INTRODUCTION| GUIDE| MAPS| RELATED POSTS
This motorbike loop connects over 50 Khmer temples in Tra Vinh Province, via quiet rural back-roads, lanes and pathways passing through large swathes of rice paddies, tuyệt fields & fruit orchards, crisscrossed by channels & canals, dotted with palm-thatched farm houses beneath huge Mekong skies with clouds rolling over as the breezes take them. Seldom visited, Tra Vinh is a peaceful province occupying a slab of land in Vietnam’s southeastern corner, bounded khổng lồ the north và south by the two biggest branches of the Mekong River, & to the east by the sea. There’s nothing self-conscious about Tra Vinh Province: this is the real Mekong Delta. The province is about 30% ethnic Khmer. Despite a complicated history with the Vietnamese, the Khmer influence in this region runs deep, going back over a millennium. In Tra Vinh today, the presence of Khmer people and culture is obvious thanks to their ostentatious Theravada Buddhist temples. There are over 200 Khmer temples scattered across the province, some of which have been sacred sites for many centuries. As you ride this loop – visiting dozens of Buddhist compounds & walled enclosures under big tropical trees with large, decorative, brightly adorned & architecturally fascinating temples, wats, shrines, stupas và monasteries, filled with elaborate sculptures, friezes & frescoes – you get a real sense of history and you can’t help but fall under the spell of Tra Vinh Province & its Khmer cultural heritage.
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A great way to lớn explore & experience the Mekong Delta, the Tra Vinh Temple-Hopping Loop can be completed in 2-4 days by motorbike or bicycle. The temples are fascinating, the back-roads enchanting, the scenery lush, the towns charming, và the distances short. Easily accessible from Saigon (Ho chi Minh City), Tra Vinh Province is nonetheless still way off the beaten path. On this page, I’ve included two separate routes maps: one of the temple-hopping loop, the other of potential routes between Saigon and Tra Vinh. Base yourself in Tra Vinh city for a few nights và ride out to lớn the temples on the loop during the days. Personally, I think this route is deeply satisfying và culturally rich: unique, refreshing & rewarding. Hence this page contains a lot of information, including some history, descriptions of the temples, accommodation suggestions, food và drink recommendations, & much more detail about the route itself:
CONTENTS:
Tra Vinh Temple-Hopping Loop
Blue Line: East LoopRed Line: West LoopView in a LARGER MAP
Ho đưa ra Minh City↔Tra Vinh | Fast và Slow Routes
Blue Line: Fast Route (highways & bridges)Red Line: Slow Route (back roads & ferries)View in a LARGER MAP
About this Route&Guide:
Below I’ve written a few paragraphs covering general details about the Tra Vinh Temple-Hopping Loop, such as road conditions, how to use the maps, where to start/end the route, and how many days it takes:
General Information:The main objective of the Tra Vinh Temple-Hopping Loop is to visit over 50 fascinating Khmer temples via quiet và attractive back-roads through a charming và little-travelled province of the Mekong Delta. As mentioned, Tra Vinh is around 30% ethnic Khmer và there are some 200 Khmer temples scattered across the province. The Khmer follow Theravada Buddhism (most Vietnamese follow the Mahayana branch), and as such their temples are very distinctive, intricate, impressive and exotic-looking structures. With so many temples in the region – most within 5-25km of each other – a motorbike (or bicycle) is ideal for hopping between them. Almost all the temples can be connected via small, quiet back-roads, lanes và paths, rather than busy highways (see Road Conditions). These byways are very pretty, peaceful và off the beaten path.
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What’s this?
The Tra Vinh Temple-Hopping Loop is relatively short & easy lớn ride. It’s packed with cultural sites and a very rewarding, satisfying road trip for anyone who wants khổng lồ experience a different side of the Mekong Delta. Although it’s now fairly easy to lớn get lớn Tra Vinh Province, you’re very unlikely to lớn meet any other travellers on this loop. On my map, I’ve divided the Temple-Hopping route into two loops: an east loop (the blue line) và a west loop (the red line). I’ve also included a second route map with two alternative options for riding between Saigon (Ho đưa ra Minh City) & Tra Vinh City: a fast route on highways & major bridges (the blue line) & a slow route on back-roads and ferries (the red line).
