The wetlands of U Minh Thuong National Park

Wetland cajuput forests in U Minh Thuong Forest in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang. Boat tours can take you through the huge park in the wet season - Photo: Dang Hoang Tham

U Minh Thuong (Upper U Minh) in the Mekong Delta’s Kien Giang Province is a vast wetlands area rich in fish and waterbird life that was declared a National Park in September 2000.

To get there by road, from Tac Cau in the province travel 30 kilometers then turn towards Vinh Thuan District for 30 kilometers. This will bring you to the border of U Minh Thuong. The path lies under a dense green canopy. The forest which spans An Bien, Vinh Thuan and An Minh districts of Kien Giang Province is about halfway between Can Tho and Ca Mau.

U Minh Thuong covers 21,100 hectares. The core 8,000 hectares are strictly protected, while locals live in the remaining 13,000ha growing rice and fruit and vegetables and  exploiting government owned cajuput forests.

The national park is one of only a few protected tropical mangrove forests left in the world. It contains 252 species of flora, 202 different insect species, 24 animal species and 185 kinds of birds, many of which are rare, some have been listed in the red book.

There is also a 44-hectare bird sanctuary with more than 70,000 birds.

The forest that has been through two revolutions as a military base is now being developed for research, to improve conservation efforts of endangered species as well as for eco-tourism and traditional tours.

Roads to U Minh are much better than before. Boat tours of Hoa Mai Lake in the center of the area, cost VND20,000 per person during the rainy season. In the dry season, travelers can hike around the park.

The U Minh Restaurant serves local specialties that include a range of fish dishes and honey dishes such as  honey sweet soup, honey salads, and honey sashimi.

The sunsets there are fantastic as thousands of birds return from feeding grounds to their nests. The forest is full of wildlife and the sounds of monkeys and wild pigs can often be heard.

Guests can stay overnight at the forest but should be careful so that monkeys or pigs don’t steal your food.

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Hanging lake on Chua Mountain

Hanging Lake is always full between the sky and the mountain - Phto: Thai Hang

Local forest keepers in Ninh Thuan Province call it Hanging Lake. A five or six kilometers walk up steep paths through the dense forest of Nui Chua National Park, Hanging Lake is an unexpected sight on the mountain.

Tourists can catch the last train from HCMC to get to Thap Cham train  station at around 2am in the morning. The walk to Nui Chua starts at 8 or 9 in the morning to avoid the heat and humidity. There are many starting points for the climb but the path from Vinh Hy Bay is the most popular, as tourists can combine the hike with a boat ride around the bay to explore its 16 beaches.

The first half of the walk is through an old construction site that has been cleared. The second half is through forest. Tourists are advised to take care walking over the fallen trees on the path and avoid the trees with thorny branches.

 One minute you are in the middle of the forest then suddenly the hanging lake appears out of nowhere, astonishing tourists with its unique beauty at such high altitude - a deep blue gem in the jungle. Frogs and insects shelter in the rocks in the lake from birds. Sometimes in the dry season, if you are lucky you can watch mountain goats, deer and monkeys playing. The lake is always full of water from streams and underground springs in the area. After a few hours exploring the lake, you can start the trek back to Vinh Hy Bay.

The trip cannot be made without an experienced forest keeper. Though access to the national park is still limited, tourists should not miss out on the experience. Without the boat tour, the trip to the lake costs a few hundred dong and some local hotels like Saigon – Ninh Chu have information desks for tourists.

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Hanging lake on Chua Mountain

Hanging Lake is always full between the sky and the mountain - Phto: Thai Hang

Local forest keepers in Ninh Thuan Province call it Hanging Lake. A five or six kilometers walk up steep paths through the dense forest of Nui Chua National Park, Hanging Lake is an unexpected sight on the mountain.

