The 3 most attractive routes for visiting Mekong Delta in the flooding season

By taking a tour to the orchards, paddy fields and swamplands of the Mekong Delta, you will step into the pages of a geography textbook. A comma-shaped flatland stretching from Ho Chi Minh’s city limits southwest to the Gulf of Thailand, the delta is Vietnam’s rice bowl, an agricultural miracle that pumps out more than a third of the country’s annual food crop from just ten percent of its total land mass. Rice may be the delta’s staple crop, but coconut palms, fruit orchards and sugar-cane groves also thrive in its nutrient-rich soil, and the sight of conical-hatted farmers tending their land is one of Vietnam’s most enduring images. 

1. Chau Doc – Tra Su – An Giang

This is the most typical track as An Giang located at the end of the water flow of Mekong delta river . You can travel from Ho Chi Minh city to this province by motorbike or car with a route of 250 kilometres. In Chau Doc, you should explore daily life of local people in which Khmer culture has a considerable influence. You can start your trip in the morning by going to Chau Doc market and having a bowl of “bun ca” then continuing with “miếu bà Chúa Xứ núi Sam” (Temple of Sam mountain’s Queen) or passing by Chau Giang village. In Chau Doc, there are a number of mosques in Muslim style with big hall or houses on stilts reflecting Cham (Khmer)’s culture. Some restaurants in the village still hand-makes sponge cakes with bronze moulds and use hot coals to bake the cakes. If you follow Tan Chau direction, you may have chance to observe the remained traditional weaving techniques of local people there.

2. Tra Su – Ta Pa – Bung Binh Thien – An Giang

Ta Pa – a part of the mountain To, located around 1 km from Tri Ton town, is one of the seven mountains that form mystery “That Son” (literally means “seven mountains”. The water in this lake varied with dark colours in deep areas and bright colours in more narrow ones. In addition, there is not only one coulour with different tones but different colours such as light blue, black, dark orange or light yellow. Bung Binh Thien, 35 km from Chau Doc, is a big lake surrounded by a community of 4 ethnic groups in which, Cham’s people follow Muslim culture (called Cham Islam) has many unique characteristics and their typical living habits. 

3. Sa Đec – Tram Chim – Đong Thap

Dong Thap is also a province located on the watershed of Mekong Delta – in which there are many tourist destinations during the flooding season. Tourists often travel from Ho Chi Minh city to Sa Dec, where there is a famous flower village aging hundreds of years. This is also where the ancient house Huynh Thuy Le situated and built in 1895 under the ownership of a Chinese character in the well-known novel “The Lover” by the French writer - Marguerite Duras.

The national park Tram Chim, a part of Tam Nong rural district, attracts tourists by the massive green indigo forests and an eco-system of rare and distinctive flora and fauna. You can buy a guided tour to visit Tram Chim with a duration of 1 – 3 hours or hire a small boat if you would like to visit with a fee of 500,000 – 800,000 VND/ each. The tour guides are local people and they will introduce you about the ecology and the bird season in this region. Some suggestions of the local food that you should try is BBQ rats (if you are brave enough ;-)), fish hotpot, fish-sauce hotpot cooking with water lily flowers, BBQ fishes covered in lotus leaves.

   >>> Have you visit Floating market in Vietnam?