Ideally, I would suggest spending 2-4 days on the Tra Vinh Temple-Hopping Loop. Base yourself in Tra Vinh City, spend one day riding the east loop, the next day riding the west loop, an extra day relaxing in Tra Vinh đô thị – taking in its considerable charm – và a final day riding the slow route back khổng lồ Saigon via the many ferry crossings over the myriad arteries of the Mekong River (see Where to lớn Start/End). Alternatively, you could make the Temple-Hopping Loop part of a wider Mekong road trip (see Connecting Routes).
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What’s this?
Tra Vinh đô thị itself is a little gem, with a shaded French colonial-era central grid of streets, some surviving French villas và Chinese shophouses, lots of temples, a lively riverside market, a newly paved waterfront embankment, plenty of street food (see Food và Drink) & a handful of decent budget accommodation options (see Accommodation). Tra Vinh Province is an enchanting region and, what’s more, there are hardly any visitors at any of the temples & no admission charge or parking fees.
Note that some of the 53 temples on this route are more interesting than others: some are worth stopping at, going inside and exploring on foot; others are just worth a quick ride around before continuing on the loop. Of course, you can skip the History & Temples sections of this guide, and just follow the route map. But, personally, I think the Temple-Hopping Loop is much more rewarding with a little bit of background and context. There’s a lot of history in this region and some of the temples have been sacred Khmer sites for many centuries. You get a real sense of this when riding the loop và visiting the Buddhist enclosures.
Using the Maps: On this page I’ve created two separate maps. The first maps is of the Temple-Hopping Loop in Tra Vinh Province, featuring two short loops within the province – one to the east (the blue line) and one to lớn the west (the red line) – both of which start and end in Tra Vinh City. The second map features two alternative routes to get between Saigon (Ho đưa ra Minh City) & Tra Vinh: a fast route (the xanh line) using highways và bridges, và a slow route (the red line) using back-roads và ferries.
All the routes outlined on both maps should be fairly simple lớn follow. However, some of the roads on the Temple-Hopping Loop are very small and narrow, so it can be easy to lớn miss the turnings. The temple-hopping map includes the names & locations of 53 Khmer temples & all the bigger towns on the loop. Also on the temple-hopping maps I’ve included markers of places to stay, eat & drink in Tra Vinh City.
On the Saigon lớn Tra Vinh map, I’ve marked all the major bridges over the various branches of the Mekong River on the fast route, và all the ferry crossings on the slow route.
Where to lớn Start/End: The Temple-Hopping Loop consists of two separate mini-loops – an east loop (the blue line) and a west loop (the red line) – both of which start và end in Tra Vinh City, thus forming a (very deformed) figure-of-eight (see map). Personally, I think this route works best if you ride the east loop on one day and the west loop the next, starting và ending each day at your accommodation in Tra Vinh City. However, it is of course possible to lớn join up the east & west loops without returning lớn Tra Vinh City, simply by taking any of the roads connecting the two. The east và west loops can be ridden in any order & in either direction, but I prefer taking the east loop first & then the west, riding both loops anticlockwise. .
Assuming that most riders will start/end the Temple-Hopping Loop in Saigon (Ho bỏ ra Minh City), my second bản đồ outlines two alternative routes to get lớn Tra Vinh from Saigon: a fast route (the blue line) using highways and bridges, & a slow route (the red line) using back-roads & ferries. Thanks to new infrastructure projects, Tra Vinh is now surprisingly quick và easy khổng lồ get khổng lồ from Saigon on the xanh route. If you leave early in the morning (to avoid the traffic), the xanh route only takes around 4 hours. However, it’s not an especially interesting route (although the bridges themselves are a sight to behold) & there are a fair amount of trucks and traffic on the roads. If you’re looking for a quieter & more off-the-beaten-path route between Saigon và Tra Vinh, the red route is the one to lớn take. None of the major Mekong River crossings are bridged on this route; instead all are crossed via small, slow, old-style car ferries (it’s like travelling in the Delta during the 1990s). As a result, the red route is far more exciting in terms of riverine scenery, far shorter in terms of distance, but far longer in terms of time: waiting for any of the five separate ferry crossing on this route can be anywhere between 5-45 minutes, and the journey can take between 6-8 hours. Personally, I would suggest turning these two alternative routes into a loop: take the xanh route out, and the red route back, for example.
