Saigon beauty makes two young men burn money to boil eggs

Tran Ngoc Tra, the first beauty of Saigon in the past, is said to be the one who made the Prince of Bac Lieu and the Prince of Bach burn money to boil eggs to prove their love.

Saigon 100 years agoThe woman was crowned beauty queen, although she did not have a crown, her beauty and power dominated the South.One of the famous beauties who created the first fever in Saigon was Tran Ngoc Tra, also known as Ba Tra. Her French name isYvette Tea.

Tran Ngoc Tra, known as "Miss Nam Ky" in the early 20th century. Photo: Document

From poor hometownCan Duoc (Long An), Tran Ngoc TraShe set foot on Saigon at the age of 16. Her beauty was compared by contemporaries as: "Saigon Star" (Étoile de Saigon), "Southern Beauty" or "Miss Indochina".

An old writer once met Tran Ngoc Tra and described her as a beautiful young woman, as elegant as a queen. She wore silk clothes of the same color, with a thin veil, sitting in a convertible, cruising around the streets of Saigon..

Scholar Vuong Hong Sen, who lived at the same time as Ba Tra,He said he had talked to her a few times and was visited by the beauty.also once infatuated with the beauty of "Miss Nam Ky". In the bookIn Saigon, he wrote that whoever got to know her or was condescended to interact with her considered it an honor to prove their class...

"Miss Ba Tra, the number one beauty in the South, a beauty who captivated many young men in the South. They surrounded her, competing to throw money out the window. All the money and property their parents left behind, those young men spent it all, without regret, on many girls," he wrote.

Despite her stunning beauty, this beauty had a very bitter childhood. Because of jealousy of his wife, her father and paternal relatives did not acknowledge her as their biological daughter. When her father died, her mother and her husband were kicked out of the house.

Because her mother took all her anger out on her child, Tra was often beaten. In the story of her life that Ba Tra shared with Vuong Hong Sen, she was beaten to the point of not feeling any pain. Because of this, when she grew up, she looked at life with a cold, indifferent eye.

After being forced to marry a French man and then abandoned, Ba Tra met Toan - a rich young man from Phan Rang (Ninh Thuan). Dazed by the beauty, Toan urged his family to marry him immediately. But this marriage quickly fell apart after 2 years because Toan started to flirt and have mistresses.

Pained by her failed marriage, she quickly became friends with and married a famous but middle-aged doctor when she was just 18. However, this third marriage did not go anywhere as Ba Tra could not forget Toan.

Black and White Princes, two famous lovers of Miss Ba Tra. Photo: Document

After breaking up with the doctor, Tra threw herself into debauchery, hooking up with one man after another. Miss Ba Tra's "collection" of lovers were all the biggest landowners and rich young men in the South, such as: Le Cong Phuoc (nicknamed Bach Cong Tu) - son of Governor Le Cong Sung, Bac Lieu young man Tran Trinh Huy (nicknamed Black Cong Tu) or young man Bich, the bank owner.French Indochina.

In addition, the influential intellectuals of the French colonial period such as judges, lawyers, doctors and even the gambling king of Saigon at that time, Sau Ngo, were also infatuated with her. They were willing to serve and pamper the beauty.Within ten years of her blooming beauty, the uncrowned beauty of the South is said to have earned from ten billionaires of that time an amount of money that, if converted into gold, would be about ten thousand taels.

Tran Ngoc Tra's beauty is also said to have caused the confrontation at that time between the Black and White princes. The story goes that, without Miss Ba having to say anything, whenever the White prince heard that Miss Ba had received something precious from the Black prince, he would ask the price and try to find a more expensive gift to give to the beauty. Therefore, she owned countless precious things from jewelry, branded clothes to houses and vehicles.

In which the famous anecdote recounts that, to win the beauty's heart, these two young men organized a contest to cook eggs (or sweet soup) with paper money. According to calculations, to boil a pot of sweet soup containing one kilogram of green beans, in nearly an hour, each young man burned nearly 100 pieces of paper money. If the Black Young Man burned all the 50-dong bills or more, then he must have burned at least 5,000 Indochinese piastres. That amount of money could buy 3,000 bushels of rice at that time.

The fire of paper money is very weak, only burning small, so the sweet soup was cooked for a long time in the tension of many witnesses. In the end, the pot of sweet soup of Mr. Bach boiled first, Mr. Bac Lieu had to lose.

Yvette Tra and Black Prince Tran Trinh Huy. Photo: Document

Talking about Mr. Bach, he originally came back from studying abroad in France. Talented, with a rich family, handsome and fair skin, he had no shortage of beautiful women surrounding him. But Mr. Phuoc put everything aside to pursue the beauty queen.Yvette Tea.

To be close to the beauty, Mr. Bach drove a luxurious four-wheeled vehicle of the time to pick Tra up and take her to Can Tho for a change of scenery. He took off his diamond ring worth more than 3,000 VND (at that time, gold was only 60 VND per tael) and gave it to Ngoi Sao Sai Gon.

Knowing the story, the young master of Bac Lieu, Tran Trinh Huy, showed that he was not inferior, so he came to see her and gave her another ring worth twice as much as the ring of young master Phuoc. However, the gifts of the Black and White young masters or all the famous players in Saigon and Nam Ky could not make Ba Tra fall in love and who would she belong to.

The assets obtained from the tycoon,Yvette Tra spent all her money in the casino. She was beautiful and smart, but she was also the most "thirsty" gambler. Ba Tra spent all her money on gambling. When she ran out of money, she was supported by the rich.

In her confession to Vuong Hong Sen, Ba Tra said that the person who loved and provided for her the most was Lam Ky Xuyen, also known as Mr. Bich. He was the owner of the Indochina Bank branch in Can Tho, and his father was the owner of a large wine company in the West. Lam Ky Xuyen was infatuated.Yvette Tra gave her more than 70,000 Indochinese dollars at that time.

Gradually, as the years passed, Ba Tra passed her prime, her beauty faded. Young masters and rich men gradually avoided her, and she no longer had money to gamble.In 1966, people encounteredYvette Traworking in a shabby shop in Cho Lon. At sixty years old, her face was haggard, but her nose was still delicate, her eyes were still jet black and glistening with the light of a mirror.

After Tran Ngoc Tra, Saigon saw the appearance of more famous beauties such as: Tu Nhi, Co Ba Soap... Each person had their own way of life, but every beauty disappeared after their time and only their reputation remained until today.

According to Ngoisao.net