Tra Vinh

Up for our phenomenal buffet breakfast, and then we ready ourselves to meet up with Phan, who has kindly offered to get us to the bus station with appropriate directions for heading about 80 km further south into the delta, to the town of Tra Vinh.  As we come out of the breakfast room, Phan is waiting for us at the reception desk!  He offers to take us to the bus station, but we tell him that if he explains it, we can surely find it.  Way ahead of us, he has actually drawn us a map, and also made a sign for us with our two principal needs:  bus to the ferry(where we will cross free as pedestrians), and then a sign asking to be taken to the hotel we’ve picked out in Tra Vinh.  He’s not sure how we’ll get there but says we will probably have to take a motorbike taxi.  Oh dear….

After our chorus of gratitude and repeated handshakes, Phan is back to his office—just outside the hotel—, and we pick up our packs and are off.  We follow the map, but are still confused, only to have Phan show up again(!) on his motorbike, and point us a little further down the road.  We thought we’d missed the spot.  It’s not a bus station, but a bus stop!  He rapid-fires some instructions at one of the old ladies at the stop, and then tells us to follow her!  We’re off about 20 minutes later, and about 75 minutes later arrive at the ferry.  There is a small crowd waiting in the “holding pen”, and when the gates open, people flow onto the ferry, along with a few busses, trucks, and the pervasive motorbikes.  There is an Austrian tour bus group on board, and their guide seems to think we’re a bit off with our idea of spending much time in Tra Vinh, although it’s supposed to be one of the greenest, prettiest towns in the Delta.  Fifteen minutes later we’re across the water, and are instantly accosted by the mototaxi boys.  Lots of gestures and showing our newly acquired list of important phrases—thanks to Phan, once again—, we’ve closed the deal, and each get behind a motorbike driver, who hauls our pack between his legs on the front of the bike.  Helmets on and we’re off for about 30 km of countryside til we enter Tra Vinh town/city proper.  Luckily the drivers are conservative drivers by Vietnamese standards!!

We certainly can’t complain about our 3rd floor, basic room with a pleasant view and plenty of space.  It even has a TV with CNN and a small fridge—, all for US$12 a night.  We set off to find the local—and apparently only—tourist office, but it’s closed til afternoon.  We find a relatively innocuous café to have some iced coffee and tea(couldn’t make myself understood as to HOT tea!), and wile away a couple of hours, reading up on what we’d like to see.  We return to the office, and there get some basic idea of what’s possible.  It’s some sort of Vietnam Airlines office(amongst other things), and the attendant quickly phones a guide, who arrives on her motorbike about 20 minutes later.  It’s decided that we can see everything we want that very afternoon, and the new guide—Linh, a tourism student, and Helen,(she tells us to call her that) the attendant each hop on their respective motorbikes, hand us each a helmet, and we’re off again.  We visit a number of pagodas, some Khmer, others Chinese.  Tra Vinh has a significant Khmer population, as years ago, this area was all part of Cambodia. 

The Khmer practice a different sort of Buddhism, more like what is seen in Thailand, Myanmar and India.  The Chinese practice a Buddhism that is based on Taoism.  This is about the extent of our conversation.  Linh and Helen's spoken English is rather limited, but they are able to bridge the Vietnamese language barrier, and are pretty easy-going as far as waiting for us to take a wander around the sites and take what they clearly think are absurd photographs.   “I take photo you with….fill in the blank” is standard for Helen, while Linh is more shy and instead buys us wonderful sugar cane juice with lemon—poured into small plastic bags and festooned with a straw.  She also has us try small packets wrapped in steamed banana leaves, which, when unpacked have a pasty mix based on rice and some sugar, and fillings of beans or coconut.  Quite  delicious.  We are once again elevated to instant celebrity as foreigners.  Everyone waves and calls hello, goodbye, what’s your name—thereby exhausting their extensive English(compared to our Vietnamese, which has yet to progress beyond thank you).

About 4 hours later, we’ve woven through the thick streams of motorbikes and are safely back.  We’ve seen a great deal, and our guides are clearly worn a bit thin from having to “converse” in English for the duration.  We invite them out for something to drink, but Helen tells us in no uncertain terms, “you go hotel, me go my house".  Message received!

Below an array of photos, the most incongruous of all being the young monk busily playing some video game on his IPad at one of the pagoda's monastery grounds.  Buddha must be wondering about this new world!

		Around Tra Vinh VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL