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Muahz.Net Bridge - The Holy Dame temple (Miếu bà chúa Xứ) in Chau Doc, An Giang province, well-known for its sacredness, has attracted thousands of prayers from every corner of the country. However, a lot of deceitfulness has happened, making the prayers cautious and worried.


Vendors at the temple.

Following prayers to the temple, we arrived at Vam Cong ferry terminal in a late afternoon. Many hawkers kept asking us to buy their goods by non-stop knocking on our car windows. Almost all tourist cars waiting at the terminal had to suffer this action of these “mobile sellers.”Phuong, a prayer and a big name in transportation industry, took the name card of grilled pork shop given by a seller outside her car. She dialed to order a grilled pig of 15 kilograms at the cost of 180,000 VND per kilogram and requested them to deliver it next morning at the temple.

By the delivery time, the two cruel looking guys met Phuong and her praying group at the temple. They told Phuong that there was only 20 kilogram pig available and the morning market price was increased. Hence, they forced Phuong to pay for the 20 kilogram pig at the cost of … VND220,000 per kilo. Irritated by this way of cheating but she still had to pay 4.4 million VND to ensure to the praying program.

After praying, some people in the group decided to check the weight of the pig at an inn near the temple. “The pig is less than 16 kilograms,” shouted sadly by Thanh – a group member. We were told that at the peak time on the 14th and 15th of the lunar January, more than half prayers who came to the temple for the first time were ripped off.

And it’s not only that. There are numerous frauds on the prayers from every where around the temple, parking lots, “motorbike drivers”, hawkers, shops, and others.



Broken car glass for high parking cost.

After Tet, the room charge here has been increased by 50,000 to 100,000 VND per night. However, most of the prayers accepted to pay the high cost. Otherwise, they had to stay in bad quality inns with shared bathrooms and sleeping mats.

Our prayer group finished the praying at about 2p.m. As soon as seeing that we were leaving, tens of men came out to abuse on and threat each others as if they were to about to fight. They are “motorbike drivers.” Their cruel actions are daily habitual.

Mr. Tran Minh Quyet (HCM City) was in anger when seeing us at the parking area of an inn. He had just been in fighting with two gangsters when parking his car. Being asked to pay 100,000 VND per night, he complained that there was no such expensive cost in HCM city. Right after his warning to report to police, one gangster broke his left car window by a rock. There’s been not much case as of Quyet’s. Yet the security in the temple area has not been good enough.

Quoc Quang