Mekong ornamental sales at 5 riverbank sites

The HCMC Department of Transportation has announced five sales locations along the city’s rivers for ornamental potted-plants from the Mekong Delta before Lunar New Year.

The five sites are a 400-meter long area beside Phu Dinh River in Ward 16, District 8; a 200-meter long area along An Tai canal side in Ward 7, District 8; a 1.7km strip along the Tau Hu Canal stretching from the bridge on Ngang Canal to Cha Va  Bridge; a 470 meter-long area from Cha Va Bridge to Nguyen Quyen Street; an 800 meter-long area from the corner of Le Quang Kim & Hung Phu streets to Chu Y Bridge.

 “Only the five listed locations can sell ornamentals in the city,” Phan Cong Bang from the HCMC Department of Transportation, said.

To transport flowers from Mekong Delta provinces to HCMC, Mekong Delta gardeners should follow two routes. The first one is from Cho Dem’s river - Ben Luc - Cho Dem Bridge - Binh Dien Bridge – Doi Canal - Tau Hu Cabal. The second is from Vam Co Dong River - Nuoc Man Canal - Can Giuoc River - Tau Hu Canal.

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The island of god

Tourists take a boat along the canal in the Mekong Delta - Photo: My Tran

The rivers and channels of the amazing Mekong Delta contain many islands that are interesting to visit. The richly fertile island of Cu Lao May, or May Islet in Vinh Long Province is also known as the land of God.

To get there, take a ferry from Tra On Market for VND1,000. Xe om (motorbike taxi) are also available for VND2,000. The islet, which was formerly named Luc Si Thanh Island, located in Tra On District, covers about 4,000 hectares.

Once on the island explore the orchards of oranges, pomelo, rambutan and star apples by hired bicycle or motorbike. Tourists can also visit the rice paper making village and see how the paper that is wrapped around so many delicious Vietnamese rolls is made.

Hau Thanh Temple on the island is where King Tu Duc conferred the title of Hoang Thanh Bon Canh (The land of god) in 1852. The quiet temple is surrounded by trees. In the lunar fourth month every year, there is a traditional festival at the temple which attracts many pilgrims and visitors.

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Guidebook captures Can Tho spirit

The Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta city of Can Tho has become the first
locality in the country to be featured in a colorfully illustrated
tourist guide book that its promoters call MComic.

The
Mekong Advertising and Supplying Travel Information Co., Ltd (Metinfo)
officially released on Jan. 12 the Tham Quan Can Tho Qua Tranh Ve"
(Sighseeing Can Tho through drawings) guidebook.

The book
employs a comic-graphic medium in which images convey a sequential
narrative that helps tourists learn about the city on the banks of the
Mekong with its beautifully portrayed natural landscapes and
easy-to-remember historical and cultural stories.

"I hope
that tourists can in a few minutes get a complete overview of Can Tho,
the delta's biggest city," said Tran Kim Dinh, Metinfo director and
chief editor of the book.

Established in 2005, Metinfo is
the first travel advertising company in Vietnam . Its experience over
five years have helped it compile the book with succinct and accurate
information.

The simple but detailed drawings capture the
spirit and soul of rural Vietnam in the southern region, a Metinfo
representative said.

"We expect the Mcomic to be a valued souvenir for visitors to Can Tho," he added.

The illustrated guidebook, published by the Youth Publishing House,
contains 92 18cm by 28cm pages using the Couche-Matt paper, and will
sell at 45,000 VND (2.25 USD).

The Can Tho City Department
of Culture, Sports and Tourism has bought 2,000 copies of the book to
offer as gifts and to document the city's tourism promotion
activities./.

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Where the Mekong meets the sea

Ba Dong Beach in the Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh

Duyen Hai is a coastal district in the Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh, where the Mekong River meets the East Sea.

