To the land of white rice and clean water

Day 1:

At first, one arrives at Ninh Kieu quay and hires a boat bound for Cai Rang floating market. Make sure the boat belongs to a travel agency and there are enough life jackets on it. Then only boarding once the written contract is signed with such details as itinerary, destinations, departing time and other services, if any. The cost is varied up to the number of visitors and your specific requirements. With a distance of some 5 km, you also can travel to Cai Rang by bus, taxi, or motorbike; a pedicab (if any) is also a good mean of transportation. From An Binh market or around Cai Rang bridge piers, you can hire a boat to the nearby floating market upstream.

Making rice paper

Depending on your own interests, the cruise is estimated to last around 3 - 4 hours. In case o your first trip to the Mekong Delta, it is recommended to go in company with a tour guide for better understanding the South Vietnam’s river culture. You yourself can sense the living environment imbrued with delta activities: hundreds of merchandisers’ sampans and boats in close proximity to one another and dealing in fruits and agricultural products of all kinds. In the summer time, Cai Rang floating market is glowing with fresh colors of fruit specialties in ripening season: durians, mangos teens, rambutans, longans… piled up on boats and sampans of all kinds. Sightseers also have a chance to witness the river – based life of many merchandising families.

Meat roll

From Cai Rang floating market, the trip goes on by both river and road along the provincial road No. 923 (locally called Vong Cung road) towards Phong Dien district. In order to see the real life of orchardists, one of the sites you can drop by is Sau Tuan durian garden (crossing My Khanh bridge, go for a short distance, you will reach Rach Sung wharf. Take a ferry over the river, get ashore and go straight for a while before turning right and crossing a bridge, again you turn left, keep going for around 4 km and there you are). This orchard offers no tourist service. There is only a small coffee shop in front as a stop-over for guests. The owner will guide visitors across the 6 ha wide orchard of yellow – flesh flat – seed durian and mangoes teen. You can choose by yourself newly fallen durians or ripe mangos teens in reddish purple, then have them weighed for payment. Tourists can either savour fruits right in the orchard or bring them home.

Fishing-net

Day 2: 

In case of staying overnight in Can Tho, you can come to Phu Sa resort or alternatively visit traditional craft villages west of Can Tho.

Can Tho cruiser

At Ninh Kieu wharf No. 2; Phu Sa Resort’s boats are available for free. If you wish to control your time or don’t want to wait, you can hire a boat and reach the resort after 10 minutes. After paying for an entrance ticket, you can immediately immerse yourself in the spicily pleasant scenery of Au islet in which Phu Sa resort covers 30 hectares, featuring fruit trees, bonsais, flowers and many ponds with lotus and water lily. The whole area is surrounded by cork forests. Familiar services are available like crocodile fishing, canoeing through cork forests, swimming on Hau river…

Phu Sa tourist area

Visitors will have an opportunity to take part in many highly thrilling games such as flying parachute pulled by motor canoe (which helps the player flying in the air, enjoy the view of Hau river and Can Tho city at an altitude of tens of meters) or riding water motorbike, motor canoe cruising, water-skiing… Phu Sa resort serves a variety of well-known folk cakes such as banh xeo (rice pancake folded in half filled with shrimp, meat and bean sprouts), banh duc (dessert in the form of gelatinous blocks made from non-glutinous rice flour, colored green by the addition of Pandanus amaryllifolius leaf extract), banh tet (cylindrical sticky rice cake filled with green bean paste and fat pork), banh cung (a kind of rice cake wrapped in banana leaves) and numerous unique dishes like lau ban Phu Sa (Phu Sa – style cork hot pot served with several seasonal catfish or crabs, tortoise, and various kinds of fresh herbs and vegetables), mon Tu Quy (4-season dish consisting of several kinds of salted fish served with baked snake-head fish, boiled pork and fresh vegetables). Feeling a little tired, you can rent a tent, a hammock hanging in the shade of trees to enjoy the cool air watching Can Tho bridge, listening to don ca tai tu (traditional music played by amateurs).

