VN note Ba Dong 082713

Following the six hour transit on the Hiep Loi from Ben Tre to Tra Vinh I rode that afternoon to a point at the southern end of the province. I had seen a blog posting about Ba Dong where a couple of touring cyclists had visited the seaside resort a few years back. I don't remember if that post or the tiny umbrella marking on the map got my curiosity first but I set my mind to going there if means were available. Ken at the Oasis recommended the place so with access by bike I set that as a destination to close out the fifth day in Vietnam.

The coastal community of Ba Dong features a state run resort and nearby some type of old French hotel i didn't find. This was where holidays were had during the French colonial era and now where Vietnamese go for holiday. 

There is a wood and palm covered patio as an outside dining area to a kitchen that made a couple items on a seafood menu that might have been bilingual VN/English. Two of the guys working there wanted to pose with me for photos if that's any indication of Anglo-American frequency to the resort. I was there on a Monday evening and rented a bungalow with an ac and tv. Paint peeled off the walls while I stared at them as i dont find television entertaining even if Vietnamese might be novel and worth reporting in. 

A spider built a web in the bathroom doorframe overnight. The lizards played their radio next door loud all night as I saw no other guests and all the keys were on the attendant's pegboard when I checked out at six the next morning. 

David Lynch affectionados might like the place if it hasn't washed away before you read this. The dark brown seawater turned five colors into the horizon as a rainbow arched the sky. Shoreside brown the color of rivers changed with a clear band about a mile out to sea (going on assumption horizon at sea level is seven miles out) into a soft tan suede tone. Beyond that the colors in the evening light with a setting sun to my back eastward reflecting off distant storm clouds pulled through a sobering spectrum shades of turquoise to grey. The beach is practically nonexistent as the cyclists' blog shots imagined.Large imported rocks at waters edge; a short stacked fence of sand bags inland about three meters is bordered by floatsam debris of plastic and paper; a broken slabbed concrete path sunken into the loamy soil leads from restaurant to bungalows. The ground is like that where tree lines approach waterfront giving a sandy consistency to decomposing layers if fallen leaves and needles. For some reason I recall evergreen trees at Ba Dong. 

Any number of other idealistic cinematic scenarios might give me reason to return to the place if I'm back in Tra Vinh province. Funky, trashed, decayed but also subject to government funding, high salt content; intense rains and humidity; the occasional typhoon and frequent South Sea storm; and the bungalow-thrashing gingko bands that disrespect Yankee acoustic sensibilities.  It's been said that Vietnamese like their music loud and ill have more to say about that after about three hundred kilometers.