I awoke with plans to rent a motorbike and explore the islands I was staying on before crossing to the mainland and visiting some sites in Ben Tre proper and My Tho. That all almost went down the drain when I learned my accommodation did not have motorbike rentals. (Lesson: check before you book!) Luckily, a somewhat quick search during a breakfast of eggs and a baguette revealed that the homestay a couple minutes down the road had rentals, so I was able to procure one anyways.
***Disclaimer: In hindsight, I would have preferred to stay at the neighboring place, Nam Binh Homestay, although there was nothing fundamentally wrong with mine—just a vibe***
That said, the owners of mine went above and beyond to help me when I was leaving, so there is something to be said for that as well.
Day 8 (June 15)
Island Exploration
After securing a motorbike, I ventured down the narrow island “roads” (if they can be called that), with a plan to head to the southern tip along the western edge and return to the north along the eastern. If only it wound up being that simple.
My journey down went pretty much according to plan, with only one of my planned roads not existing, but upon reaching the southern tip and heading back north, I hit more than one impasse. Said impasses included roads that existed on the map but not in real life, roads that existed in real life but not on the map, missing bridges, deconstructed roads, and homes. After about the 7th time hitting a dead end for one of the aforementioned reasons, I gave up and crossed over to the western side, where I somehow still had to turn around once in spite of coming down that way pretty seamlessly. (I swear the roads were shifting as I was driving the island in some kind of sick joke.) To reward myself for my less than expert navigation but endless perseverance and positivity, I bought some rambutan from a roadside stall.
Bottom: a road that said it was a road on the maps, but was it really a road?
All the chaos and confusion aside, the drive was beautiful, and I couldn’t help but love it throughout the frustrations.
Lò Gạch (Abandoned Brick Factory)
After my island experience, which lasted longer than I had anticipated, I hopped on the short ferry ride across the river with my motorbike to venture into Ben Tre proper. My first destination was an abandoned brick factory, which, according to Google Maps reviews, used to host a really neat demonstration of how they used to make bricks but has now fallen into equally neat disrepair.
It took me a couple tries to find the alleyway that the factory resides on, but when I did, I was not disappointed. Nature has grown up and around the old brick buildings, creating a stunning contrast between the red of the bricks and the green of the plants. I was obsessed (hence the million and one photos that I am not sure even my ever engaged father will scroll all the way through).
Tượng đài Đồng Khởi (Dong Khoi Monument)
I tried to go to the museum in town after the brickyard, but it was closed for the midday lunch break/siesta, so I drove around town and stumbled on this statue commemorating the Dong Khoi (“Concerted Uprising”) Movement.
The movement was a rebellion of rural southerners against the US and AVRN (Southern Vietnamese military) that started in Ben Tre. The local Ben Tre villagers led an uprising in January of 1960 that “retook” three communes within two days, setting off a chain of events that resulted in rebellions against the Southern government in 47 other rural communes over the course of a week. By the end of 1960, the movement had spread from Ben Tre to communes across Southern and Central Vietnam—specifically the highlands and coast—dismantling the rural government structure as it existed under the Republic of Vietnam and resulting in much of the rural South being controlled by Communists.
The prominent figure in the monument is a woman because women were at the forefront of the Dong Khoi Movement as part of the Đội quân tóc dài (“long-haired army”). The long-haired army not only supported the main troops through protests, supply runs, medical care, and intelligence gathering, but also participated in guerrilla warfare through armed combat, ambushes, and sabotage.
The monument sits on a large lake that represents Ben Tre’s rivers, with three concentric concrete plates to represent the three large islands that constitute Ben Tre (Bao, Minh, An Hoa). The brown leaf is a coconut leaf because of the role of coconut trees in the region and their resiliency.
Bảo tàng tỉnh Bến Tre (Ben Tre Provincial Museum)
After learning some history at the statue, I proceeded to the now open museum to learn more about the long-haired army.
There was so much information on the war that I won’t bore you with it, but I highly recommend reading up on Ben Tre during the war and the long-haired army (if that kind of stuff is your cup of tea). It was fascinating to learn about the region’s role, and I spent well over an hour in the small, hot museum reading every single plaque (via Google Translate because almost nothing is in English).
Maybe someday I’ll compile a list of interesting facts from the 51 Google Translate screenshots that live in my Ben Tre folder.
Chùa/Công Viên Vĩnh Tràng (Vinh Trang Temple/Park)
The temple and park are the home of three colossal Buddha statues, including a 32-meter long Reclining Buddha, a 24-meter tall Amitabha Buddha, and a 20-meter tall Maitreya Buddha (considered one of the most impressive of its kind in the world).
It also houses around 60 Buddha statues, a 7-story stupa, and a spectacular pagoda.
I was fortunate to be at the temple during evening prayer, so I spent awhile listening to the monks voices emanate from within the main pagoda.
Dừa Sáp (Coconut Concoction)
On the way to My Tho, I had passed all of these stands selling the same thing, so on my way back, I decided to stop and find out what it was. Turns out, it was some pork thing wrapped in banana leaf, which did not tickle my fancy. BUT, the stands also all advertised this coconut beverage that I had never heard of: dua sap.
The young woman at the stand pulled up a Tik Tok video of it on her phone to explain what it was, although I’m still not sure I could tell you the mechanics. I just know that the water inside the coconut is somehow more of a syrup (later learned that dua sap literally translates to “waxy flesh coconut” and that it is a specific variety of coconut). That syrup gets combined with some sweet and condensed milk in a cup and then the jelly-like coconut meat gets scraped in to make an edible concoction.
I decided to give it a try, not fully grasping the complexity of the process. When her father(?) tried to send me home with a whole coconut, I asked if they could help me make it there instead (because how the heck am I peeling and opening a coconut in my little hotel room?) He graciously grabbed his machete and proceeded to peel it and cut it open for me. Then the young woman poured the contents into a tupperware container, scraped all the meat in, and doused it all in sweet and condensed milk. One coconut made so much that I had two HUGE plastic cups worth of dua sap. I ate one sitting there and took the other back with me, but it honestly did not get consumed because it was just too much coconut for one human.
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