Kniting bamboo fish trap

Alternately, you can make a tour on your own to original craft villages by motorbike. From Can Tho city, riding along the national road No. 91 to the three-way intersection fronting Song Hau Farm, one will see a right turning into Bang Tang road – the area is home to many traditional craft villages of O Mon district and Thot Not district. The first is Di Tho bamboo fish trap weaving village, located some 3 km from the three-way intersection of Bang Tang road which belongs to Thoi Long ward (O Mon district). Lop (bamboo fist trap) is a popular tool for fishing during flood season starting from July to October of lunar calendar. Following the concrete path along the Di Tho canal, visitors will reach Ba Rui village specializing in making earthen stoves for witnessing the skill of craftsmen who knead clay and model it into popular stoves widely consumed in Hau Giang province. Keep going along Cut canal, Thom Rom canal, and one will come to the rice-paper making village of Thuan Hung commune (Thot Not district). Many visitors find it excited to see the skill of women who spread liquid rice flour over a steaming hot flat pan to shape a very thin and round piece.

Cork soup

Lau ban Phu Sa

After leaving craft villages, continue to follow the shady path leading to the pier and take a boat to Tan Loc islet (Thot Not district), one will stop by Sau Tia’s eco-garden or Don Thanh Nam’s bonsai garden, visiting ancient houses built in the 1900s. In the summer time, Tan Loc islet charms visitors with fruit specialties ripening on trees, especially in the festival of fruits held in Tet Doan Ngo (lunar mid-year festival) on the 5th day of lunar May. In case you travel in group, it is recommended to choose a travel agency and feel free to make a selection among their designed tours. Wish to go nowhere? So let dine! Select a restaurant suiting your taste, such as lau mam Da Ly (on 3-2 street) serving lau mam (mixed vegetables and fermented fish flavored hot pot), nem nuong Thanh Van (Hoa Binh avenue) serving nem nuong (grilled pork roll). Alternatively, come to Hem 1 on Ly Tu Trong street to taste vit nau chao (mixed vegetables and duck with soya cheese hot pot) or dine in any restaurant around Bai Cat, on Tran Van Kheo street, around Can Tho Water Park. At these restaurants, you can stay as long as you wish!

(Mekong Delta Tourism Guidbook – VCCI Can Tho – www.vccimekong.com.vn)

Where the trees wearing number places

Entering inner Tra Vinh town, the asphalted streets feature tiled sidewalks in the shape of squares and chessboards. They are lined with straight centuries-old trees. Though each street is given its specific name, the local people tend to name it after a tree species planted along pavements such as Hang Sao street, Hang Me street, Cay Dau Lon street… The town is home to 29 species of flora with millions of trees. Especially, there remain hundreds of sao (hopea odorata), dau (dipterocarpus alatus roxb), me (tamarind) trees of 80 to 100 years old.

It is not by nature that Tra Vinh has preserved such a vast number of perennial plants for hundreds of years. With ethnic Khmer people constituting two third of the population, most Tra Vinh residents are Buddhists. The town is circled by 141 Khmer pagodas, creating an ancient Khmer architectural belt. Leaning against the shadow of tower shaped pagodas is a looming forest that makes the manner of pagodas more ancient. The connection of pagodas and trees has deeply rooted in the people’s hearts and handed down through the generations. That has helped to create the habit of preserving, tending a cultivating plants as nowadays. 

Since the 17th century, the pagodas have come into being here. They are located on the high and dry grounds which are airy. Local Buddhists worship three patrons of tree, water and flame. Especially, the places where locate numerous trees are believed to house several of deities. They digger wells around their neighborhood for watering the trees, by the way for the whole village to access drinking water. They have gradually made a habit of growing shady trees along the paths leading to their villages. 

On the road to Luong Hoa commune on the outskirts of the town, remains the unique dau tree (dipterocarpus alatus roxb). The tree is so large that four persons putting their arms cannot embrace it. Its trunk is rough while its spiral grain projects in an oddly uneven way. The canopy of leaves stretches out like an umbrella shading a whole large area. It is locally called Dau Du tree. From 1998, the perennial trees have worn their own number plates which help the locals get to know their condition and inform the local tree management company when necessary. The company’s tree chart includes a system to keep track of the condition of each tree. The company also sets up a mail box and a hot line to get informed of tree conditions.

