Quy Nhon

Quy Nhon has spent the last few years becoming one of Vietnam's fastest-growing arrivals, for exactly the reason Da Nang and Nha Trang no longer can: wide, genuinely uncrowded beaches inside a working fishing town rather than a resort strip. Colourful boats still crowd the harbour each morning. The pace of the place has changed little, even as international interest has grown sharply.

Eo Gio, the Wind Gap, cuts a dramatic notch through black volcanic cliffs on the town's northern edge. Ky Co's turquoise cove, reached by a short boat ride, delivers the kind of clear water Vietnam's more developed coast largely lost decades ago. Inland, the twin brick Cham towers of Thap Doi stand as a quieter, far less visited counterpart to Hoi An's better-known heritage sites, and worth the detour for exactly that reason.

We arrange private boat access to Ky Co ahead of the day-tripper fleet from the mainland, and time a coastal drive along Eo Gio for the late-afternoon light the cliffs are named for.

Binh Dinh province, whose capital Quy Nhon is, was the heart of the Cham kingdom of Vijaya from around the eleventh to the fifteenth century, and several of its finest surviving towers stand here still. They see far fewer visitors than My Son, near Hoi An, which means you can study the brickwork, the carved sandstone and the setting of each site in near silence. This circuit takes in three groups: Banh It on a hilltop north of the city, Duong Long inland, and Thap Doi in Quy Nhon itself.

The Cham were a Hindu and later partly Buddhist people who ruled much of central and southern Vietnam for more than a thousand years. Their towers, known as kalan, housed images of the gods, chiefly Shiva, built from fired brick laid with remarkable precision, possibly using a plant-based resin rather than mortar. Exactly how remains debated among archaeologists.

Banh It, also called the Silver Towers, stands on a hill above the rice fields and the coastal highway. Four structures survive: the main temple, a gate tower, a treasury with an unusual saddle-shaped roof, and a stele house. From the hilltop, the view runs across the plain to the mountains, and the arrangement itself shows how the Cham positioned their temples within the landscape.

Duong Long, the Ivory Towers, are the tallest of the three, the central tower rising some forty metres, decorated in sandstone carvings of Garuda, naga serpents, dancers and lotus patterns, some of it still sharp enough to read. Thap Doi, in the city, has two towers with curved roofs whose corners once carried sculpted figures of Garuda; their silhouette, closer to Khmer architecture than other Cham sites, hints at Vijaya's old links with Angkor.

Guides here explain the history of Vijaya, its wars with the Khmer and the Dai Viet, its fall in 1471, and how the Cham communities still living in southern Vietnam relate to these sites today.

February to August brings the driest weather, and a morning start avoids the midday heat, which can be intense on the exposed hilltops. Wear comfortable shoes, a hat and sun protection, and bring water.

Three to four days works well here: the city and the Cham towers on the first, Ky Co and Eo Gio on the second, and one or two more to relax on the beaches or explore the fishing villages.