All images © by Roberto Piperno, owner of the domain. Write to romapip@quipo.it.
Notes:
Page revised in September 2021.
Rome in the Footsteps of an XVIIIth Century Traveller
during a 2007 Trip(Japanese Bridge at Hoi An)
Introduction
Most travel agents "sell" a journey to the temples of Angkor in Cambodia together with a tour of Thailand or Vietnam and more recently Myanmar.
(left) A pagoda at the Mountains of Marble near Da Nang; (right) a sculpture factory near Hanoi
Organized tours often provide shopping opportunities, but in Vietnam, as well as in Myanmar, the main focus of the 2007 tour was on factories and shopping centres rather than on the actual historical sites which may have been the main reason some tourists decided to visit these countries in the first place. In 2007 on the second day of the tour our group was accompanied by a local guide to visit a factory near Hanoi where they make copies of famous statues, available for tourists to buy and have shipped home. On the fifth day of the tour a visit to a series of pagodas near Da Nang was dropped from the itinerary in order to visit a nearby factory to watch the production of yet more copies of statues. The tour guide announced the cancellation of the visit to the pagodas saying "We have already seen many pagodas".
This section is named Postcards from Vietnam because the tour did not allow for a proper visit to the most interesting monuments of the country.
Champa Heritage
Da Nang Museum: reliefs on Champa altars; the image used as background for this page shows a Champa capital
Da Nang Museum: Hindu deities worshipped by the Champa
Pagodas, Temples and other Monuments
Pagodas at Hanoi: (left) One Pillar Pagoda; (right) Tran Quoc Pagoda
Temple of Literature at Hanoi
Thien Mu Pagoda at Hue
Supreme Harmony Palace at Hue
Gate of the Imperial Palace at Hue
Cao Dai Temple at Saigon
Detail of Jade Emperor Pagoda at Saigon
Japanese Bridge at Hoi An
French Heritage
Presidential Palace at Hanoi, former residence of the French Governor
Cathedrals at Da Nang (left) and Saigon (right)
Railway Station at Saigon
An Excursion to Ha Long Bay
Ha Long Bay
Ha Long Bay
Ha Long Bay
Ha Long Bay
Ha Long Bay
Scenes of Ordinary Life
Farmers at work near Hanoi
Fighting evil spirits by using dragons (left) and avoiding number four (right) at Hanoi
Coping with heavy rain at Hoi An
XIXth century house at Hoi An
Market scenes at Hoi An
Houses on the river at Hue
Boat at Hue
A water buffalo in the River Mekong delta
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