The present average density of trees in Tra Vinh town is 14.27m2 per capita, the highest among the Mekong Delta’s towns and cities.

(Mekong Delta Tourism Guidbook – VCCI Can Tho – www.vccimekong.com.vn)

Don Ca Tai Tu (Amateur Music Performance)

Don Ca Tai Tu (Amateur Music performance), a genre of art is offered as a welcoming gift for most travelers to the Mekong Delta. Don ca tai tu came into being in the late 19th century and early 20th century in the South of Vietnam. Composers and royal musicians of the Nguyen dynasty as following phong trao Can Vuong (Royalist Movement) into the South brought Ca Hue (Hue traditional singing) on them. On their southward way, they stopped at Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Quang Nam provinces, from that time on, Hue’s singing and sound of musical instruments had mingled with some flavour of the Quang land. However, as soon as getting into the south, the sound of musical instruments of the central region had been undergone considerable alteration, even several songs of similar names quite differed in melody. The southerners’ liberal disposition and way of life have made Hue traditional songs non-identical to their former original ones. 

Musical instrument players and singers both did not want to follow what they were taught by Hue – originated composers but always made some embellishment, adding a bit of their own creativeness, making the songs more charming and meaningful. On the other hand, for composers always longed for their homeland, the tunes and singing of don ca tai tu all sound vaguely blue. 

The fact that who invented the southern amateur music performance remains controversial. However, several studies have traced back to royal musician Nguyen Quang Dai (also known as Da Doi in the south) who was considered as the grandfather boasting a number of disciples well-known in this form of art. Then in the year of 1919, the song titled “Da Co Hoai Lang” (awaiting one’s husband) is seen as the precursor of modern Vong co (a song or more appropriately a cycle of patterns, performed in cai luong (renovated theater). It is the key among 20 original pieces of amateur music performance composed by talented musician Cao Van Lau in his home province of Bac Lieu (1919). These traditional songs have spread over the south and now become popular throughout the country which promoted don ca tai tu to a higher level. By the most flourishing time, amid the people’s increasing demand for art enjoyment, the southern don ca tai tu is seen as the groundwork for creating a new art genre that had been quickly taken shape and won the hearts of the folks in the south in specific and over the country in general. That is the theatrical art form called cai luong (reformed drama). Other genres of art normally tend to fade or to be splited into different forms after they reach their peak and especially there is a substitute. Meanwhile, the southern don ca tai tu is quite different. It has deliberately existed along the development of cai luong. Moreover, don ca tai tu itself has undergone incessant development and helped to enrich the theatrical art form of cai luong as well.

It is just its high adaptability as well as such a both scholarly and popular nature that make don ca tai tu always present in the southerners’ life and in non-stop development. The fact that Can Tho university has received a vast number of American and European students who came to learn the southern don ca tai tu and vong co proves the attraction of this musical genre. 

Once come here, please stay here! The following are excerpts of the two well-known songs of don ca tai tu. 

Dạ cổ hoài lang (tiền thân của vọng cổ ngày nay) – sáng tác: Cao Văn Lầu: 

Từ là từ phu tướng, 

Bảo kiếm sắc phong lên đàng. 

Vào ra luống trông tin chàng. 

Năm canh mơ màng. 

Em luống trông tin chàng, 

Ôi gan vàng quặn đau. 

Đường dù xa ong bướm, 

Xin đó đừng phụ nghĩa tào khang. 

Đêm luống trông tin chàng, 

Ngày mỏi mòn như đá Vọng phu. 

Vọng phu vọng luống trông tin chàng. 

Sao nỡ phũ phàng… 

Chàng là chàng có hay? 

Đêm thiếp nằm luống những sầu tây. 

Bao thuở đó đây sum vầy, 

Duyên sắc cầm lạt phai. 

Là nguyện cho chàng 

Hai chữ an bình an. 

Mau trở lại gia đàng, 

Cho én nhạn hiệp đôi. 