Tourists can catch the last train from HCMC to get to Thap Cham train  station at around 2am in the morning. The walk to Nui Chua starts at 8 or 9 in the morning to avoid the heat and humidity. There are many starting points for the climb but the path from Vinh Hy Bay is the most popular, as tourists can combine the hike with a boat ride around the bay to explore its 16 beaches.

The first half of the walk is through an old construction site that has been cleared. The second half is through forest. Tourists are advised to take care walking over the fallen trees on the path and avoid the trees with thorny branches.

 One minute you are in the middle of the forest then suddenly the hanging lake appears out of nowhere, astonishing tourists with its unique beauty at such high altitude - a deep blue gem in the jungle. Frogs and insects shelter in the rocks in the lake from birds. Sometimes in the dry season, if you are lucky you can watch mountain goats, deer and monkeys playing. The lake is always full of water from streams and underground springs in the area. After a few hours exploring the lake, you can start the trek back to Vinh Hy Bay.

The trip cannot be made without an experienced forest keeper. Though access to the national park is still limited, tourists should not miss out on the experience. Without the boat tour, the trip to the lake costs a few hundred dong and some local hotels like Saigon – Ninh Chu have information desks for tourists.

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Hanging lake on Chua Mountain

Hanging Lake is always full between the sky and the mountain - Phto: Thai Hang

Local forest keepers in Ninh Thuan Province call it Hanging Lake. A five or six kilometers walk up steep paths through the dense forest of Nui Chua National Park, Hanging Lake is an unexpected sight on the mountain.

Tourists can catch the last train from HCMC to get to Thap Cham train  station at around 2am in the morning. The walk to Nui Chua starts at 8 or 9 in the morning to avoid the heat and humidity. There are many starting points for the climb but the path from Vinh Hy Bay is the most popular, as tourists can combine the hike with a boat ride around the bay to explore its 16 beaches.

The first half of the walk is through an old construction site that has been cleared. The second half is through forest. Tourists are advised to take care walking over the fallen trees on the path and avoid the trees with thorny branches.

 One minute you are in the middle of the forest then suddenly the hanging lake appears out of nowhere, astonishing tourists with its unique beauty at such high altitude - a deep blue gem in the jungle. Frogs and insects shelter in the rocks in the lake from birds. Sometimes in the dry season, if you are lucky you can watch mountain goats, deer and monkeys playing. The lake is always full of water from streams and underground springs in the area. After a few hours exploring the lake, you can start the trek back to Vinh Hy Bay.

The trip cannot be made without an experienced forest keeper. Though access to the national park is still limited, tourists should not miss out on the experience. Without the boat tour, the trip to the lake costs a few hundred dong and some local hotels like Saigon – Ninh Chu have information desks for tourists.

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Hanging lake on Chua Mountain

Hanging Lake is always full between the sky and the mountain - Phto: Thai Hang

Local forest keepers in Ninh Thuan Province call it Hanging Lake. A five or six kilometers walk up steep paths through the dense forest of Nui Chua National Park, Hanging Lake is an unexpected sight on the mountain.

Tourists can catch the last train from HCMC to get to Thap Cham train  station at around 2am in the morning. The walk to Nui Chua starts at 8 or 9 in the morning to avoid the heat and humidity. There are many starting points for the climb but the path from Vinh Hy Bay is the most popular, as tourists can combine the hike with a boat ride around the bay to explore its 16 beaches.

The first half of the walk is through an old construction site that has been cleared. The second half is through forest. Tourists are advised to take care walking over the fallen trees on the path and avoid the trees with thorny branches.

 One minute you are in the middle of the forest then suddenly the hanging lake appears out of nowhere, astonishing tourists with its unique beauty at such high altitude - a deep blue gem in the jungle. Frogs and insects shelter in the rocks in the lake from birds. Sometimes in the dry season, if you are lucky you can watch mountain goats, deer and monkeys playing. The lake is always full of water from streams and underground springs in the area. After a few hours exploring the lake, you can start the trek back to Vinh Hy Bay.