Road Conditions: Most of the Tra Vinh Temple-Hopping Loop is on paved roads in pretty good condition. In general, my route tries to lớn stay on small back-roads, country lanes, dyke roads, concrete paths (and occasionally dirt tracks) as much as possible in order to avoid the busier highways (QL roads). These smaller roads also pass through more interesting and attractive scenery than the bigger highways. However, sometimes the highways are useful or unavoidable, và thus in some cases this loop utilizes them.
The Temple-Hopping Loop can be ridden on any motorbike, scooter or bicycle. The terrain is flat, the roads are paved and the traffic is light. However, some sections are on very narrow lanes or back-roads with worn, pot-holed surfaces, but this shouldn’t be a problem for most riders. Finally, there’s a chance that some of the smaller roads could suffer from flooding during the rainy season (May-October). Although the riding on this route is fun, very interesting và far from the beaten path, it’s not a route that’s suitable for cruising. Rather, the small & sometimes uneven back-roads make for a slower, gentler pace, not lớn mention the numerous stops và breaks to lớn look at the temples.
Connecting Routes: Tra Vinh Province is in the east of the Mekong Delta. This temple-hopping loop covers almost all of the province. But you could also incorporate the Tra Vinh Temple-Hopping Loop into my Deep South route, leading all the way lớn Ca Mau at the southern tip of the Mekong Delta. Alternatively, you could continue from Tra Vinh due south to lớn the port of Tran De, in Soc Trang Province, where you can put your motorbike on the fast boat to the nhỏ Dao Islands. Finally, riders could continue due west from Tra Vinh to lớn either Rach Gia or Ha Tien, both of which have frequent car ferries lớn Phu Quoc và other islands in the Gulf of Thailand.
History:
This is a part of Vietnam where you can really feel the history: it’s alive in the present; resonating through the fields & the temples và the sacred enclosures. I can’t claim khổng lồ have much depth of knowledge about the history of this region, nor the long relationship that the Khmer people have with this part of the Delta, nor, indeed, the complex – and often fraught – relationship between the Khmer và the Vietnamese populations. But, in researching this guide, I did learn a little about all of the above & it’s a fascinating story, an awareness of which makes riding this loop & exploring these temples a much richer experience. What little I vị know, I’ve briefly described below.
*Please note:Historical information in this article is based only on my limited reading & understanding of various sources và conversations with people: I am not an historian & I cannot vouch for the accuracy of this historical overview.
Khmer people have been living is this region for at least 1,500 years. As such, the Khmer have a much deeper relationship with the Delta than the Kinh (Vietnamese). And one gets a sense of this when exploring Tra Vinh Province and its temples. In some cases, the Khmer temple sites were established many hundreds of years ago; by contrast, the relatively modern, bustling Vietnamese cities which we commonly associate with the Mekong Delta are merely a couple of centuries old.
During the Khmer Empire, this region was known as Kampuchea Krom – Lower Cambodia – so as lớn distinguish it from the ‘upper’ parts of the empire, such as Angkor Wat. It wasn’t until the 17th century that Vietnamese settlers began lớn inhabit the region we now know of as southern Vietnam.
From the early 17th century, the Khmer king allowed Vietnamese khổng lồ settle in Saigon (then known as Prey Nokor – ‘Forest City’) và the southern delta region. At that time, many Vietnamese were heading south, fleeing the conflict between the Trinh and Nguyen lords. Over time, there were so many settlers that eventually the Vietnamese became the majority in the region. From the late 17th century, as the Khmer Empire began to lớn wane, Vietnam solidified its presence & power in the south.