Tình anh bán chiếu – sáng tác: Cố soạn giả Viễn Châu 

Hò ơ… chiếu Cà Mau nhuộm màu tươi thắm 

Công tôi cực lắm mưa nắng dãi dầu 

Chiếu này tôi chẳng bán đâu 

Tìm cô không gặp 

Hò ơ… tìm cô không gặp, tôi gối đầu mỗi đêm 

Vọng cổ 

1. Ghe chiếu Cà Mau đã cắm sào bên bờ kinh Ngã Bảy, sao cô gái năm xưa chẳng thấy ra… chào. Cửa vườn cô đã khóa kín tự hôm nào. Tôi vác đôi chiếu bông từ dưới ghe lên xóm rẫy, chiếc sáo nhuộm bùn đã lấm tấm giọt mồ hôi. Nhà của cô sau trước – vắng tanh trong gió lạnh buổi chiều đông, bỗng có ai dạo lên tiếng nguyệt cầm như gieo vào lòng tôi một nỗi buồn thê thảm. 

2. Cô đã đặt đôi chiếu bông bề dài hai thước, có lẽ để điểm tô ở chốn loan phòng. Nhưng rồi hôm nay, cô đã quên tôi để cất bước theo chồng. Cô ơi! Đôi chiếu này tự tay tôi dệt lấy, tôi đã lựa từng cọng lác sợi gai. Nhưng khi tôi đến nơi thì cô đã rời bỏ quê nhà sang xứ khác, tôi đứng trước cổng vườn xưa với nỗi buồn man mác, còn đôi chiếu này tôi biết tặng cho ai? 

(Mekong Delta Tourism Guidbook – VCCI Can Tho – www.vccimekong.com.vn)

Discover The Islet's Land

Ben Tre is made up of three islets: Minh, Bao, An Hoa which are separated by four branches of Tien river (My Tho river, Ba Lai river, Ham Luong river and Co Chien river). As a product of Ben Tre Travel Joint Stock Co., the Mekong tour allows tourists to discover the beauty of rivers, canals and lush orchards on An Hoa islet. Joining this tour, visitors gather in Phong Phu tourist site located 14km north of Ben Tre town. After getting ashore from a Rach Mieu ferry, make a right turn and go for some 300m, one will see Phong Phu. 

Boarding the motor boat, go along Mieu Nho canal about 100m, one will catch sight of vast Tien river. Across the river is My Tho city (Tien Giang province). The boat quietly breaks waves on the river, east bound for Quoi An – a tourist site lying in the longan orchard of An Hoa islet. All houses here are roofed with nipa palm leaves while their walls, doors, windows, ridge beams, purlins, battens, and even rain gutters are all make out of coconut wood. 

This house displays many alien coconut species, tools for harvesting coconut fruits and around 200 products made of coconut wood. Next to it is the house of hand embroidery, covering 120m2 too, which is built in the shape of J (ding, 4th heavenly stem) character and included the main and secondary compartments. It was known that making this house required up to twenty over 30-year-old coconut trees with straight, smooth trunks and 12 meters in height of which 8 meters of their stumps were used for not being termite or worm-eaten. This house is mainly used for presenting Ben Tre’s hand embroidery products and selling coconut made handicrafts. 

Walking on the gravel path through the luxuriant orchard for about 150m, visitors set foot on the village path where 13 carriages are available. This kind of vehicle with plastic wheels was formerly used as a means to transport local agricultural products to the town market for sale. Today, they have been transformed in to “tourist vehicles” which are favorites of both domestic and foreign travelers. Such a ride costs 20,000 VND. 

Ben Truc tourist site, which is also located on An Hoa islet, has a band of amateur singers available performing several genres of southern traditional music for visitors. Under thatched camps, the sweet singing (of the amateur performers) penetrating into the hearts plus the sweet smelling of baby bananas, rambutans, green dragon fruits, pineapples with a cup of steaming hot honey tea make visitors feel more relaxed, almost carefree. Ben Truc also has twenty hand-rowing sampans which each is capable to carry 4-5 passengers. Both home and international tourists find it pleased to be served by a pretty girl rowing the sampan in ao ba ba (southern women’s traditional shirt that is long-sleeved, button-down, split at the sides of the waist forming two flaps and has two pockets at the very bottom of the front) with non la (palm-leaf conical hat) on the head. The boat cleaves through the water, making its way between two lines of verdant nipa palms showing off their brown globular seed clusters. The boat fee is 1,500 VND per person for groups and 3,000 VND for a single visitor. 

