Around Cao Lanh

Landscape 

Xeo Quyt Forest 

(Xeo Quyt, Xeo Quit; admission 5000d; 7am-5pm) Southeast of Cao Lanh and can be reached  by boat tour is the  excellent  52-hectare Xeo Quyt Forest (also called Rung Tram) near My Hiep village. One  vast swamp beneath a  beautiful thick canopy of tall trees and vines, it’s one of the final  natural jungles  left in the Mekong Delta.

During the  humid  season a wonderful  20-minute canoe tour (15,000d) takes you past old bunkers and former mine fields along narrow canals filled with ever-present dragonflies and choked with water hyacinths (luc binh). It’s an unique  experience but splash on the repellent and try to get out by 4.30pm when the mozzies begin swarming. During the hot  season you can discover  this area on walk .

The VC had a base here, where top-brass VC lived in under ground bunkers, during the American War. Only about 10 VC were here at any given time; they were all generals who directed the war from here, just 2km from a US military base. The Americans never knew  that the VC generals were living right under their noses. Of course, they were suspicious about that patch of jungle  and periodically threw some bombs on it to reassure themselves, but the VC  remained safe in their underground bunkers.

From My Hiep, you can hire a boat (around US$20, seating up to 10 people) that takes around 40 minutes to make the 2km journey to Xeo Quyt. Dong Thap Tourist includes a guided trip in  several of its tour programs.

Tram Chim National Park 

(7am-4pm) Tram Chim National Park is due north of Cao Lanh in Tam Nong district and famous for its eastern sarus cranes(Grus antigone sharpii). More than 220 species of bird have been identified within the reserve, but ornithologists will be most interested in these rare red-headed cranes, which grow to an  remarkable  1.8m high.

Seeing these birds, however, requires a considerable commitment (time, effort and money), so it’s strictly for enthusiasts.

Birds nest here from about December to May; from June to November they  migrate to another area like northwest  Cambodia, so time your visit  to coordinate with the birds’ travel itinerary if you eager to see them. The birds are early risers, so morning visits are advised. During the day, they’re engaged in the important business of eating.

Tam Nong is a sleepy town 45km from Cao Lanh. The one-way drive takes around an hour to travel by car. From Tam Nong it  takes another hour by  little  boat (around 2,700,000d) to reach  the area where the cranes live and another hour to come back. Add to this whatever time you spend (perhaps an hour) bird-watching (bring your own binoculars), it will be a unique experience, and then the requisite two hours to return to Cao Lanh, depending on your  mode of travel. There are  a few rudimentary guesthouses in Tam Nong if you  want  to stay late or hit the park early. Tam Nong shuts down early so if you  want to eat dinner  here, make arrangements  before 5pm.

Around Can Tho

Around Can Tho

Arguably the largest  drawcard of the delta is its  colourful floating markets, which hug the banks of wide stretches of river. Most market folk set out early to avoid the sunlight, so you should visit between 6am and 8am and beat the tourist tide. The real tides, however, are also a factor, as  bigger boats must often wait until the water is high enough for them to navigate.

Improved roads and public transport mean that some of the smaller, rural floating markets are disappearing, but many of the larger markets near urban areas are still  going rapidly .

Rural areas of Can Tho province, which is famous  for their durian, mangosteen and orange orchards, can be easily got  from Can Tho by boat or bicycle

 Sights & Activities

Cai Rang Floating Market 

Cai Rang is just 6km from Can Tho in the direction of Soc Trang, which is the  biggest floating market in the Mekong Delta. There is a bridge here that serves as a great vantage point for photography. The market is the most lively  before 9am,  even though  some vendors hang out until noon.

It is quite  an experience to  watch  this in full swing, yet  it’s well worth getting up  extra early to beat the tour-group crowds or  travellers  may end up seeing almost as many foreigners as market traders.

Cai Rang can be seen from the road, but reaching  here is much  more exciting  by boat (US$6). From the market area in Can Tho  it takes about an hour by river, or visitors  can drive to the Cau Dau Sau boat landing (by the Dau Sau Bridge), from where it takes only around  10 minutes to get  the market.

Phong Dien Floating Market 

Called  the Mekong Delta’s best floating market, Phong Dien has fewer motorised craft and more stand-up rowing boats. Less crowded than Cai Rang, Phong Dien has much fewer tourists. It’s at its bustling best from 6am to 8am . The market is 20km southwest of Can Tho;  most get here by road.

A boat trip here will  require a 3.30am start (return 600,000d), but travellers should  arrange it the day before. It is theoretically possible to do a whirlwind boat trip, visiting the small canals on  the way and ending  back at the Cai Rang floating market. This trip should take around  five hours return from Can Tho.

For trips on smaller boats (US$4 per hour), operators can be found along Ð Hai Ba Trung by the river, but inspect boats first; the faster alternative is to take a xe om or taxi and then arrange  a boat at the other end.

