Rob & Karen India 2010/11: Cham Museum, Football (and Harry Potter)

Da Nang Vietnam 8 Dec 2010

Breakfast in Da Nang

Well the old town is rocking tonight. Vietnam defeated Singapore 1 - 0 in the Suzuki Cup.

The AFF SUZUKI CUP is a biennial football competition organised by the ASEAN Football Federation and contested by the national teams of Southeast Asia.

We were walking around trying to find something to eat after the movies tonight and every single joint in town had the TV on watching the game. The little drinking bars were wall to wall with screaming fans. They love their football here.

We saw Harry Potter at the local megaplex and let me tell you, they have some much better ideas about running a Cinema here. First you get to choose where you sit from a floor plan when you buy your ticket and when you hit the snack bar you can buy an ice bucket of Heineken's for $5. Now everyone that knows me knows I don't drink but I can still appreciate the genius behind that idea. Imagine! A an ice bucket of Heinekens while you watch a film. Try that at Greater Union.

We did manage to fit in some cultural appreciation in our day also, taking in the Cham Museum.

From Wikipedia:

The Cham Kingdom was an Indianized kingdom of Malayo-Polynesian origins and controlled what is now southern and central Vietnam from approximately the 7th century through to 1832.

Champa reached its apogee in the 9th and 10th centuries AD. Thereafter began a gradual decline under pressure from Đại Việt, the Vietnamese polity centered in the region of modern Hanoi. In 1471, Viet troops sacked the northern Cham capital of Vijaya, and in 1697 the southern principality of Panduranga became a vassal of the Vietnamese emperor. In 1832, the Vietnamese emperor Minh Mạng annexed the remaining Cham territories.The capital city is now heritage listed.

There is a major Cham ruin South West of here that was excavated in the 1920's and a lot of the relics are on display at the local museum we visited. Interesting stuff.