Tourists board back to Hao Ai restaurant. As coming near it, one will feel a bit puckish because of mouthwatering cooking aroma. As sitting at the table, on is served with ca tai tuong chien xu (giant gouramy deep-fried over high heat) with rice papers and green fresh vegetables, lau ca hu (mixed vegetables and pangasius conchophilus – a kind of catfish – hot pot), ca hu kho to (pangasius conchophilus braised in earthenware pot). These specialties are so tooth some that one may feel bewitched! After the meal, if you wish, you can rent a bicycle for a ride on the stone path under the shady trees. 

The restaurant has 30 mountain bikes for rent with 1 USD per ride. You can ride anywhere you like till the time to leave back.

(Mekong Delta Tourism Guidbook – VCCI Can Tho – www.vccimekong.com.vn)

Southern Cuisine - Rooting Taste

Exhaustedly nostalgic one may feel. It turns out that under the gorgeous cover of cuisine culture is the core of the Vietnamese’s affection and moral principles. The Southern food is special in the way it is made that bears its own nuance and distinctively sweet flavour from the smell of vast countryside soil, the sweetness of impetuous rivers and canals during flood seasons, the immense Southwestern nautical wind, and the somber solemnity of layers after layers of prime forests and mountainous areas. That is the initial “row material”, reserving only for this delta where becomes “dat lanh chim dau” (good land for birds to perch) with favorable weather and more and more prosperous as a saying: “Ruong dong mac suc chim bay/ Bien ho lai lang ma bay ca dua” (Paddy fields boundless for birds to fly/ Rivers and lakes profuse for flocks of fish to race). Therefore, one cannot fine “Cho Dao rice”; the salted fish hot pot in “magnificent Ha Noi” even made by a An Giang chef may not surpass “the original” in the Southern land…

Bánh khoai mì

It is remarked that the Southern land’s cuisine is likened to a countryside girl that is naturally beautiful despite not wearing her make-up. Once talking about the dish of ca ro kho tieu (anabas braised with fish sauce and black pepper), Son Nam, the famed culturist, described like this: “Anabas is the king of freshwater fish, fish sauce is the cream of the ocean, sprinkling with a little black pepper is to take mountainous flavours…” Just as a popular dish but it collects all the nature’s flavours and represents the culture of a country. On this southernmost land, people have made the best of the nature for creating unique specialties at will in order to express the manner and hallmark of those once reclaiming the region – that is pioneering, carefree, not finical and nor standing on ceremony in disposition.

Banh u

Cá kho tộ

The fine cuisine of the Southern land (and Vietnam) implies the profound cultural strength which links not only space and time, tradition and modernity but human spirit and thought as well. In the framework of the program “Mekong River: Connecting cultures” organized in Washington D.C (USA) in 2007 by Smithsonian Institute, Artisan Nguyen Thi Xiem (67, from Tra Noc ward, Binh Thuy district – Can Tho) demonstrated the skill of making banh xeo (rice pancake folded in half filled with shrimp, meat and bean sprouts), banh tet (cylindrical sticky rice cake filled with green bean paste and fat pork), banh it tran (sticky rice patty)… which received great acclaim. Many audiences invited her to their houses, offered gifts… Not to mention the tastiness of the cakes she made, the fact she selected on her own the rice for grinding into flour, finding banana leaves for fastening cakes aroused the faded memory of Vietnamese overseas and revived their national love. Enjoying her cakes all of a sudden recalled them to the images of river and wharf in their childhood, their dedicated mother being wrapped up in cooking banh tet on the days approaching the lunar New Year, the fragrant smoke of burning rice straw spreading at sunset, the homeland flavour featuring cau khi (monkey bridge – a bridge make from a single tree trunk), pond unwavering, bunches of sweet carambola and storks gently gliding… 

Bánh ít trần

“Love towards the country is the longing and craving for the dishes fed by our parents when we were young”. As the time goes by, those plain foods and charming flavours sill imprint on their mind despite how far they may go. And strange as it is, the further one goes, the more anxiously.