BIRD-WATCHING

(admission 20,000d; 5am-6pm) Bang Lang, which is on the road between Can Tho and Long Xuyen, (also called Vuon Co) is a great  1.3-hectare bird sanctuary with  amazing  views of thousands of resident storks. From a tall viewing platform, visitors can see  the storks filling the branches; it’s  an absolutely incredible sight (the best times of day are around dawn and dusk).

Bang Lang which is about 15km southeast of Long Xuyen, is in the Thot Not district. Serach for  a sign in Thoi An hamlet  saying ‘Ap Von Hoa’. Coming from Can Tho the sign is on the west side of the road, right  after a small bridge. It is  a couple of kilometres off the main highway – can be reached  on foot within 30 minutes, or visitors  can arrange  a motorbike taxi for about 20,000d.

Around Ca Mau

Around Ca Mau

U-Minh Forest

The town of Ca Mau borders the U-Minh Forest (admission 10,000d; 6am-5pm, closed Mar-May), a vast mangrove jungle  which covers  1000 sq km of Ca Mau and Kien Giang provinces. Local people use certain species of mangrove  as a source of timber, charcoal, thatch and tannin.

As well as being an important habitat for waterfowl, the U-Minh Forest – the largest mangrove jungle in the world beyond the Amazon basin – which was a favourite hideout for the VC during the American War. The Americans responded with chemical de foliation, which caused enormous destroy  to the  forests. Thanks to the heavy rainfall, the dioxin was washed out to sea and the forest is returning. People have also planted many eucalptus trees because  they have proved to be relatively dioxin-resistant.

Unfortunately the mangrove forests are being further destroyed by clearing for shrimp-farming ponds, charcoal production and woodchipping, though the authority has been trying to limit these activities. In 2002 an area of 80 sq km was preserved as U Minh Thuong (Upper U-Minh) National Park.

The forest is  known for its birdlife, and travellers will  enjoy a boat trip around Ca Mau, even though the feathered flocks aren’t nearly as common  as the swarms of mosquitoes. Thirty-minute boat trips around the forest cost 100,000d.

Ca Mau Tourist can arrange  a boat tour for around US0, but  try to find better deals with locals down at the ferry pier at which  you can get a speedboat to Thu Bay (two hours), followed by a motorbike to U-Minh Forest for 70,000d.

Ca Mau Nature Reserve

Sometimes referred to as Ngoc Hien Bird Sanctuary, this place which is 130 hectares is one of the least developed and most protected parts of Mekong Delta region. Shrimp farming is  prohibited here. Access is by boat.

Around Angkor Thom (Part 2)

Banteay Srei HINDU TEMPLE

Considered by many to be the jewel in the crown of Angkorian art, Banteay Srei – a Hindu temple devoted to Shiva – is cut from stone of a pinkish hue and contains many of the most beautiful stone carving anywhere on earth. Begun in AD 967, it is one of the few temples around Angkor to be commissioned by a Brahman, not by a king, perhaps a tutor to Jayavarman V.
Banteay Srei, which is 21km northeast of Bayon and about 32km from Siem Reap, can be visited along with Kbal Spean and the Cambodia Landmine Museum.

Kbal Spean RELIGIOUS, SPIRITUAL

Kbal Spean, which is a spectacularly carved riverbed, set deep in the jungle about 50km northeast of Angkor. More commonly referred to in English as the ‘River of a Thousand Lingas’, it’s a 2km uphill walk to the carvings. From Kbal Spean, you can work your way back down to the waterfall to cool off. Carry plenty of water.
At the nearby Angkor Centre for Conservation of Biodiversity, trafficked animals are nursed back to health. Free tours generally start at 1pm from Monday to Saturday.

Phnom Kulen SACRED MOUNTAIN

The most sacred mountain in Cambodia, Phnom Kulen (487m) is where Jayavarman II proclaimed himself a devaraja (god-king) in AD 802, giving birth to Cambodia. A common place of pilgrimage during weekends and festivals, the views it affords are absolutely fantastic .
Phnom Kulen is 50km from Siem Reap and 15km from Banteay Srei. The road toll is US$20 per foreign visitor, none of which goes towards preserving the site.

Beng Mealea BUDDHIST TEMPLE

Beng Mealea (admission US$5), was built by Suryavarman II to the same floor plan as Angkor Wat, is the Titanic of temples and utterly subsumed by jungle. Nature has well and truly run riot here. Jumbled stones lie like forgotten jewels swathed in lichen, and the galleries are strangled by ivy and vines.
Beng Mealea is about 65km northeast of Siem Reap on a sealed toll road.

