Ending our business trip in Saigon, we took an early bus from Mien Tay Bus Station and arrived in Sa Dec when the sun had not yet risen. After a restless sleep, enjoying a bowl of famous Nam Vang noodles and sipping a cup of strong coffee under a thick layer of ice, typical of the Southwest, all our senses were awakened, we set out to get acquainted and make friends with the largest marshland in Vietnam.
Travel, for us, includes: people, landscapes, culture and cuisine. So, the group started with Ong Pagoda and Ba Pagoda in Sa Dec City – the capital of Dong Thap province.
Kien An Cung or Ong Thap Pagoda is a unique architectural work.
Architecture in Dong Thap
Kien An Cung (Ong Quach Pagoda) is over a hundred years old with unique, splendid architecture, imbued with Chinese culture.
Ba Temple: the temple's full name is That Phu Thien Hau Cung, also known as Thien Hau Temple. The temple has a beautiful, colorful architecture imbued with traditional Chinese culture, worthy of being the only pair of "Mr. Pagoda and Mrs. Pagoda" located in the center of Sa Dec.
The most unique feature of Ba Pagoda is the large conical incense sticks with a prayer in the middle. When lit, the wishes of the person lighting the incense seem to be carried far away to Nirvana through the smoke.
Scenery at Ba Temple.
Huynh Thuy Le ancient house is located in the center of Sa Dec city on the banks of the poetic Tien River. This house, ranked as a National Monument, is famous for the love story recorded by French female writer Margueritte Duras in the novel "The Lover" (L'Amant) which was made into a film by director Jean - Jacques Annaud. The love story across the French - Chinese border with Huynh Thuy Le as the main character makes Sa Dec (Dong Thap) also the only place in Vietnam where the setting and origin of the famous foreign novel and film is located.
The owner of the old house is a Chinese landowner, so in the middle of the house is a statue of Quan De, the door is inlaid with mother-of-pearl with luxurious and elaborate Chinese architecture.
Near noon, the sun in the West was shining brightly but not harshly, we hailed a motorbike taxi and went while enjoying the cool, breezy winds of the Mekong Delta. On the way, we suddenly saw ancient brick kilns along the Sa Giang River (along Highway 80) which were built very beautifully and elaborately. We stopped the car and admired the strange and unique scene that made everyone in the group admire.
Huynh Thuy Le ancient house is located in the center of Sa Dec city.
Dong Thap lotus is famous throughout the country for its white and pink lotus that bloom very early. When we arrived in Dong Thap, it was only the beginning of April, but the vast lotus ponds were already in full bloom. In addition to beautiful flowers and fragrance, Dong Thap lotus also produces many precious products such as lotus heart (a tonic), fresh/dried lotus seeds, lotus silk, lotus milk, lotus shoots, etc.
However, the unique and only one is the Lotus Leaf Pagoda (Phuoc Kieng Pagoda, Hoa Tan Commune, Chau Thanh District) with its ancient architecture, beautiful scenery and a giant lotus tree in the back garden of the pagoda.
We were surprised to see lotus leaves with diameters of 1.5m - 2m. These giant lotus leaves are said to come from the Amazon (Brazil), with large, thick, sturdy leaves that can carry people or objects weighing up to 70kg. With a cover to prevent the leaves from breaking, you can stand on the lotus leaves to take pictures and experience this unique and interesting feeling.
Coming to Dong Thap, must visit beautiful flower gardens.
Sa Dec Flower Village was originally Tan Quy Dong Flower Village, a traditional craft village over 100 years old located on the banks of the Tien River, which is windy all year round, rich in alluvium, and filled with sunlight. Sa Dec Flower Village is known as the flower capital of the West. If we come here on the occasion of Tet, we will surely admire the spectacular scene with thousands of flowers blooming, spreading their fragrance as seen on TV, calendar photos... Early summer is not the main season so "go for the experience", but the Flower Village is no less splendid, full of life from newly sprouted seeds, plants in the nursery, flowers in buds...
Leaving Sa Dec, we took a bus to Cao Lanh ferry station, from Lap Vo district across Tien river to Cao Lanh city. Cao Lanh bridge has just opened to traffic, this ferry station has just stopped operating since 0:00 on August 24, 2020.