Goi tep

Bánh chuối nướng

The program “Fine cuisine of South reclamation” has given rise to the trend towards origin cuisine of the former reclamation period amid the Vietnam integration into the world. Plain dishes such as ca loc nuong trui (grilled-straw snakehead fish), ran nuong leo (snake baked on the fire), mam kho (cooked salted fish), mam song (raw salted fish), chuot dong ro ti (roasted field mouse in coconut juice), luon hap trai bau (eel steamed with gourd), ech xao lan (frogs stir-fried with little or no water), ca ro kho to (anabas braised in earthenware pot), ca bong dua kho tieu (sand goby simmered in fish sauce with black pepper), canh chua ca loc (snake-head fish sour soup), hu tieu My Tho (My Tho – style thin rice noodle), tom lui Bac Lieu (Bac Lieu – style roasted shrimp sticks), nam tram Phu Quoc (Phu Quoc cajuput mushrooms)… still rise to fame as specialties which win the heart of diners right in prosperous urban areas. They also choose to enjoy those dishes in the most popular way possible. As for broiling, there are so many various ways: broil under burning charcoal, broil with a stick, plain broil, broil in jar, broil with straw, broil with clay cover, broil in bamboo tube…

Gỏi cá trê vàng

Bánh tét Trà Cuôn

For Chau Doc – style salted fish hot pot, it is fashionable for diners to consume with two dozens of rural herbs and vegetables like cu neo, tai tuong, cang cua, so dua flower, dien dien flower… The “Ca com de nhat name” (number one anchovy fermented roll) is typical for the delicacy of countryside dished. Fresh anchovy is washed off scales, and then soaked in salty water until their bodies are spliced. After taken out of the water, the fish is boned before steeped in fresh coconut juice for some time. Again get the fish out to dry and filter through a very thin cloth, squeeze dry then pounding them well with broiled garlic and many different spices (salt, sugar, fat, ground black pepper, galingale extract and powdered grilled rice…). After being rolled into galls, they are first wrapped in young leaves of chum ruot (a kind of fruit tree), then vong nem leaves and finally banana leaves, and stringed in the cruciform… The fine cuisine of Southern Vietnam is filled with the world of rural produce rich in materials, colors in harmony with the breath of expansive gardens and long rivers.

(Mekong Delta Tourism Guidbook – VCCI Can Tho – www.vccimekong.com.vn)

Mekong Delta

Mekong delta map

Situated in the lower section of the legendary Mekong River, the Mekong Delta (known as the Nine Dragon River Delta in Vietnam), Southern of Vietnam, covers 40,000 square kilometers and houses 17.5 million people. Embracing 13 provinces and cities, the Mekong Delta borders HCM City in the north, and the Gulf of Thailand and Cambodia in the west. The East, South and Southwest are encompassed by sea with a length of more than 700km.

Can Tho bridge is under construction

Floating market

The Mekong Delta has distinct advantages over other regions in Vietnam. That is mild weather (average 28 degrees Celsius), high sunshine intensity (2,226 – 2,709 hours of sunlight per year) and less vulnerability to natural disasters. The Mekong Delta currently is the colossal granary of all Vietnam, annually accounting for over 50% of the nation’s rice production, 90% rice export, 65% seafood production and 70% fruit production, making it one of the three largest economic areas of Vietnam. 

Originating in snow-capped mountains of the Tibetan Plateau, the 4,200 km-long Mekong River has two tributaries running through the Southern plains which are called Tien River and Hau River. The lower Mekong River region belonging to Vietnam has more than 1,200 species of fish, including over 60 species with economic value focusing on the carp family (Cyprinidae) and the giant catfish family (Pangasiidae), with an estimated output of 2 million tons/year. The Mekong River annually discharges into the region over 460 billion cubic meters of water, carrying some 150 – 200 million tons of silt which are 7 – 8 times than that of Hong River in the North. That makes this delta more fertile and affluent. 