During the colonial period, in the 19th và 20th centuries, the French (who controlled both Vietnam & Cambodia) administered the region as part of Cochinchina (essentially southern Vietnam). Eventually, in 1949, the French formally annexed the Mekong Delta as part of Vietnam, much khổng lồ the chagrin of Cambodia. Khmers have been a minority in the region ever since.
The 1970s saw a wave of anti-Khmer feelings in Vietnam as the Khmer Rouge conducted raids across the border into the Mekong Delta, carrying out mass killings of civilians, sometimes slaughtering entire villages, murdering & mutilating men, women và children (as commemorated at ba Chuc village). The incentive was, apparently, khổng lồ reclaim Kampuchea Krom (the Mekong Delta) for Cambodia. Provoked in part by these raids, Vietnam invaded Cambodia and overthrew the Khmer Rouge in 1979. Subsequently, many Vietnamese viewed the Khmers with suspicion, & the relationship became uneasy, leading many Khmers lớn leave Vietnam, fleeing across the border to Cambodia. Even today some tension remains, & there have been reports of human rights abuses against the Khmer population in Vietnam. Whichever way you look at it, there’s a lot of complicated history between the Vietnamese và the Khmer in this region, some of it ancient, some recent.
However, the population of Tra Vinh Province today is still about 30% ethnic Khmer. Indeed, it feels larger than that because of the hundreds of distinctive Khmer temples dotting the province và signs in Khmer script everywhere. What’s more, as a casual visitor, there’s no indication of tension between Khmer and Vietnamese. The former speak both languages fluently, and in most cases the Khmer people I spoke with had never been across the border khổng lồ Cambodia, although they did generally identify as Khmer, rather than Vietnamese. So visible is the Khmer influence in Tra Vinh Province – the temples, the architecture, the food, the faces, the language – that, after a few days of travelling in the region, I felt pleasantly disorientated: was I in Vietnam, Cambodia, somewhere between the two?
Temples:
As with the history of this region, I know very little about the hundreds of impressive Buddhist temples that dot this province. But, during the week I spent temple-hopping, I made some notes and observations about the architecture, ambience và general chất lượng of the sites I visited.
*Please note:Historical information in this article is based only on my limited reading & understanding of various sources & conversations with people: I am not an historian & I cannot vouch for the accuracy of this overview.
There are some 200 Khmer temples scattered across Tra Vinh Province. Obviously, I didn’t have the chance khổng lồ see them all, but I did manage to lớn visit over 50 of them, all of which I’ve marked on my temple-hopping route map. There are no admission fees for the temples và hardly any visitors (with the exception of festival days and the big temples located within Tra Vinh city itself). For the most part, the only people in the temple grounds are monks and novices. All temple compounds can be entered if the gates và doors are open, but shoes must be taken off if entering the temples proper. For this reason, flipflops or sandals are a good idea, because they’re easier khổng lồ take on & off. Technically, respectful clothing (long pants và T-shirt) should be worn when visiting the enclosures, but most people – including the monks và novices themselves – didn’t seem too concerned about this dress-code.
Religion is particularly alive in the Mekong Delta, where history has left Christianity (Catholicism & Protestantism), Buddhism (Mahayana và Theravada), Islam, Hinduism, animism, ancestor worship, and the veneration of local deities & historical heroes. There’s hardly a street or field in the Delta without some kind of spiritual building: it’s a pious place. The Khmer, however, have been in the region for some 1,500 years, và many of the sites on which the temples stand today have been sacred ground for the Khmer for centuries. This long relationship with the land means that the Khmer holy sites in Tra Vinh Province are far more ancient than any of the Kinh (Vietnamese) pagodas, temples, shrines & churches. One gets a real sense of this when exploring the temples on this loop: a feeling of time, history và permanence.