Arriving in Cao Lanh in the late afternoon, after checking into the hotel, the group gathered to visit the relic site with the tomb of Mr. Pho Bang Nguyen Sinh Sac, Uncle Ho's father. The tomb was designed and built solemnly, surrounded by shady old trees with many trees labeled "heritage trees".
Cuisine in Dong Thap
For dinner, we stopped by a typical Southwestern restaurant: the wooden entrance crossed the rice fields, surrounded by a vast lotus pond with a gentle fragrance, the restaurant was a row of huts with thatched roofs, the summer moonlight gradually rose, filling the space with the sound of fish splashing, the sound of frogs and toads croaking in the distance, creating a peaceful space with a ghostly atmosphere, so poetic that it made one feel light-headed.
“When you come to Dong Thap, you have to eat rats,” at first we thought our friend from the Southwest was joking when he said that. But the restaurant menu does have a few dishes made from… rats. The receptionist who greeted us and wrote down the dishes reassured us that the rats here are called “melaleuca squirrels”, they only eat rice, cajuput flowers, and cajuput tree sprouts, so they are very healthy and nutritious. Moreover, the restaurant has also been inspected by the authorities and confirmed to ensure food safety and hygiene.
A riverside restaurant in Dong Thap.
So, in addition to the typical dishes of the Southwest, we boldly ordered a plate of grilled rats in a clay pot. Everyone was curious, so when the flight attendant brought it up, everyone was eager, looking at it and trying it together: delicious, attractive, the taste was like other rodents that we had the chance to try: rabbits, squirrels, bamboo rats... The whole group was excited to enjoy this "slightly scary" but also very typical specialty for the first time.
Early the next morning, we woke up early to rent motorbikes to start the journey to the most awaited destination: Tram Chim Tam Nong, Dong Thap. The whole group packed up neatly, preparing for the journey of nearly 80 km (both ways) under the beautiful sunshine. On the way, we occasionally came across yards drying ripe, bright red chili peppers with a very special flavor. In particular, that time was the season of blooming O-moi flowers, a typical flower of this river region known as "Southwest cherry blossoms" blooming in clusters, showing off their beautiful bright pink color, making our whole group exclaim with delight, competing to admire and clicking cameras continuously.
After several days of wandering the river area, when we took a motorboat (tac rang) to Tram Chim, we still could not help but feel overwhelmed. Overwhelmed by the scale of the fourth largest Ramsar site (wetland) in Vietnam, overwhelmed by the dense, rich vegetation of the land where "six months of dry fields and burnt grass, six months of flooded fields". The feeling of being overwhelmed by the novelty and pleasure of weaving along the cool green canals, watching birds of all sizes and colors flying and searching for food. Tac rang is reserved for tourists to go on a separate path, often rushing so that birds rarely flock through that path, and occasionally there are a few flocks, they are very alert and sensitive, as soon as they see tourists raise their cameras, they disappear and fly away.
During the day, when birds scatter to find food, if you climb up to the observation tower in the middle of Tram Chim, you can only see the trees, leaves, canals, and the immense water of the Dong Thap Muoi region. But when the sun sets, flocks of birds return to their nests and fly across the sky, calling their flocks, making the space noisy. There are 233 species of waterfowl here, belonging to 25 genera and 49 families, of which 88% are found in the dry season, accounting for ¼ of the total number of bird species discovered in Vietnam on the land located in the territory of 7 communes: Tan Cong Sinh, Phu Duc, Phu Tho, Phu Thanh A, Phu Thanh B, Phu Hiep and Tram Chim town.
The trip ended with a drinking party on a motorboat in the middle of Tram Chim, with grilled loach, boiled snails with chili fish sauce, linh fish hotpot, stir-fried water mimosa flowers with fresh peeled shrimp... There were also fresh lotus seeds with sweet and bitter lotus heart. The spicy rice wine of the West made my lower lip soft. The sky was windy, full of water, swaying with white lotus, pink lotus, purple lotus, green grass, occasionally a bird stuck its long neck out of the bushes to look around and then flew away.
Reluctantly leave and make an appointment to return to Dong Thap one day to discover more interesting, unique and one-of-a-kind things only found in this place.
