museum was two storeys tall, and each storey has a few exhibition hall. The main sculptures were on the ground floor, with exhibit and paintings on the second floor.

Here is a view of the central hall of the museum. It looked rather dark when we were visiting. I suspect perhaps the lightings are motion detected and turns on when you walk by. It was slightly air-conditioned inside, but it was still kinda hot and humid. But because the building was full concrete and decorated with historical sculpture, it was pretty cooling after you've cooled down.

The quality of the sculpture on display was really good too. Very well exhibit, and definitely worth the entrance fee to visit. They also have a ruin called Son Sanctuary which you could visit. I always thought Cham was only in Cambodia, and since I've seen the ones in Angkor Wat, I did not plan to visit Son Sanctuary on this trip. 

Some of the sculptures. They do looked kinda Greek don't they?

There were a lot of Hindu influenced head sculptures which probably belonged to temples at one time.

And I don't know whether this was intentional or a maintenance issue, but you could see moss or algae growing on the walls of some of the museums. With such a big patch there, I would think it's intentional? It does add to the vibe of the whole museum, with the paints falling off at some part etc. 

Danang/Hue/HoiAn 2025 - Danang Arrival and Hotel

Back again from another trip to Scotland, and I've decided that I'll continue on my travel blog with a Central Vietnam trip I took last year 2025 June/July period with my friend. It's amazing how one single trip cause result in me spending so much time on planning it, experiencing it, and eventually blogging about it. I must say the planning and the experiencing part took less time and more fun, and the blogging part is tedious and long. But the blogging part is essential as it allows me to relive my trip more vividly. So let's start. Above photo as our flight approaches Central Vietnam. How green!

Central Vietnam was an area I have not explored before. I've worked in Ho Chi Minh and have travelled to Hanoi, Sapa, Nga Trang before. But Central Vietnam was totally new to me. I've originally target to visit Danang and Hoi An which was the only two places I've heard about. But as I did my research, I decided to add Hue in last minute since it's a UNESCO site, and it has mausoleum! Above photo of our flight approaching Danang Airport. The airport is super close to the town, so it was a convenient place to go visit. 

Danang also has many river and bridges. We flew in via Vietjet, and it was my first time flying this airline. The booking and the check-in was a bit different from normal airlines. I think they are a budget airline? Cause when I was booking it, it default to add check-in luggage for me and proceeded to charge me for it before I realised it.....But I have one good thing to say about the flight though, the landing was one of the best I've experienced. I could hardly tell when the wheels touched the ground!

I don't remember that we have to walk down to the ground to transfer to the airport. I just remembered that the immigration there was quite horrific! There weren't much queueing system. There was just a hang of people. There were dedicated counters for foreigners, but it seems that the locals were also queueing there. Basically, it was anything goes. And it was slow too. I think it took us almost an hour just to clear immigration. I was hoping there was an ASEAN queue which Ho Chi Minh airport, and I think even Hanoi airport has. It used to be so much quicker travelling around among ASEAN countries, but it seems these days even going back to Malaysia for me is a long queue after they integrated the international passports into our e-Gate system.....

Me and my friend were going to be spending around 10 days in Vietnam. We were going to only be spending one night in Danang before we took the train to Hue. So I've booked us an expensive hotel called Mitisa Hotel. The reason I booked this was because it was within walking distance to the Dragon Bridge, yet not around that area. It was also closed to the train station. 

It looked like a typical ASEAN old hotel. Perhaps it floods a lot around the area, cause most of the shops and hotels on the road has stairs leading up to the main entrance. It was just a simple place for us to spend the night while while we explore the night scenes of Danang. The hotel cost us about 70sgd a room for the night, and it included breakfast.

Here is a photo tour of some of the facilities of the hotel. It does have a roof top area, but it was closed during the day. One thing about Vietnam is, they like roof top gardens or area where you can enjoy the view and the night sky. 

Just outside was the pool, infinity pool too! We didn't swim during our trip even though we both did brought our swim wears. I think it's so troublesome if you are visiting each places for just a few days, cause the wet swim suit seems to take forever to dry!

The view from the roof top overlooking Danang City was quite impressive. It was almost a 360 degree view. You could see the mountains, as well as all the way to the sea. 

This is the view towards the river. Ok maybe you can see all the way to the river, not the sea, my bad.

I know that there are quite a lot of investment from the Japanese in Vietnam. Was this view this view above kinda reminded me of a small town in Japan? 

As mentioned, roof top seating is a thing in Vietnam. So there were seats here, and I bet it's lovely at night. I used to spend a few nights up on the roof of our hotel when I was working in Ho Chi Minh myself. It was always quiet, and for some reason we were the only ones there. 