The Mekong Delta is famous for its boundless rivers and interlacing canals. Over 700 km of seashores, some 28,000 km of rivers, thousands of km of canals, hundreds of green islets floating on the water and nine estuaries like nine mouths of the dragon keeping on impetuously pouring water into the sea make it convenient for rowboat-combined-with-pleasure boat tours penetrating deep to the canals system… 

Floating market (namely Nga Bay, Phung Hiep – Hau Giang, Cai Rang, Phong Dien – Can Tho, Cai Be – Tien Giang…) that have come into being for a hundred years are regarded as “the spiritual element”, the advancement of the Southern river civilization. A lively atmosphere is created by convoys of boats fully loaded with countryside products gathering in one locality, thousands of “bẹo” (a long bamboo pole set up on the boat used to hang up samples of what it sells) dangled high above the boat bow, inviting fellow traders even before the sun has emerged. Both buyers and sellers move by boat in the middle of the immense river. That countryside life picture is so specific to the South of Vietnam. There is even a “boat culture” diversified with sampans, wooden barges, junks and many kinds of fishing boats in different sizes and shapes. 

The Mekong River Delta becomes more pristine, natural and lively at the arrival of flood season. The first spell of the flood occurs around June to July, the crest of flood comes in September or October but flood waters gradually rise. The flood season arrives. Stretching as far as the eye can see, submerged rice paddies look dazzling white against brilliant yellow of blossoming “điên điển” flowers. From the distance appear fishmen on small boats placidly dropping their lines, casting their nets… 

The Mekong River Delta’s countryside and its horticulture methods have been evidenced by more than 2.000 rice species. Over 130 year ago, Go Cong round grain rice or Vinh Long long grain had represented Vietnam’s rices to become the first one exported to the West. Cai Mon, Cho Lach situated in the three large islands called An, Bao, Minh of Ben Tre province have been noted for fruit – tree grafting. Bonsai gardens and especially fantastic ornamental plants grown in the shape of animal designations associated with lunar years like rat, ox, tiger, dragon… are regarded as one of the special creations of the delta’s countryside. The artists develop their own grafting and shaping techniques which are distinguished from those of the Chinese, the Midland or the North. 

The Mekong Delta boats the land of biodiversity and rich produce. Taking a boat ride throughout the 700,000-ha Dong Thap Muoi, one will discover the wildly inundated low-lying area or explore Ca Mau mangrove forests which ecological system is similar to that of the Amazon estuary, and extensive U Minh cajeput forest. Being “Dat lanh chim dau” (good earth, bird land), the Mekong Delta is home to a great number of bird species, particularly migrating ones. 7 large breeding sanctuaries of herons, striped storks, egrets and bitterns have been discovered. Phuong Dong red-beaked cranes get together in Tam Nong – Dong Thap. Tram Chim Reserve has 92 known species of birds while U Minh forest is home to 81 species and dozens of bird sanctuaries where thousands of birds glide through a blue sky as the sunset comes. 

Ba Dong Sea (Tra Vinh), Khai Long Sea (Ca Mau)… which boast magnificient natural beauty are flooded with sunlight all year round. Ha Tien sea, especially Phu Quoc (Kien Giang), the Vietnam’s largest island sited in the Gulf of Thailand are a special favour which the Creator specifically dedicates for the heavily silted Mekong delta.  

The Mekong Delta is a place of converging and exchanging cultures of 4 ethnic groups: Viet, Khmer, Chinese and Cham, taking the place of the vanished Oc Eo culture as well as bearing the hallmark of the ancient Kingdom of Funan (Phu Nam in Vietnamese) which was once celebrated. Therefore, it is fascinating to arrange culture, custom, belief exploring tours. The life of local people is not confined to their village’s bamboo hedges but a wide open space, stretching along rivers and canals. That helps create their nature which is honest, open-minded, moral, hospitable, “tu hai giai huynh de” (within the four seas all men are brothers). 