However, although many of the temples in Tra Vinh Province have been holy sites for hundreds of years (in some cases over a thousand), the structures themselves are constantly restored, renovated or completely rebuilt. Lớn this end, most of the temples in the sanctuaries on this loop are recently constructed – built between the last ten khổng lồ sixty years at most. But the place, the land, the site is ancient. The bricks, the paint & the concrete might be relatively fresh & new, but these sites have echoed lớn the same chants, bells, gongs và worship for over a millennium. In some cases, for example, the structures might be 20th century, the trees 19th century, but the site a Khmer place of worship for seven centuries. The buildings are revitalized but the site remains ancient. This seems strange to many Europeans: it would be lượt thích the Greeks deciding to restore the Parthenon to its original, classical-era glory of the 430s BCE, erecting new columns, porticoes, friezes và sculptures, và painting them all in bright colours as they were in Periclean times.
As described in the History section above, there’s a complicated relationship between the Khmer and the Vietnamese populations in this part of the Delta. Nevertheless, the influence and presence of Khmer culture in Tra Vinh Province is obvious thanks to lớn the hundreds of ostentatious temples. These temples và sacred enclosures are striking và distinctive: clearly distinguishable from the Vietnamese pagodas & shrines. This is because the Khmer are Theravada Buddhists, the oldest & more conservative branch of Buddhism, dominant in Thailand, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Laos và Cambodia; whereas the Vietnamese are predominantly Mahayana Buddhists. As such, the architectural style of the Khmer temples is very different from that of the Vietnamese ones.
The Khmer temples in Tra Vinh Province are all enclosed in leafy, walled compounds, shaded by tall tropical trees including exotic-looking lontar palms, tamarind, mango, coconut và traveller’s palms. In fact, there’s so much flora in the temple grounds that you’d be able lớn tick off nearly all the flowers, plants và trees listed in my flora index. The temple grounds are pleasant, calm places – refuges from the sun, heat và rain of the Mekong plains, and from the noise, commerce và industry of much of the Delta region. For me, the temple enclosures are places to lớn contemplate, to lớn read, to write, to lớn breathe, khổng lồ stroll: like a park.
As well as places of worship, some of the temple enclosures also function as Buddhist schools & monasteries, populated by bright orange-robed monks and novices. Depending on the time of day and year, the temple grounds echo to the sounds of chanting, gongs, cicadas, leaves in the breeze, cockerels calling, bats screeching, rain falling, birds chirping, dogs barking, and the scent of flowers & incense fills the sanctuaries. At some of the older, more neglected compounds, the smell of bat guano inside the temples is quite powerful, but the scent of jasmine usually prevails.
The structures & adornments within the enclosures are colourful & intricate, sometimes elegant, sometimes gaudy. Some temples are colossal in scale, imposing, grand và grotesque; some are diminutive & intimate; some are made entirely of concrete and brick; others have wooden pillars and roofs; some of the embellishments are garish and chintzy; some are restrained & understated. The grounds are dotted with wats, stupas, shrines, stelae, statues, sculptures, and decorative ponds. The main temples, with their distinctive steep-pitched tiled roofs và serrated edges, are always the central focus of the enclosures, surrounded by smaller structures and guarded by gargoyles, phoenixes and elephants. The tapering towers similar to those at Angkor Wat are a constant feature – their shape imitating the upper canopy of local trees – as are the ubiquitous many-faced heads. All enclosures feature crematoriums which are rather public, especially if there’s a funeral. Some of the interiors of the larger temples are completely painted – from the walls khổng lồ the ceilings – in extraordinary murals depicting various scenes from the life of The Buddha và Buddhist teachings & mythology. Michelangelo who?
