Hi all,
Last weekend Isabel and I went to Tra Vinh to spend some time with our friend Vincent. Vincent is a fellow volunteer, and is working at Tra Vinh University. He has a beautiful, modern two room appartment with kitchen and AC. It made me jealous. The town of Tra Vinh is very pretty, with low buildings, tree-lined streets, and lots of farming and space.
I tried to go to Tra Vinh on Friday, but arrived at the bus station at 415 to learn that the last bus of the day left at 4pm, who knew? So, i decided to take the first bus Saturday morning, at 5am. I woke around 4:15am, wandered around deserted Can Tho until i found a cab driver sleeping in his car, and caught a ride to the bus station. Upon arriving i was told that the bus actually leaves at 540! I grabbed a Banh Mi (sandwich) for breakfast, and watched the sunrise in the bus, while reading Stieg Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. The bus finally pulled out around 6am, stopping constantly to pick up more riders, and passing right by the corner near my house. It turned out I had caught the super local bus. The ride took about 3.5 hours, and very very bumpy, yet pretty.
I arrived around 9:30am, and we were supposed to have left to go to Vincent's student's house at 8:00am, so we promptly downed some cafe, and headed for the countryside. We then were given the Tra Vinh life experience!
We spent the afternoon at a beautiful house and farm in the countryside. The woman of the house is known as one of the best cooks in the province, and she prepared her specialty for us: dog!!!! I have been interested in trying dog since i have come to Vietnam, and i was not disappointed. Dog is a dark, tender meat. Somewhere in between lamb and pork and beef. We also had a ton of other great dishes: hot pot, cari ga, and fresh plums for dessert. We also downed about 6L of rice wine, locally made. Traditionally you are given a shot glass, you drink half and ask someone else to finish it for you. A very social and fun drinking tradition.
After lunch we wandered around the farm. We saw the 600 some chickens the family is raising, and their vast sugarcane, coconut, and rice fields. We all had a go at climbing coconut trees, which is much harder than it looks! Luckily our host had a big pole-arm, and we chopped down plenty of young coconuts. Their juice was especially refreshing after all the rice wine we had consumed at lunch!
After lunch some of us took naps on the plentiful hammocks around the family's courtyard. Others went and played volleyball in the local dirt court. Needless to say, we got annihilated by the local competition. After a wonderful afternoon at a country house, we hopped on moto's to take the 45 min ride back to Tra Vinh. We timed our trip perfectly with sunset, it was truly a spectacular trip back. I felt as though i really took a journey through both the rice fields and the spirit of Vietnam. It was cool.
After a quick nap, we went out for a great night on the town. We visited three different night spots, with food and drink at each. The first we had rice wine and snails. The next was fried tofu with black beer. Finally we went and had Bia Hoi( local draft beer, about 65 cents for 2L) with grilled okra and beef. It was a great night, and we all sampled healthy from the local food and drink! The black beer tasted surprisingly like all the other beer in Vietnam, i am a little suspicious that the color was added.
The next day we visited a few Pagodas, Tra Vinh has about 140 Khmer pagodas. Then we hopped on a bus back to HCMC. The ride was supposed to be 3.5 hours, it took 5. Such is travel in Vietnam.
This weekend Isabel and i are going to Da Lat! I am super excited, as i have heard so many great things about the town. Da lat is located in the highlands, has a temperate climate, and was the favorite retreat for the french in colonial times. All my students tell me it is a very romantic place to visit. After the weekend Isabel has to go back to work in HCMC. I am off until January, so i am spending the week in Nha Trang, the most famous beach town in Vietnam. Finally i will head back to HCMC by friday, to welcome my father back to Vietnam, after many years.
Thats all for now, I hope you enjoy the photos!
Moto ride to the countryside!
Some of the roads were quite narrow!
Tra Vinh has 140 Khmer pagodas.
Yum, springrolls, braised tofu, lots of spice.
We had about 6L of rice wine throughout the day.
The dish of dark meat on the table is dog, as is the meat in my chopsticks. Don't tell the cute pup on the floor!!!
A few of the family's compound from their fields.
It was a perfect afternoon!
Climbing a coconut tree is a lot harder than i thought!
I love coconut juice!
Don't tell the cute puppy on my lap that i just ate dog...
More rice wine!
Black beer
Grill-your-own beef and okra, with cheap local beer!
The pagodas had great facades.
The inside of one of the pagodas.
Lot's of beautiful carvings.