After checking in and freshening up, we took a short walk around the hotel area and found this Cha Cafe. It was kinda late afternoon by then, and we thought we'll look for some light lunch to eat. The small road side nearby do have local food, but somehow I didn't feel that my friend wanted to eat there. So we decided on this rather nice looking, but dessert cafe.

I got a baguette and a salted coffee latte. It was cafe price, not road side price. And I didn't have high hopes for it, but goodness, maybe ALL baguette taste awesome in Vietnam. Oh sorry, maybe I should say Banh Mi instead, which is the correct term. It was delicious! And the salted coffee just hits all the right spot after a short buy exhausting flight to Vietnam. For a fancy tea break, I would recommend this place. 

Manchester/Scotland 2025 - My Favourite Souvenirs

 

This post is about all my favourite souvenirs I got from my first trip to Scotland. I think all of them were bought on my last day there! Above is a pretty nice tea set that was an accidental buy. In fact, it was the last thing I bought, and it was an impulsive buy. It cost me 8pounds for the whole set, and I hand carried it all the way back. I bought it in a little tea shop on Victoria Street. It was such an impulsive buy that I might have not checked it properly and discovered that there is a crack on the tea cup itself. I was scared it would break, so I try to use it only on cold tea instead of hot tea. It was been more than a year now, and it's still held up pretty well! I love the colour and the design of the set, cause it reminded me of Scotland every time I use it. For sure I've used it more than 8 times now, so it has now become a value buy for me :)

Here are some of the ways I use it for my afternoon tea. I don't know why, but ever since I got my two tier cake plate, I've been having a lot of afternoon tea lately. It has become like a ritual, or a relaxing way to enjoy my tea and something sweet :) The two tier cake plate cost me only 10sgd from Daiso Plaza Singapura. I remember it very well cause I bought it after being frustrated when I found out afternoon at the Edinburgh Castle cost around 80pounds a set. With such ridiculous pricing, I might as well make my own afternoon tea! And I've been doing just that for a lovely year now :)  One day I'll consolidate all the tea sets on this blog to remember them by :)

Next we come to probably my most expensive souvenir, a book on the Occult, Witchcraft and Magic! How cool is that. I got this from the Museum of Context on Victoria Street too, and it cost me 30pounds! And the weird thing is, after one year, I think I've only read a few pages of it! It sits next to my bed, and I really love seeing it there. It was madness for me to buy this book, but I love it so much! It's not just a fancy book too, it detailed all the history of the said subject as well as from different counties. And there was only one book on display there, and I just decided to carry it all the way home :)

Let me show you the some sample of the inside of the book. Above some of the text and picture. It was so detailed! So much words! And so much ancient information too. Who ever compiled this book seriously have an interest on it as a historian or scholar. It wasn't one of those wishy washy witch book for teenage girls. And I am as surprised as you how such a wonderful book was found in the corny Museum of Context for Harry Potter fans..... :X  Actually I did researched on a few books before I decided on this one, cause it has the best review too. I was stunned at the price, but I had some leftover souvenir money to spend, and I didn't know if I would come across such a book again. Besides, I don't really spend much of my money buying stuff anyway. So why be so frugal if I don't treat myself from time to time?

The inside of the page after the Cover. Bright red is so striking!

Lots of these medieval looking pictures in the book too! It's almost like I bought a whole museum back. I guess 5 pounds of the cost of the book came from my savings from not visiting the Museum of Magic and Witchcraft which well, didn't look too 'dedicated' to the craft when I tried to visit it....

And lastly, one of the things I wanted was a Celtic designed pendent. I actually have one before, I think I got it from my first trip to England long time back. It was the trinity knot. I wanted something with a black stone this time, and I got the above pendent from a shop on Royal Mile. My husband actually bought it for me, and I was surprised that it was pretty reasonable priced. For my 2nd trip, I am thinking of getting a Celtic ring, something Outlander style that some ladies have recommended on social media. Let's see if I am successful in my quest :)

And so we end here for our Manchester/Scotland 2025 blog posting. I wonder which travel blog should I do next. I have so much backlog to clear! I am surprised I managed to finish this one rather efficiently and before the deadline I gave myself. I even had 1 week to spare! With being stuck at home cause transport is so darn expensive in Singapore, updating this blog has become my sideline to spend part of my days. I love going back to re-live all the memories of a trip, and I know that once I upload them here, I would constantly be able to come back and recall those wonderful trip I had :)  So it's not a wasted effort at all for me. Even if blogs don't last forever, as long as they are still here, they bring me great joy writing and re-reading them :)