Rough Guide to Vietnam - Jan Dodd [116]
At the foot of the mountain the first pagoda you’ll see is kitsch, 1847-built Tay An Pagoda, the pick of the bunch, its frontage awash with portrait photographers, beggars, incense-stick vendors and bird-sellers (releasing one from captivity accrues merit). Guarding the pagoda are two elephants, one black, one white, and a shaven-headed Quan Am Thi Kinh. The number of gaudy statues inside exceeds two hundred: most are of deities and Buddhas, but an alarmingly lifelike rendering of an honoured monk sits at one of the highly varnished tables in the rear chamber. To the right of this room an annexe houses a goddess with a thousand eyes and a thousand hands, on whose mound of heads teeters a tiny Quan Am.
Chua Xu Temple, 50m to the right beyond Tay An, honours Her Holiness Lady of the Country, a stone statue said to have been found on Sam’s slopes in the early nineteenth century, though the present building, with its four-tiered, glazed green-tile roof, dates only from 1972. Inside, the Lady sits in state in a marbled chamber, resplendent in colourful gown and headdress. Glass cases in corridors either side of her are crammed to bursting with splendid garb and other offerings from worshippers, who flood here between the 23rd and 25th of the fourth lunar month, to see her ceremonially bathed and dressed. Shops in front of the temple sell colourful baskets of fruit that locals buy to offer to Her Holiness. Multi-storey Chua Hang (Cave Pagoda), a few hundred metres further along, is a popular stopping-off point for local tourists, although the tiny grotto after which the pagoda is named is rather a let-down after the sweaty ascent.
Even if the temples don’t appeal, it’s fun to walk (approx 30min) or take a xe om up the mountain itself. Turn left at the base of the mountain, then take the first turning on the right after about 300m. As you climb, you’ll pass massive boulders that seem embedded in the hillside, as well as some plaster statues of rhinos, elephants, zebras and a Tyrannosaurus rex near the top. From the top, the view of the surrounding, pancake-flat terrain is breath-taking, though the hill is, in fact, only 230 metres high. In the rainy season, the view is particularly spectacular, with lush paddy fields scored by hundreds of waterways, though in the dry season the barren landscape is hazy and less inspiring. There’s a tiny military outpost at the summit, from where you can gaze into Cambodia, and from the other side you can also look back over Chau Doc. A small refreshment stall at the top sells cool drinks in case you forgot to bring water.
The Mekong Delta |
Southwest to Ba Chuc and Tup Duc
With your own transport, by joining a tour (about $25; (see "Chau Doc and around")) or by hiring the services of a xe om driver (about $15–20), it’s possible to explore both Ba Chuc and Tup Duc, located in a sweep of staggeringly beautiful countryside southwest of Chau Doc. Refugees fleeing Pol Pot’s Cambodia boosted the Khmer population here in the late 1970s, and pursuit by the Khmer Rouge ended in numerous indiscriminate massacres; a grisly memorial to one of these, at the village of Ba Chuc (see "Southwest to Ba Chuc and Tup Duc"), lends a tragic focus to a trip through the region. It’s about 40km from Chau Doc to Tri Ton and another 10km or so to Ba Chuc.
After rounding Sam Mountain, the road is raised up above paddy fields that are etched by an intricate canal system. Beyond a left fork at Nha Bang, the variable road chicanes through gently sloping hills. There’s a timeless grandeur to the scenery here: distant waterways are lined by spiky thot not (sugar palm) trees,