Probably spelled wrong but after lunch we took a boat across the harbour to visit the Chum temple.. The chum dynasty spanned most of asia, I was told by Sonny that they originated from what is now known as Iraq and Iran.. They were unique in that it was a matriarchial society.. The rules of their society was that the women operated a polygamous lifestyle.. this particular temple was dedicated to the "queen" of this period.. She had 97 husbands.. Conversely Sonny said that where polygamous societies exist from a patriarchial perspective, the average number of wives were 5.. I figured it's because thats the number of men it takes before a women finds good ones... men the same... same same but different..
In any event, the men had a dowry paid for them, and they became indentured until either they produced progeny or could repay the amount paid for them.. However being a matriarchial society all inheritances were distributed to the women, with the youngest daughter recieving the majority of the share since the elder sisters were usually married with a number of men to support and nuture her as it should be!!!!!!!!!!!!.
What is also unique about this particular temple is that it is the only / first temple with heavy islamic influences.. The others are either hindu or buddhist in origin... It has been said that the Apsara dancers shown on the temple was then transported to the larger hindu temples that can be seen in Ankor Wat etc...
Now however there are less than 500,000 chum/shum left in the world mostly in Vietnam but also in Laos and Cambodia..
Unanimously we decided to miss the mudbaths in favour of a massage with the "blind hands" foundation.. Again an organisation that has been training the blind in the art of massage as a means of enabling them to become self-supporting... Sounded great, was helping in a more practical way the less fortunate, and *fingers crossed* we were also going to benefit.. (Hmmmm..)
I dawdled getting off the bike having a chat with my driver, and also getting a picture of him.. The smart ones took off up the stairs and by the time I got to the massage room there was one table left free.. this one however was directly in front of the glass door.. No worries Sonny goes, they're blind... So getting comfortable I started to undress... Just as I was undoing my bra, this random guy walks past the door... "No worries they're blind" runs through my head until he stops and keeps looking... Duh!! The ones giving the massages are blind, BUT the ones GETTING one are not... So ok there was a curtain on the door but the hooks didn't fully close it, and each time I closed it, one of them came in to deposit their kit of oil.. (There were 4 of us in the room waiting).. Anyway, settled down for a massage all of us... There were 2 women and 2 men.. I got one of the men.. Their tables are small, so I kept moving around on the table.. again silly thing to do... He was blind, and the bits of you that he was expecting to be in some places had miraculously moved so his hands landed on unexpected places for both him and I... It started to get really uncomfortable when I was actually thinking, "OMG I hope thats something in his pocket" because there was protustions where there ought not be when you're getting a massage... Anyway had to turn over on my back and he proceeded with a facial massage... I don't know whether it was the lack of response or he's not familiar with large eyed people, but the bastard started hitting me in the eyes... On the pretext of massaging my eyebrow line... Came out a little worse for wear and a wee bit cynical about going to another blind massage parlour with dodgy curtains, glass doors, clients wandering corridors and small massage tables...
Oh well the rest of them seemed to have a good time, although Michelles asked her, her age and she thought hers (again male) also had something in his pocket that like mine was happy to walk up and down the length of the table continuously... Needed a shower after that experience, and a stiff (cancel that) tall drink.. Got back to hotel in time to grab some food for the train and head away to Hoi An.
Tutu and Dudu :o) xoxox
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