The trip cannot be made without an experienced forest keeper. Though access to the national park is still limited, tourists should not miss out on the experience. Without the boat tour, the trip to the lake costs a few hundred dong and some local hotels like Saigon – Ninh Chu have information desks for tourists.

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See Tra Su wetlands in flood

The cajeput forest seems to go on forever from the top of the bird watching tower

The best time to visit Tra Su Cajuput Forest in An Giang is in the flooding season from July to December, according to one of the forest guides there. At this time, large areas of the forest become lakes that tourists can explore by motor-boat.

The forest has 106 colonies of water birds, bats and various rare and endangered animals and reptiles and over 140 flora species.

A 23m bird watching tower stands in the middle of the 845-hectare forest with a telescope for visitors to view the panorama and zoom in on some of the colonies of water birds.

It is possible to visit Tra Su, which is 20km from Chau Doc Town and 10km from the Vietnam-Cambodia border, on a tour that visits Sam Mountain, Forbidden Mountain, Tuc Dup Hill and Oc Eo cultural site.

Here are some snapshots taken by The Saigon Times Daily’ reporter Trung Chau during his visit to Tra Su.

Tourists travel through narrow canals in a motor-boat

Giang sen (Mycteria leucocephala) or painted storks are listed in the Vietnam Red Book

This tourist has a closer look at the birdlife through the tower’s telescope

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20 years on, mangrove forest repays farmer

Famous for its beaches, the resort town of Nha Trang offers nature-lovers a special, “strange” experience in the heart of a private mangrove forest

Nguyen Van Hung stands on one of the wooden pathways that he has built to explore his mangrove forest resort

Beautiful islands, sandy beaches, great diving spots - Nha Trang Bay is famous for these attractions.

But you can also take the less travelled path here.

Just three kilometers from the town’s center stands a mangrove forest that was cultivated and tended to for two decades by Nguyen Van Hung.

Hung, now in his fifties, has opened the forest to visitors, but is insistent that the tourism business does not harm it in anyway. He was moved to cultivate the forest after seeing hectares of mangrove forests destroyed by shrimp farming.

The mangrove forest, covering some 25,000 square meters, is unfortunately a rare phenomenon in the bay area which has seen a dramatic decrease in the brackish water species over the past 30 years. Mangrove forests have dwindled from 500 hectares to just 11 hectares at present

HOW TO GET THERE

One of the cottages in the mangrove forest that visitors can relax in By motorbike or by car: go along Le Hong Phong Street, then take turn at Phong Chau Street. After about 800 meters, turn left where you can see the Nha Trang Export Shrimp Farm. The Tu Rung Duoc Resort is some 700 meters away from the farm. Fees and charges * Free admission and parking * Huts on the bank: VND50,000 per day; “in the forest” VND100,000 per day * Fishing rod: VND10,000 per day * The catch is free

Hung, who calls the forest the Tu Rung Duoc Resort, said, “I want to do business in tourism without doing harm to the forest.”

True to his word, he allows no motorboats in the forest as they may harm underwater creatures and scare storks with their engine noise. Hung’s afforestation work has been so effective that blue storks have chosen the forest to build their nests and stay the night.

Trees and shrubs are allowed to grow in their natural habitat, and Hung raises fish and other species in his forest.

Hung has set up ten huts with thatched roofs, five of which are in the center of the forest and can be reached only on a raft. Five others are built under the shade of big trees on the banks of the Tac River.

If you rent one of the huts, you will find a mat to sit on and a few bowls to have a meal of shrimps, fish and crabs that you catch, or you can have Hung do it for you.

Food can be grilled on coals, but no littering is allowed, Hung says.

When the tide is low, tourists can also find lots of ba khia and nha – small crabs unique to the Mekong Delta - at the root of the mangrove trees.

A stay in this resort is going to be a strange, but rewarding experience.

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