From Tra Vinh take National Road 53 east to get to Duyen Hai. The first place of interest there is Ba Dong Beach in Truong Long Hoa Commune. Ba Dong has giant sand dunes, formed by the action of the river and the ocean.

Lining the beach at the foot of the sand dunes are endless miles of casuarina forests.

Behind the sand dunes are potato farms where visitors can join in the harvest with local farmers to learn how to farm and about the local culture. As the soil is sandy and soft, it’s easy to dig the big sweet potatoes up. Along the beach there are farms that grow rau muong, a type of water spinach with purple flowers.

Farmers in their potato garden near Ba Dong Beach in Tra Vinh Province - Photos: Phuong Ha

Also in Truong Long Hoa Commune, about 55 kilometers from Tra Vinh Town, is the Nha Trang – Duyen Hai, also called Ba Dong tourist area where tourists can find accommodation, a swimming beach, volleyball court and places to relax.

The tourist area covers seven hectares. There is also a food area and bungalows to rent. The sunsets are spectacular.

The tourist area contains an old temple dedicated to worship Trieu Thi Trinh who led the revolution against the Chinese in 248AD. She failed and drowned herself in the river.

The temple attracts many visitors and pilgrims every year to the heroine’s commemoration ceremony.

About 200 meters from the temple is an old tomb built of stone under the shade. Locals say it is the tomb of a princess in Nguyen Dynasty who may have been the sister of Gia Long King. 

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Mekong Delta to greet 19 million visitors

The Mekong River Delta expects to receive 19 million visitors this year,
200,000 more than last year, according to the regional tourism agency,
the Mekong Delta Tourism Association.

Of this
figure, the number of foreign visitors is estimated to increase by 20
percent over last year, reaching 1.46 million.

An
Giang, Kien Giang, Ca Mau, and Can Tho City will top the list of most
visited provinces in the delta, the association said.

The tourism sector in the region has attracted increasing numbers of
visitors since many tourism companies have introduced different kinds of
tours.

Travel companies in Can Tho, An Giang, Kien
Giang and Hau Giang, for instance, have strengthened the development of
waterway tours and festival tourism, among other products.

Meanwhile, companies in Ca Mau, Bac Lieu and Soc Trang provinces have
promoted eco-tourism to mangrove forests, and tours that include
festivals and other cultural activities of the Khmer people.

In Tien Giang, Ben Tre, Vinh Long and Tra Vinh, waterway tourism,
visiting orchards and traditional villages, historical vestiges and
other community-based tourism have been strongly developed in the past
time.

Provinces in the delta have also invested in
upgrading infrastructure including airports, roads and bridges, making
it more comfortable for visitors.

To further promote
tourism, the delta plans to set up a center for tourism promotion and
build a tourism portal to provide updated and accurate tourism
information.

Travel companies will strive to launch more tourism products and improve the quality of their services.

The region is famous for its diverse ecosystems.

Its major attractions include: orchards on the Thoi Son Island in Tien
Giang province; coconut gardens in Ben Tre province; the ecosystem in
flooded cajeput forests of the Dong Thap Muoi area, Tra Su cajeput
forests in An Giang Province; and coastal mangrove forests (bird
sanctuaries, nature reserves, national parks, biosphere reserves) in Can
Tho, Dong Thap, Bac Lieu and Kien Giang provinces./.

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Delicious delta crab claws

Fried crab pincers with salt, a traditional Mekong Delta style dish - Photo: Mai Ly

The Mekong Delta is home to a type of rock crab or cua da that lives near the sea or in inland rocky areas. The crab is made into a few Mekong Delta specialties such as crab steamed with beer, crab rice soup and crab noodle soup. One of the delta’s favorite dishes is fried crab pincers.

The crab is about as wide as your wrist and its shell and pincers are dark purple. The pincers are very hard but the meat inside is very sweet.

To make the dish choose some big crabs then wash and wait till dry. Fry them with salt on low heat. After 10 minutes, when the crab pincers turn bright red, serve them with rau ram (a kind of fragrant vegetable) and mixed lemon and pepper.

