Tra Vinh

Tra Vinh is the Khmer heart of the Mekong Delta: a quiet province of Theravada pagodas, ponds and enormous old trees. It is four hours from Saigon and almost untouched by tourism.

Why does this province look Cambodian?

The delta was Khmer before it was Vietnamese, and in Tra Vinh the population never changed. This is one of the largest Khmer communities in the country. It has built and rebuilt pagodas here for centuries, and the province counts about 140 of them.

The architecture is Theravada rather than the Mahayana of the rest of Vietnam. Steep tiled rooflines carry naga serpents along the ridges, the colours are gold on white, stupas stand in the grounds, and the monks wear orange rather than brown. The religions guide explains how the traditions divide across the country.

Which pagodas are worth the time?

Three are enough, and they are different from each other. Chua Hang, the cave pagoda 5 km south, is approached down a 500 m avenue of trees full of storks, and it runs a working woodcarving school. Chua Ang sits beside Ba Om pond under old growth. Chua Co, further out, is the one with the birds.

What is remarkable about Ba Om pond?

Ba Om is a square pond roughly 300 m on a side, 5 km from the town, and what makes it worth the drive is the trees around it. The trees are dipterocarps around 300 years old. Erosion has left their roots standing two or three metres clear of the ground, in shapes nothing else in the delta offers.

The Ang pagoda sits on one side and the provincial museum on another. At weekends the whole pond is a picnic ground for families from the town. Half an hour is enough unless the shade persuades you otherwise.

When do the boat races happen?

The ngo boat races happen at Ok Om Bok, on the full moon of the tenth lunar month, which usually falls in November. Long wooden racing boats 25 to 30 m long, with fifty or sixty paddlers, come from the pagodas of the province and compete on the river through the town.

The race weekend is the best time to be in Tra Vinh and the hardest time to find a room, so it needs booking well ahead. Soc Trang runs the larger version of the same festival a province away, and the two are on the same dates.

What are the streets of the town like?

The town is a grid of low buildings under trees that meet overhead, and that is genuinely its charm. French-era planting left rows of very large tamarind and sao trees along the main streets. The centre stays shaded through the worst of the afternoon because of them.

The centre takes an hour to walk. There is a market, a couple of coffee places on the corner of the park, and no tourist infrastructure whatsoever.

What is banh tet Tra Cuon?

Banh tet Tra Cuon is the province's own version of the cylindrical sticky-rice cake, and it is sold at every roadside stall on the way in. The rice is coloured green with pandan leaf, and the filling is mung bean, fatty pork and a salted egg yolk that shows as a yellow eye when the cake is sliced.

Banh tet travels, which is why the village of Tra Cuon supplies markets well beyond the province and why the stalls sell it by the armful before Tet. Buy one slice to eat rather than a whole cake, unless you have a full day of driving ahead — the desserts and sweets guide covers the rest of the sticky-rice family.

How do you get here, and where do you sleep?

From Ho Chi Minh City it is about 200 km and four hours by road. The route runs either through Vinh Long or over the Co Chien bridge from Ben Tre, open since 2015, which is the more interesting way round. Buses leave the western bus station through the day.

Sleep in the town, in a plain hotel at provincial rates. The bands are in the accommodation guide, and Tra Vinh sits at the bottom of them. There are no homestays of the An Binh kind here, which is part of what keeps the province as quiet as it is.