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HA TIEN |
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| Many visitors find Ha Tien , with its shuttered terraces, crumbling
colonial buildings and seafood drying in the sun, the quaintest and most
beautiful town in the delta. Lapped by the Gulf of Thailand, 93km
northwest of Rach Gia and only a few kilometres from the Cambodian
border, the town has a real end-of-the-line feel. Once you've dipped
into Ben Tran Hau's lively waterfront market and examined the fishing
boats unloading below the common land to the west of it, you've pretty
much exhausted the sights of Ha Tien. Walk up Mac Thien Tich and west
along Mac Cuu, though, and a temple dedicated to Mac Cuu stands at the
foot of the hill, where he and his relatives lie buried in semicircular
Chinese graves. Mac Cuu's grave is uppermost on the hill, daubed with a
yin and yang symbol, and guarded by two swordsmen, a white tiger and a
blue dragon. From this vantage point, there are good views down to the
river. Further up Mac Thien Tich, Tam Bao Pagoda is set in tree-lined
grounds dominated by a huge statue of Quan Am. In the rear chamber of
the pagoda, a statue of the goddess with a thousand hands and a thousand
eyes sits on a lurid pink lotus. Behind her are photos and funerary
tablets remembering the local dead. |
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