The crabs are nocturnal so it is easiest to catch them at night when they are feeding. Fishermen sell them for VND8,000 per crab, while restaurants in the delta sell a serve for VND15,000.

When in Can Tho City, try the crab pincers at Minh Bao Restaurant in Hung Thanh Ward, Cai Rang District.

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Gone Fishing in Vam Nao

A fisherman in Vam Nao Canal with rthe sunset behind him

The Mekong Delta is inherently famous for immense rice fields, floating markets on alluvial rivers, colorful orchards and serpentine canals. The excellent fishing in the delta has become a tourism drawcard as can be seen in the many brochures on display at travel agencies – with tours that take you fishing one day and farming the next.

Fisherman set their net in Nam Vao Canal at night to catch bong lau fish - Photo: Lam Van Son

Every part of the Mekong Delta has its own peculiar fishing techniques. Locals use different types of fish traps, nets and fishing rods.

As we wanted to find out what it would be like to be fishermen, we decided to go to Vam Nao Canal that links the Hau and  Tien rivers in An Giang Province’s Tan Phu District. To get there turn off National Road 91A and travel 15km to Nang Gu ferry then ride eight kilometers to Tan Phu District’s Ong Chuong Islet.

Vam Nao canal is about 800 meters wide and 6.5 kilometers long. It is home to many kinds of fish such as ho fish, bong lau fish and even whales sometimes plus thu and doi fish and crocodiles.

For six months from early in the eleventh month of the lunar calendar is the season to catch bong lau fish. The best days to fish are the 14,15, 19 and 30 days of the lunar month.

Bong lau fish, whose scientific name is Pangasius krempfi, are found throughout the Mekong River in Southeast Asia. They live in fresh water and eat seaweed and crustaceans. They grow to 120cm in length and can weigh as much as 20 kilograms. The fish, which has been widely domesticated here, is sought after for its flavor and can be used to make a range of delicious healthy dishes.

After nightfall about 7 p.m., we set off in a wooden boat to Nam Vao. It was rather cool, but we were keen to catch some fish so the cold didn’t bother us.

It was a dark night and the river was dark, except for the red and yellow lamps of other fishing boats. The red glow on the water made us fancy that we were in the middle of a lantern releasing festival.

After setting the long fishing nets, we lay down on the floor of the boat and talked while we waited. We imagined what dishes we would make with the fish we’d catch. I recommended the bong lau fish sour soup with many kinds of vegetable such as pineapple, tomato, Indian taro, tamarind and okra. While my friend suggested fried bong lau fish with lemon grass and steamed bong lau fish with green mango.

The scene was totally still. After about one hour later, we pulled in a net full of fish.

On the way back down the dark river, our hearts were full of happiness because of all the fish we caught and the fun we had as fishermen.

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Drop down a few gears in the Mekong Delta

Thuan An locals cross a cau khi (bamboo bridge) in Vinh Long Province - Photo: Mong Binh

The Mekong Delta is a throng of commerce and activity but there are many quiet necks of the waterways where locals still lead a very simple life.

A 30-minute boat trip from Ninh Kieu Wharf in Can Tho City takes in the serenity of Thuan An, a commune in Binh Minh District in Vinh Long Province. The attraction lies in the residents who live in harmony with nature and smile when they meet visitors, whether they are Vietnamese or foreigners.

I received a lot of friendly greetings and gestures during my hour of cycling around Thuan Tan and Thuan Phuoc B villages last week in the district. The many welcoming smiles and the innocent faces of dozens of children lifted my spirits as I cycled the 10 kilometer round trip.

In the channels, sons helped their fathers catch shrimp, fish and snail. In the rice fields children walked around and giggled, encouraging their parents to finish pulling out the weeds before sunset.

