Can Tho

Can Tho

Area : 1.389,59 km2

Population: 1.187.089 people

Can Tho City constitute an independent municipality at the same level as provinces of Vietnam. Can Tho is on the Hau River bank, 169 km from Ho Chi Minh city on the southwest. Cần Thơ City is divided into nine districts: Ninh Kieu, Binh Thuy, Cai Rang, O Mon, Thot Not, Phong Dien, Co Do, Thoi Lai, Vinh Thanh.

Can Tho has been considered the western metropolitan city. Can Tho city is an important trade hub between the provinces in theMekong Delta. Can Tho city is compared as “a city of the watery region”. Tourism in Can Tho is mainly tours of the water region and orchard. The wide range of restaurants and hotels in Can Tho city is considered to be the best accommodation for tourists in Mekong delta.

Monuments-Landscape

• Ninh Kieu Quay: stretching from the rivulet mouth of Cai Khe channel to the ancient market house just restored. Ninh Kieu quay is an interferential place between Hau River and Can Tho River. Ships with full Mekong Delta’s yields are busy at the quay and in the river. Yachts are anchored to pick visitors in Ninh Kieu quay.This place becomes the landscape for local and foreign tourists to visit.

• Cai Rang Floating Market: 5 km from Can Tho city center. The market is in river, a typical cultural feature of the southern people. From very early in the morning, hundreds of boats are gathering together into a market in a section of the river. Samples of hick products are displayed on the top of the rod called “scarecrow” at the bow of the boat. Just looking at the scarecrow, the buyers know what are sold in that boat. Besides visiting and buying fresh products, tourists have a chance to confide in the ones who are called “water merchants” – all year round, they consider rivers their friends.

• Phu Sa Tourist Site: with the area of 30 ha, Phu Sa is surrounded by cypress forest, very charming and romantic… From Ninh Kieu quay, tourists are taken by motor boat in a wavy large river section to Au islet where Phu Sa tourist site locates. There are ancient houses, tourist sites of the Mekong Delta features, seasonal fruits and river hick special foods. Tourists can enjoy special foods of the countryside of the south or entertaining by fishing, swim in the river…

• Bang Lang Stork Garden: From Can Tho city center, along the national highway 91 toward Long Xuyen city, it’s 45 km to this garden. There are about tens of thousands of more than 10 species of storks and more than 20 species of stork’s friends living in the area of 2 hectares in Thoi Thuan commune, Thot Not district. Visiting this garden, visitors can be witness to the life of these storks.

• Binh Thuy Communal House is located in Binh Thuy Ward and is 5km from the center of Can Tho City. Built in 1844, the Communal House was named "Bon Canh Thanh Hoang" on November 9th, 1893 by King Tu Duc. In 1909, people have rebuilt it once and finish in 1910. Binh Thuy Communal House is a valuable monument of art and architectural style in the newly-expanded South Western area.

• Binh Thuy Ancient House is along Highway 91 towardLong Xuyen, cross Binh Thuy Bridge and turn left you will see this 135 years old house. Binh Thuy ancient house is 7km from Can Tho city center. Architecture of this house is a combination of French exterior and Vietnamese interior. This house had captured in film “Nguoi dep Tay Do”

• My Khanh Tourist Village is along highway 1 toward Soc Trang, turn right at Cai Rang Bridge to My Khanh Commune. Address: 335 My Nhan Village, My Khanh Commune, Phong Dien District – Phone: 0710.3 864 260. This village is 10km from Can Tho city center. This tourist garden has many kinds of fruits. Visitors can tour the garden, go fishing and enjoy the specialties of the garden. There are restaurant and guest house for visitors.

Festivals

• Binh Thuy Communal House Festival takes place at Binh Thuy communal house. It falls into two parts: descending from the rice field, on the 14th and 15th of the 12th lunar month, and ascending to the rice field on the 12th and 14th of the 4th lunar month.

• Ong Pagoda is located on Hai Ba Trung Road, Ninh Kieu district. Ong pagoda was in institution by efforts of a segment of Hoa people in two chief towns Quang Chau and Trieu Khanh of Quang Dong, China for worshipping Quan Cong. Quan Cong, a General of the three-kingdom period in ancient China and an example of loyalty to his King, Nam Hai Bodhisattva Kwan Yin, Thai Bach Tinh Quan, the Genie of the earth, and Dong Vinh are all worshipped here. Every year there are 4 festivals: Birthday of main deity Phuc Duc (sir Bon) occurring on 2nd of the second month every lunar year, Birthday of Thien Hau Thanh Mau on 23rd of the third month every lunar year, Birthday of Quan Cong on 24th of the sixth every lunar year, Birthday of Tai Bach Tinh Quan (Deity Tai) on 22nd of the seventh month every lunar year.

Specialties

Can Tho City has many specialties, delicacies such as Cai Rang fermented pork roll, fermented fish hot pot, Rice pancake folded in half (and filled with a shrimp, meat and soy bean sprouts)…

(Mekong Delta Tourist Portal) 

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)