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MY THO |
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| Seventy kilometres southwest of Ho Chi Minh City, MY THO sits on the
north bank of Tien Giang, the Mekong River's northernmost strand, and
attracts crowds of tourists because of its boat trips. The town is
ringed by waterways, and the main tourist-oriented hotels, businesses
and restaurants are on the waterfront streets of 30 Thang 4, which runs
east-west along the town's southern edge, and Trung Trac, which runs
northeast-southwest, round the corner from 30 Thang 4, along the west
bank of Bao Dinh canal. The lower of the two bridges spanning Bao Dinh
canal deposits you at the start of waterfront Phan Thanh Gian, home to
My Tho's modest Chinese Quarter , where shopfronts are piled to the
rafters with sugar-cane poles, watermelons and fish awaiting
transportation up to Ho Chi Minh. A cyclo journey east of Phan Thanh
Gian, Nguyen Trung Truc's attractive Vinh Trang Pagoda (daily 7.30am-noon
& 2-5pm), with its Rajah's palace-style front facade, has become rather
a tourist trap. It's said that VC soldiers hid here in the Sixties, but
today it's home only to monks. The main chamber has formidable darkwood
pillars and tons of gilt woodwork, and the pagoda boasts classical
pillars, Grecian-style mouldings and glazed tiles. |
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