Coming, as I do, from a predominantly Christian part of the world, it’s impossible not to lớn notice và remark upon the superficial differences in ambience and tone between Christian churches và cathedrals, and Buddhist temples and shrines. The former seem lớn me to lớn be solemn, grim, sometimes violent và macabre places, with an image of intense physical pain and suffering at its centre: Christ crucified. Buddhist sanctuaries, by contrast, appear to lớn be places of peace and tranquility, decorated in bright colours, with smiling seated or reclining figures dotted everywhere. Buddhist temples are no less reverent than Christian cathedrals, but there’s much less guilt, shame, agony & death. To lớn some extent this is strange, as both religions, as far as I know, have suffering, death, altruism, stoicism & a suspicion of sensual pleasure & desire at their core, but they clearly arrive at it, khuyễn mãi giảm giá with it, illustrate, tell & express it in very different ways. (Although you vì chưng get ghoulish guardians and, occasionally, macabre depictions of death & torture at Buddhist temples, too). I wonder what impact this might have on a culture over centuries và millennia: one that worships daily in front of an image of a man nailed to lớn a piece of wood with blood pouring from his torso; the other that worships daily in front of a man sat comfortably with his hands in his lap grinning. For my part, I remember visiting churches và cathedrals across Europe as a child và the overall feeling I had was awe và fear. Although I vị not practice either religion, Christian churches scare me; Buddhist shrines comfort me.
Accommodation:
As the distances on this loop are quite short, & because accommodation is in relatively short supply, it makes sense khổng lồ find a khách sạn or guesthouse in Tra Vinh City & base yourself there for 2-4 nights while making day trips on your motorbike (or bicycle) lớn the temples.
Because Tra Vinh isn’t a popular tourist destination, there isn’t a wide variety of places to stay in the province. Tra Vinh City, the provincial capital, has by far the greatest concentration of accommodation in the province. Beyond the city, there are budget local guesthouses (nhà nghỉ in Vietnamese) in most of the towns on the loop, such as Cau Ke, Cau Ngang, Cau Quan, Tra Cu, và Duyen Hai. Staying in any of these towns is quite a fun experience, because hardly any other foreign travellers do. But Tra Vinh thành phố has the best accommodation, such as it is, và the đô thị has genuine charm, character, and plenty of street food và cafes.
There are no fancy hotels in Tra Vinh; only local guesthouses & government hotels. However, both are very cheap và good value for money. Although the accommodations available are quite stark, they are comfortable và clean. What’s more, you’ll be spending most of the day out on the temple-hopping loop, so accommodation isn’t a major concern. Below are a handful of places to stay in Tra Vinh đô thị that are fine for a couple of nights:
Nhà khách hàng Tỉnh Trà Vinh
Hotel An Khang
Khách Sạn Cửu Long
Food và Drink:
Like all Mekong Delta provinces, Tra Vinh is full of great food. The region has several specialities, one of which is bún nước lèo – a fish based noodle soup with lots of extras, such as roast pork. You’ll see signs for bún nước lèo all across the province. Tra Vinh đô thị has lots of good street food. Rather than heading lớn a specific place, just explore the đô thị centre until you stumble upon a streetside stall with lots of diners. For example, there are many food stalls in front of the central market (Chợ Trà Vinh) in the evenings, and around the night market (Chợ Đêm), too. Trần Phú kéo dài street is lined with BBQ restaurants, beer joints và cafes – great for a night out if you’re travelling with friends. The shady grid of streets in the old quarter (the pink shaded area on my map) has lots of good local cafes, some serving Vietnamese-style iced coffee, others serving hot Italian-style machine coffee. I like Coffee 89. There are a couple of big supermarkets that are useful if you want lớn buy food for a picnic on the road: try GO! Mart. Thanks to lớn the large Buddhist population, vegetarian food is quite common in Tra Vinh: look for signs saying Cơm Chay or just Chay.
Weather & When to Go:
This part of the Mekong Delta is fascinating and good to travel whatever the weather. The Tra Vinh Temple-Hopping Loop can be ridden at anytime of year. But, if you want to avoid the heavy tropical downpours of the monsoon, come during the dry season (roughly November-April), when the skies are clear, the sun shines, và humidity is low. However, by April the temperatures can be extremely hot. On the other hand, the rainy season (roughly May-October) can be atmospheric in this region because of the epic monsoon skies: great cloud cathedrals rising above the vast flat delta. But flooding could be a problem at this time of year, particularly as many of the smaller, back-roads on this loop run alongside waterways.