Koh Ker HINDU TEMPLE

(admission US$10) Abandoned to the forests of the north, Koh Ker, capital of the Angkorian empire from AD 928 to AD 944, is within day-trip distance of Siem Reap. Most of the travellers begin at Prasat Krahom, where nice stone carvings grace lintels, doorposts and slender window columns. The principal monument is Mayan-looking Prasat Thom, a 55m-wide, 40m-high sandstone-faced pyramid whose seven tiers offer spectacular views across the forest. However, access to the top of Prasat Thom is currently prohibited for safety reasons.

Koh Ker is 127km northeast of Siem Reap (car hire is around US$90, 2½ hours).

HEARTBEAT OF CAMBODIA

The largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, Tonlé Sap, an incredible natural phenomenon that provides fish and irrigation water for half of Cambodia’s population.
The lake is linked to the Mekong at Phnom Penh by a 100km-long channel, the Tonlé Sap River. From mid-May to early October (the wet season), rains raise the level of the Mekong, backing up the Tonlé Sap River and causing it to flow northwest into the Tonlé Sap Lake. During this period, the lake swells from 2500 sq km to 13,000 sq km or more, its maximum depth increasing from about 2.2m to more than 10m. Around the start of October, when the water level of the Mekong starts to fall, the Tonlé Sap River reverses its flow, draining the waters of the lake back into the Mekong.
This extraordinary process makes the Tonlé Sap one of the world’s richest sources of freshwater fish and an ideal habitat for water birds.

Around Angkor Thom (Part 1)

Sightseeings

Ta Prohm BUDDHIST TEMPLE

Ta Prohm, which is the last Indiana Jones fantasy, is hidden in speckled shade , its crumbling towers and walls locked in the deliberate , muscular embrace of large root systems. If Angkor Wat, the Bayon and other temples are testimony to the mastermind of the ancient Khmers, Ta Prohm reminds us equally of the awesome richness and strength of the wilderness. There is a graceful cycle to this ruin, with humanity original discovering nature to rapidly create, and natural world once again discovering humanity to gradually wipe out .

Built from 1186 and firstly known as Rajavihara (Monastery of the King), Ta Prohm was a Buddhist temple devoted to the mother of Jayavarman VII. Ta Prohm is a temple of towers, close courtyards and narrow corridors. Ancient trees tower overhead, their leaves filtering the daylight and casting a greenish pall over the whole view . It is the nearest most of us can get to feeling the magic of the explorers of old.

Phnom Bakheng HINDU TEMPLE

About 400m south of Angkor Thom, that hill’s main draw is the sunset view of Angkor Wat, though this has turned into something of a circus, with hundreds of visitors jockeying for space. The temple, built by Yasovarman I (r 889–910), has five tiers with seven levels.

Preah Khan BUDDHIST TEMPLE

(Sacred Sword) The temple of Preah Khan (Sacred Sword) is one of the largest constructions at Angkor, a maze of vaulted corridors, fine carvings and lichen-clad stonework. Constructed by Jayavarman VII, it contains a very large area, but the temple itself is within a rectangular wall of nearly 700m by 800m. Preah Khan is a genuine combination temple, the eastern entrance devoted to Mahayana Buddhism, with equal-sized doors, and the other cardinal directions dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma, with successively smaller doors, emphasising the unequal nature of Hinduism.

Preah Neak Poan BUDDHIST TEMPLE

Another late-12th-century work of – no surprises here – Jayavarman VII, this petite temple just east of Preah Khan has a big square pool surrounded by four smaller square pools, with a circular ‘island’ in the middle. Water once flowed from the central pond into the four peripheral pools via four ornamental spouts, in the shape of an elephant’s head, a horse’s head, a lion’s head and a human head.

Roluos Group HINDU TEMPLE

The monuments of Roluos, which served as the capital for Indravarman I (r 877–89), are among the earliest big permanent temples constructed by the Khmers and mark the dawn of Khmer classical art. Preah Ko, dedicated to Shiva, has elaborate inscriptions in Sanskrit on the doorposts of each tower and some of the best surviving examples of Angkorian plasterwork. The city’s central temple, Bakong, with its five-tier central pyramid of sandstone, is a representation of Mt Meru. Roluos is 13km southeast of Siem Reap along NH6.

Introduction Of Mekong River Delta In Southern Vietnam

Don’t leave without seeing the Mekong Delta, one of Vietnam’s most interesting and scenic regions. An organized tour, even the most low-budget version, offers action-packed days with bus and boat trips to small craft villages, mangrove swamps, island orchards, and spectacular floating markets. A 1-day trip isn’t quite enough to fully delve into the delta, so plan on an overnight — best in the delta’s urban centers of Can Tho or Chau Doc near Cambodia (try to stay at the Victoria in either location).

