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SA DEC |
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A cluster of brick and tile kilns announces your arrival in the
charming town of SA DEC , 20km upriver of Vinh Long. French novelist
Marguerite Duras lived here as a child, and the town's stuccoed shop-houses,
riverside mansions and remarkably busy stretch of the Mekong provided
the backdrop for the movie adaptation of her novel The Lover.
Buses terminate 300m southeast of the town centre: turn left out of the
station and continue straight across the bridge. The town's three main
arteries - Nguyen Hue, Tran Hung Dao and Hung Vuong - branch off to your
right. Duck straight down into Nguyen Hue to find Sa Dec's extensive
riverside market. Half-way up the street, ferries cross to the childhood
home of Marguerite Duras , a crumbling old colonial villa (now a police
station) that's the nearest of the two villas to the place where boats
drop you.
Across the metal bridge that runs over the top of Nguyen Hue and across
the river, climb down the steps to your left and follow the river road
west and past Sa Dec's Cao Dai temple: after twenty-five minutes, a
gaggle of cafés tells you that you've hit Qui Dong , Sa Dec's famed
flower village, where over a hundred farms cultivate ferns, fruit trees,
shrubs and flowers. The 6000 hectares of Tu Ton Rose Garden cultivate
over 580 species of plants and get the lion's share of tourists visiting
the village (it's especially crowded on Sundays).
The only tourist hotel in town at present is Hung Vuong's reasonably
appealing, but jaded Sa Dec (tel 067/861430; $5-25). When it's time for
eating , the friendly My Restaurant and the nearby family-run Chanh Ky
both serve up cheap and tasty rice and noodle staples from English
menus; both are on Quoc Lo 80 near the GPO. Otherwise, the Quan Com Cay
Sung on the crossroads below the Sa Dec Hotel is a popular local com
shop.
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