Marvelous Hồ Thị Kỷ

[Hồ Thị Kỷ, 5/13/25]

I remember reading an account by an 18th century Chinese traveler who says he has been to Lun Lun. He means London. After so many months or years, he may have forgotten the correct pronunciation. Perhaps he always had it wrong. The mind can screw up so many ways. I’d say most have never functioned properly, even for one second. All men by nature desire to know just enough to be triggered, so they can indulge in that insatiable appetite to be righteous asshole. Mea culpa, and “may a chancre lame you,” to quote Rabelais.

Before I forget all about Hồ Thị Kỷ, a town of 27,000 almost no one visits, let me jot down some reflections. It’s the site of the oldest structure in the Cà Mau area. Built in 1788, the Sêrây Mangko, known as Chùa Rạch Giồng in Vietnamese, is also the most beautiful. Just before getting on that mini bus for Sóc Trăng, I had a chance to marvel at this gem. Red and gold with a gray and turquoise roof, it has winged kinnaras atop slender columns. Ornate tombs with their spires ring it. Unlike Viet temples, its proportion is exquisite. Again, I hired that motorbike driver to take me there. Tellingly, he barely looked at it and declined to go inside. This young man who had seen almost nothing wasn’t interested. Granted, he would rather have had sex, drank beer or eaten crabs, but he was already in Hồ Thị Kỷ.