Smash Travel Vietnam

Very rarely visited but, in many ways, one of the most exciting towers, Phú Lốc is a gigantic castle-like structure built at the top of a small hill. A narrow paved lane branches due east off Highway 1, winding through an increasingly medieval-feeling rural area.

When I visited, I stopped to ask directions from a clutch of bare-chested sinewy octogenarian men gathered in the shade of an ancient tamarind tree marking the site of an 18th century event during the Tây Sơn Rebellion. They pointed me down ever narrower lanes, passing haystacks drying in the sun and tethered oxen munching lethargically. I kept glimpsing the hilltop ruins through the foliage, but it always seemed to disappear again. The lane turned to dirt and led through a village cemetery beneath whispering eucalyptus trees at the foot of a hill. After dismounting my bike and walking along a steep, tight trail where arid bushes scratched my bare arms, I arrived at a grassy clearing.

Battered stone steps led up to Phú Lốc tower, standing resolutely on the hilltop as if it were a part of the natural landscape, unmoved by time. In the clearing, the tower cast a welcome shadow in which to sit and admire the view down over the plain, with the ancient capital of Vijaya and Cánh Tiên tower clearly visible to the south. The tower itself is big and time-worn. Partially restored, it’s lost none of its gravitas. Goats and cows roam beneath the tower and, sadly, there’s a lot of trash. Phú Lốc is apparently influenced by Khmer architecture, as the two kingdoms were constantly at war during the early 12th century, when the tower was constructed.

Only known to historians in the region since 1993, Hòn Chuông is a 12-metre-high Cham tower consisting of red bricks on top of a huge granite boulder marking the peak of a mountain in the Núi Bà Range, some 20km north of Quy Nhơn. Completely isolated and hidden from view, the tower is also cut off because there is no way up the boulder to reach it. In order to visit the site, it’s necessary to hike up the mountain and then climb the boulder. This remarkable tower still remains a mystery.