Vong co (a special style of singing using the whole breath without any break), cai luong (reformed drama) are unique traditional art forms which are so specific and only exist in the South of Vietnam. Despite over 80 years passed, the song entitled “Da co hoai lang” (yearning for one’s husband upon hearing midnight drumbeats) still win the audience’s heart because of its noble humane nature: “Tu la tu phu tuong/ Bao kiem sac phong len dang/ Vao ra luong trong tin chang/ Nam canh mo mang/ Em luong trong tin chang/ Oi gan vang quan dau” (Ever since you received the call/ Took on your duty in war/ I keep walking back and forth, awaiting your news/ Staying awake throughout the night/ I have been longed for your news/ How painfully my heart throbs). 

A long with ancient Vietnamese communal houses are Chinese temples and pagodas. The magnificent Islamic mosque (known as Mubarak mosque) for the Cham minority community with its graceful onion-shaped dome stands reposefully along the Chau Giang River. The theravada-Khmer pagoda roofs are colorfully striking and sharp-pointed curved with images of the Krud Garuda mythical bird and the Naga snake engraved in a highly sophisticated way. Con Phung (Phoenix islet) in Ben Tre is the “holy land” of Dao Dua (Coconuts) featuring a court decorated with 9 dragon-carved pillars and a tower; Tay An ancient pagoda situated in the mysterious That Son mountain range (An Giang) is a worship place of the founder of Buu Son Ky Huong religion… Noted among hundreds of ancient houses standing along the Mekong is a 130-year-old house with five compartments and two rooves in Binh Thuy (Can Tho). 

The Mekong Delta is the land of festival as well. Thanh Minh (grave-sweeping) festival, in which people pays respects at their ancestors’ tombs, entices both the Vietnamese and Chinese. Cham people are proud of Hadji Festival, Ramadan. The Khmer community is jubilant with fine-toned music during festivals of Chol Chnam Thmay (New year), Dolta (Amnesty for the dead), Ok Om bok (Moon Prayer). There are also Via Ba Chua Xu (the birth anniversary of the local tutelary goddess) festival, Bay Nui (seven mountains) ox racing festival (An Giang), Nghi Ong (welcoming the whale) festival in coastal areas… The ancestors’ cultural identity has been preserved by hundreds of craft villages. An Giang has the brocade weaving village of Cham and Khmer people, the 100-year-old floating house village. Phu Quoc is most celebrated with nuoc mam (fish sauce) made with anchovies, peppers. Soc Trang boasts its mat craft. Go Den – Long An alcohol made with sticky rice has been renowned nationwide. There are also rice papers of Luong Hoa (Tra Vinh), the boat building village of Nga Bay (Hau Giang), the fishing net hamlet of Thom Rom, the bamboo fish trap of Thoi Long (Can Tho)… 

It was used to be a famous place

Lau mam (salted fish hot pot) of Chau Doc, the fascinating delicacy of the Southern land, cannot be called excellent if not accompanied by two dozens of several fresh vegetables and aromatic herbs like cu neo, tai tuong, cang cua, so dua flower, dien dien flower,… Thit kho nuoc dua (braised pork in coconut juice), can chua ca loc (snake head sour soup), ca loc nuong trui (grilled-straw snakehead fish), ran nuong leo (plain baked snake), mam kho (preserved salted fish stew), chuot dong ro ti (roasted field mouse in coconut juice), luon hap trai bau (eel steamed with gourd), ca ro kho to (anabas braised in bowl), ca bong dua kho tieu (sand goby simmered in pepper sauce), hu tieu My Tho (My Tho – styled noodle soup), tom lui Bac Lieu (Bac Lieu – styled shrimps roasted in stick), nam tram (boletus) Phu Quoc, Tunglomo (beef sausage blended with cold rice), Hapaychal pastry (Khmer people), canh Sim lo (banana flower soup cooked with fried salted fish), bun nuoc leo (rice noodle in snakehead fish, shrimp, pork, lemon grass broth), mam (salted fish) Prahoc (Khmer people)… and many other delicacies make the delta’s beauty more charming, pervasive, and unforgettable to tourists. 

(Mekong Delta Tourism Guidbook – VCCI Can Tho – www.vccimekong.com.vn)