Xem thêm: Tour du lịch Phú Yên giá rẻ

 

The delta is a web of Mekong River waterways covering an area of about 60,000km (37,200 miles) across three provinces. The region is densely populated with 18 million souls, most engaged in farming and fishing. Called the “rice basket” of Vietnam, the Mekong Delta accounts for more than 50% of all rice and produce in the country, exporting between 4 million and 5 million tons of rice per year. The land is tessellated with bright green rice paddies, fruit orchards, sugar-cane fields, and vegetable gardens, and its waters stay busy with boats and fish farms. Rice production and harvest still involves water buffaloes instead of tractors, as well as backbreaking hand planting of rice shoots, weeding, and hand harvesting.

Impoverished under socialist agricultural programs, the region benefited greatly from the 1980s Doi Moi reforms, and rice paddies that once yielded just one crop now produce three crops per year, an important part of Vietnamese economic self-sufficiency.

The Mekong delta was a hotbed for Viet Cong guerillas during the war with the U.S., and some tours will take you to the vestiges of old Viet Cong hide-outs, complete with hideaway ambush holes and a ride among the mangrove swamp where stealth forces disappeared after raids in Saigon.

Mekong Delta tour from Ho Chi Minh

Mekong River Delta Tours sincerely introduce you the Mekong Delta tour from Ho Chi Minh as follows:

Take a handed paddles boat along the canals under the water coconut palm trees, taste seasonal fresh fruit in the orchards, see the lively floating markets in Can Tho, experience the “Monkey Bridge” in the Delta, Spend the night in the village with the local farmers. Visit the Bird Sanctuary in Tra Su, Visit the Sam Mountain and the caved pagoda, Contemplate the sunset over the Vietnamese – Cambodian Frontier, cruise up the Tonle Sap river through Vinh Xuong newly – opened border

Day 1:  Ho Chi Minh – My Tho – Ben Tre – Can Tho (L) 

• At 08.00am, depart for Mekong Delta.  Enjoy the scenic journey along the National Highway bordered by green rice fields. On arrival at My Tho, visit Vinh Trang pagoda, take a leisurely boat ride along the river, view stilt houses, fruit plantations and fishing villages along the river bank. Proceed to Tortoise islet


• Have lunch in the orchard garden. Then a boat ride to An Khanh – a less touristy attraction in Ben Tre, enjoy cruising on a hand-rowed sampan under the shade of water coconut trees along natural canals. Have a short cycling tour (applied for private tour/if time permitted) then enjoy seasonal fruit & honey tea to the sound of “Southern Vietnamese folk music”, performed by the locals. Visit a family business which epitomizes the idyllic rural lifestyle, taste delicious coconut candy & observe the pastoral life as you roam through the fruit plantations and villages. Proceed to Can Tho.


• Dinner on guest’s account.


• Overnight at your proposed hotel in Can Tho.

Day 2:  Cai Rang  Floating market – Chau Doc – Tra Su Sanctuary (B)

• Take a leisurely boat trip to explore the picturesque tributaries of the Lower Mekong river (Bassac River), then proceed to Cai Rang floating markets (& Phong Dien is optional), which are the liveliest in the whole religion.


• Have you ever tasted Vietnamese vermicelli soup? Well, now go and see how it is made. Then wander around the village and meet the friendly local people and experience how to pass a “Monkey bridge” which is built by only one stem of bamboo. Visit the orchard garden.


• Stop for lunch. Proceed to Chau Doc, continue the tour to visit Tra Su, getting to the wild birds Sanctuary, cruising smoothly with small boats to discover the arrays of splendid canals deep into the forest, watching storks, cranes and other tropical birds, back to the Town, hotel check in.


• Dinner on guest’s account.


• Overnight at your proposed hotel in Chau Doc.

Day 3: Chau Doc – Phnom Penh (B) 

• After breakfast. Transfer to the ferry for boarding the speed boat to PhnomPenh.


• Arrive in Phnom Penh around 2.00 pm at the Sisowath tourist dock.


• End of your Mekong Delta Tour from Ho Chi Minh.

Include:

• A/c bus for transfer & sightseeing as per program.


• Boat trip in the Mekong delta.


• Express boat ticket Chaudoc – Phnompenh


• English speaking tour guide


• All entrance fees, fresh fruit and honey tea


• Meals as indicated in the program (B = Breakfast; L = Lunch; D = Dinner)


• Accommodation based on Twin/Double room share basis

Exclude:

• Travel insurance


• Cambodia entry visa (US$22/person)


• Other meals not mentioned in the program


• Personal expenses.

Note:

• Private tour is available on request. We highly recommend you do private tour for more privacy as well as more convenience.

Thank you for visiting our Mekong Delta Tour from Ho Chi Minh. We are looking forward to serving you.

See more:

Mekong Delta 1 day tour My Tho – Ben Tre: price 12$

Mekong Delta Tour 2 days – Cai Rang floating market: price 24$

Mekong Delta 3 days tour and exit to Phnom Penh: price 69$