Private My Son Sanctuary Tour

My Son Sanctuary is a microcosm of Viet Nam, past & present.  Your Xuan Tu Private Tour of this historic site from either Da Nang or Hoi An encompasses much of Vietnamese history; The Champa Kingdom, Hinduism, Chinese Invasion, the rise of the Viet’s, the French colonial period, The Vietnam War, UNESCO recognition of Viet Nam’s culture & history, plus more recent links between our government and countries such as Poland, Germany, Italy and Japan who helped to save many My Son statutes & relics and provided maintenance of the site.

My Son is Vietnam’s most extensive Champa Kingdom’s architectural remains, dating from the 4th to 13th centuries – although recent investigation suggests the site may have been active even earlier.  The Champa ruled central & southern Vietnam from around the 2nd century until the first conquest by the Dai Viet emperor in 1471 and their final absorption into the Vietnamese state in 1832.  My Son went into steady decline until rediscovery by the French in the late 1800’s who for many years restored parts of the complex.  After the unification of Vietnam in 1975, conservation work began again in earnest and now the conservation of the property is of a high standard with both national and international teams working on site 

In addition to its natural decline, Indo-China Wars and WW2 saw damage to the site, but it was 3 days in August 1968 that saw substantial destruction of the site and its jungle surrounds by carpet bombing which reduced the number of upright tower-temples to around 23 and this is the evocative site you see today.  

Our tour was scheduled by the company for an afternoon departure which was ideal, as by the time we arrived at My Son it was almost deserted and we avoided all the bus loads of tourists from the morning. It was also much cooler to walk around

– Client TripAdvisor Review

My private half day tour starts at your hotel lobby in Da Nang or Hoi An, and in our modern air conditioned vehicle my professional driver take us to the entrance of this amazing site.  Located in a hidden valley the sumptuous jungle setting is overlooked by Cat’s Tooth Mountain (My Son in Vietnamese is ‘beautiful mountain’).  We can make comfort stops to freshen-up if required. 

From the entrance we take a short buggy ride and once in the sanctuary we are treated to a short cultural show of Champa song & dance – thankfully the Champa people still remain in Vietnam, albeit as a minority.  We guide you around the site, look especially at the carved brick built structures which appears to have no mortar holding them together!  

My Son was recognised by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in the late 1990’s so you will see a gradual and on-going restoration to some structures. I am often asked what happened to artefacts, statutes etc found on-site. Many were taken to France during their 100 year colonization of my country, whilst locally others are well preserved in My Son’s own small museum and also displayed in the Museum of Champa Sculpture in Da Nang.  

Late afternoon and we finally have to leave this beautiful and historic place to retrace our steps back to your hotel in Da nang or Hoi An.