Disclosure: I never receive payment for anything I write: my content is always free & independent. I’ve written this guide because I want to: I lượt thích this motorbike route & I want my readers to lớn know about it. For more details, see my Disclosure & Disclaimer statements here
Tra Vinh is the provincial capital of Tra Ving Province, deep in the Mekong Delta region about 140 km south of Ho bỏ ra Minh City. It’s not on the way to lớn anywhere unless you are going to lớn another place even more out of the way. It’s worth a visit though if you have more time khổng lồ travel beyond the main Mekong highlights.
Tra Vinh is famous for its Khmer temples that are scattered around the outskirts of the city. The Mekong Delta is trang chủ to Khmer Krom, one of Vietnam’s ethnic minority groups. In Tra Vinh you can see the best Khmer temples in Vietnam.
I saw some of the biggest ones on the bus on the way into town. If I had never been to lớn Cambodia I would have made the effort to lớn visit some of them. There are a few temples in the thành phố centre as well, và at times I thought I was in Phnom Penh when looking at these. I was more impressed though with the town of Tra Vinh in general.
So many of the market towns in the Mekong Delta are just one long road along the side of a river or canal. Tra Vinh has an actual city centre with a gridded layout. There are wide streets with big trees, & footpaths as well.
Being a provincial capital there is a great riverside market.
There are some colonial remnants here, but like most provincial cities in Vietnam they have been lost khổng lồ time, modified, or hidden behind renovations.
I would not have known this building existed if I was walking on the other side of the road.
The old buildings that do remain hint at what the đô thị might have looked like.
If they had of held on it could have been a mini Hoi An, or at the very least another Kampot.
Another thing I found interesting about Tra Vinh was the diversity of religious buildings. Alongside the many Khmer temples, there is the catholic cathedral left over from the time of the French.
There is a mosque in the town centre, as the Mekong also has the largest muslim community in Vietnam.
Being in the Mekong Delta there is also a Cao dai temple.
The Ong Pagoda is a Taoist Temple founded by the Fujian Chinese Congregation.
And of course there are Buddhist temples here as well.
I found some good street food here, including the tastiest vegetarian pho I’ve ever had. Usually the broth is flavourless, but this one had a good taste. Vegetarian food (chay) is more prominent in the Delta than anywhere else in Vietnam.
Also prominent in the Delta are curries (ca ri).
Tra Vinh is on the Long Binh River, which is a canal that connects to lớn the teo Chien Rover (one of the Mekong branches). If they turned this walk into a nice promenade it would be a good addition khổng lồ the city.
The cities in the Delta region have a different vibe to the cities between Hanoi và Ho bỏ ra Minh City. The coastal cities are connected and feel like they are on the way lớn somewhere else. Here it takes a conscious effort to lớn get to.
If you are coming by bus from Saigon it takes about 3.5 hours (I stayed in Ben Tre on the way). It wasn’t that long ago that the journey was more arduous when there were no bridges in the Delta region.
By the time the Mekong River gets khổng lồ Vietnam it breaks up into several branches (known as the 9 Dragons) as it makes its way to lớn the sea. From Saigon khổng lồ Tra Vinh there are three major river crossings. In 2008 there were no big bridges in the Mekong region, so each river crossing was by ferry. The last bridge opened in 2015, connecting Ben Tre và Tra Vinh.
From Tra Vinh I went to lớn Can Tho. I didn’t plan my trip very well and it turned out that buses between the two cities are infrequent. I did the decadent thing of getting a private car. You can get a Grab car between the two cities which was showing as 1,100,000 for the trip when I checked my app. I got one organised for me for 800,000 VND, và the car ride took 1 hour 55 minutes for the 80 km journey. This is a nice stretch of the Delta with lots of rice fields, but the average speed of 40 km per hour indicates how small & congested the roads are.
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Can Tho is the closest city to Tra Vinh with an airport. Too far for my liking, but if you were looking for a sleepy city a bit out of the way then Tra Vinh could be for you.