The breezes carry the scent of rice in flower this time of year. After a long day in the fields farmers chatted loudly all the way home, never stopping for a breath as they crossed the shaking cau khi, the bamboo bridges in the Mekong Delta.

At home, their families prepare a meal of rice they have grown and the fish and shrimp they have caught. Dinners in the Mekong Delta countryside start early, as soon as everyone back from the fields has had a bath.

The scene of people bathing and washing clothes in the canals in front of their homes is a common sight that hasn’t changed for generations.

After the bicycle tour of the villages we stopped at a café to refresh with a coconut juice to ready for the boat trip back to the heart of Can Tho City.

The boat-bicycle tour of rural villages is organized by Victoria Can Tho. The rides are available in the morning or afternoon by dialing (0710) 3810111 or emailing resa.cantho@victoriahotels.asia. 

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The enigma of Dong Thap

Tourists on board one of the skiffs at Xeo Quyt after being taken around the narrow canals

One of the many reasons I love Vietnam is the motorbike culture. Give me a motorbike over a car any day. Ask anyone that’s read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and they’ll tell you, it’s the simple joy of traveling without viewing the scenery through a windscreen that makes motorcycling anywhere fantastic. But when the scenery is as good as deep in the Mekong Delta the experience is epic.

The house in Sa Dec where French author Marguerite Duras lived between 1928 and 1932 and the scene of her famous book “The Lovers”. It used to be used by government but is now open to tourists - Photos: Hoang Tham

The road to Dong Thap Province is fairly wide and in good condition. Once out of the tangled tapestry of the Saigon traffic and the industrial satellite towns, the road opens up and you can afford to glance more than momentarily at the world going past. But it’s still extremely random out there so don’t get too relaxed.

But still the highway is the highway and it presents a fairly homogenous culture anywhere you go with limited offerings of coffee, coke and soups. So I decided to dive down some narrow tracks whenever I needed some food, drink or time to refresh. The results were heart warming. Less than 50 meters off the noisy arteries of this country, life goes on as though the locals don’t know that trucks and buses and foreigners exist.

One such place was a hut in the fields that specialized in selling wine and grilled rats. While at first skeptical I was soon sold on the tasty little creatures that were no doubt fresh from the back door.

Dong Thap is divided by a river. On one side is Sa Dec, a historic little town that would do well to convert some of its French colonial buildings into comfortable guesthouses. While the limited range of hotels in town are clean and comfortable they do little to evoke the town’s romantic history. Sa Dec is known for a famous love affair between French writer Marguerite Duras and the son of a rich Chinese family there in the 1920s, which was the subject of her 1984 book “The Lover”.

On the other side of the river is a much newer town forged out of the low lying delta wetlands. Cao Lanh does not have the nostalgia or the old Chinese temples that Sa Dec has, but it is a great jumping point for some of Dong Thap’s main wetland attractions, which are home to Vietnam’s rare red-headed cranes.

Gao Giong is one of these bird sanctuaries. Off the beaten track, the roads get pretty narrow before you get there, and if you dare it’s easy to get lost among the maze of narrow waterways and narrow concrete tracks that service the thousands that live in little houses along them. The wetlands have flat bottomed skiffs for tourists that take you even deeper into the delta – into a bird society. The cranes are noisy and everywhere you look. There is also an incredible tower that presents a panoramic view of Gao Giong and a rambling stilted restaurant above the marsh that serves the freshest grilled eels and catfish you have ever tasted

Also within an hour’s ride from Cao Lanh, Xeo Quyt is another story. Another maze of canals barely a shoulders breadth wide, it was planted by the revolutionists before the war to create a hiding place for the top brass. The fascinating tours here with English speaking guides create a very vivid impression of the war time, and the very wet comfortless conditions and bombings that the people endured for years.

I left Dong Thap with that wonderful sense that I had discovered something. Much more than the coconut candy factories of My Tho or the floating markets of Can Tho, I was satisfied that I had done more than just scratch the surface of the enigmatic Mekong Delta.

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