Sóc Trăng - the land of the mixed culture!

How much we wish to have shinkansen as in Japan or TGV as in Europe!
Not to shorten our travel time in Vietnam (!?) but to avoid all kinds of trouble with the Police on the road!!! Unluckily we got a trouble with them during our day trip to Sóc Trăng by car!
Ridiculous trouble!

We were stopped by the Police on our way to Sóc Trăng, the speed limit for car on that normal road, no hospital, no school, no construction site... near by - is funny 40km/h! Our speed was nearly 50! At the end we have to leave our documents with them for fine which we have to pay after one week in ...Cần Thơ!

Anyway not to spoil our day, we tried to leave it aside and continued our journey!
Our destination is Sóc Trăng, a small town in Mekong Delta, 240 km away from Saigon but we need nearly 4 hours to reach there!


Sóc Trăng is a special soil!

Special because here, the three biggest communities - Vietnamese, Chinese and Khmer survive together for hundreds of years! Despite the differences in living style, language, business, belief...people living here always shoulder to shoulder to flourish this land!

Sóc Trăng is a Viet version of original Khmer name Srok Kh'leang (literally means a silver treasury), it was also renamed "Moon River" (Nguyệt Giang) in the past, during Nguyễn dynasty, but finally the current name Sóc Trăng remained!

            A young boy of Khmer origin playing a traditional musical instrument 

                                                                                                    at Chùa Dơi (Bat's Pagoda) (*) 

Talking about Soc Trang, the first two dishes came to my mind are bún nước lèo Sóc Trăng (rice noodles soup in Soc Trang style and bánh pía or bánh lột da (peeling off skin cake!). 

If the noodles represent the Khmer flavor then "bánh pía" - the Chinese origin!   

            Bún nước lèo Sóc Trăng, rice noodles soup in Soc Trang style! 

The soup is similar to famous rice noodles with fermented fish soup (bún mắm), deep sweet, rich flavor of fermented fish! Simply topped by cooked snakehead fish, shrimp and roasted pork ! I would say it's another variation of bún mắm! But it's lighter! 

Originated from Cambodia, if our neighbor prepares the soup with their special fermented fish (mắm bò hóc - prahoc), here in Sóc Trăng the local Khmer community or other Vietnamese replace it with more locally favorite fermented fish. Prahoc could be too strong for Vietnamese taste!    

              Rice noodles bún gỏi già, personally I don't like it! Strange taste!  

We also tried another rice noodles called "bún gỏi già" (or và), but I personally don't like it. As a brown soy bean sauce and tamarind sauce has been added to the soup when it's served. Very strange taste, with some peanut! I was excited to try in the beginning but then a bit disappointed!

                 Bánh pía filled with sweetened green mung bean (or taro), salted egg yolk, durian flavor!  

Bánh pía or "peeling off skin cake" (!) is a sweet delicacy from Sóc Trăng, created by Chinese community. These days it's quite easy to find it in Sài gòn, it seems popular with visitors from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore...thanks to its durian flavor! 

"Peeling off skin" could come from their very soft and thin layers, easy to peel off when we touch it! Always filled with green mung bean (or taro), salted egg yolk. They can customize the cake upon the request: less sweet, no durian flavor! It's truly a good dessert, a good choice for gifts! 

This cake has so many brands in Sóc Trăng, we don't know which one is the best, just bought one on our way. Luckily it's very good! Thin and super soft skin, not too sweet, nice filling! 

I also tried another sweet! Another speciality of Sóc Trăng! 

Bánh mè láo! Sesame cake "Lie"! 

"Lie" probably comes from the cake appearance! It gives us an impression that the cake is thick, filled with something inside, but in fact it's totally empty, honeycomb texture, crispy, not too sweet and nice sesame flavor! Good snack!

Leaving Sóc Trăng, back to Sài gòn! It was raining, heavy rain, but it's impossible to sweep away from me the taste, the flavor and the traditional Khmer music in the Bat's Pagoda! 

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(*) Bat's pagoda, the official name is Wathseraytecho Mahatup, was built in 1569 but has been rebuilt several times and the major part was destroyed by fire in 2007. 

Milion of giant bats used to live here, in the huge surrounded garden as forest, but nowadays the number of bats is less and less. I couldn't see any bats swinging upside down on the trees when I was there! 
According to the facts, the bats living here is Flying Fox, the largest bat in the world, their wingspan could be up to 1,5m!  To see the bats pls check this link!