Saturday, June 02, 2007

Tay Thien Pagoda And Silver Waterfall Part II

Thac Bac-Silver water falls

We left Tay Thien Pagoda at about 1pm and took a xe om down to the Silver Waterfall for a look. A shock for me was that there were quite a few agent orange victims sitting around asking for money, including little girls and boys. Looking at them made me feel so sad. We all donated some money to help them to get some food even though I know it will never be enough. We walked up a bit to see the waterfall but some guys in uniform wanted us to pay an entrance fee. We refused and walk in adifferent way but ended up at Cau Temple. We decided to stop here for another prayer and some relaxation. We took an oracle each and waited for an explanation from the old man fortune teller. He told us what it meant and he asked everyone to give him some money for his work.

Thac Bac-Silver water falls

There are many services here along the way up to the waterfall such as plastic shoe rental, walking stick rental and also many stalls selling the famous running chickens(free-range chicken)and vegetables.

Thac Bac-Silver water falls

After visiting Cau Temple, we walked back with feed of running chickens to enjoy as a second lunch at a little restaurant. Some of my friends took a nap and the others played cards. We had a great time until bill time, when the lady ripped us off so much for the vermicelli we ordered to go with the chicken. She charged us 70,000Vnd for half a kilogram of vermicelli. Oh my gosh! Everyone was angry and we told her we would only pay half that price even though it was still too much. Anyway, we ended up paying 60,000Vnd to that rip off merchant and left. Wish these things would never ever happen. My friends said to me that we were their big fish of the day and they don't catch many fish around in such wild areas. Shit happens.

Thac Bac-Silver water falls

We finished our tour on a different bus as the other bus couldn't be fixed. I got home at 6pm and was happy with our trip. Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt!

4 comments:

Crystal said...

Wow, I didn't know that children are still being effected by Agent Orange, and it makes me sad knowing the sins of America against Vietnam.

Nice pics!

junebee said...

That chicken doesn't look well-cooked either, I see red inside the bone.

Van Cong Tu said...

Hi Crystal, There are thousand of people got Agent Orange about Viet Nam.

Junebee. In Viet Nam, we eat boiled chicken like that :)

Anonymous said...

70,000 vnd ($ 3.00) you say oh my god ? what can you do with $3.00 in you country ? That is peanuts.
Probabaly you that amount by gossiping over the phone for 1 minute in your land !!!
Do not try to penny wise when you visit poor countries. Think logically