Rough Guide to Vietnam - Jan Dodd [91]
Home-stays Stay in rural communities, observing daily aspects of Vietnamese culture, and getting to know your hosts.
Khmer pagodas Marvel over the rich colours of temples around Tra Vinh and Soc Trang. See also "Soc Trang."
Bird sanctuaries Watch flocks of storks and migrating cranes wheeling in the sky at Bang Lang near Long Xuyen and Tram Chim near Cao Lanh.
Chau Doc Visit a Cham village and fish farms on the river, and explore nearby Sam Mountain.
Phu Quoc Island Sprawl on its gorgeous beaches, ride a motorbike through its mountainous interior and dive or snorkel around the coastline.
Chill out on one of Phu Quoc Island’s stunning beaches
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The Mekong Delta |
My Tho and around
Southwest of Ho Chi Minh City, buses plying Highway 1 eventually emerge from the city’s unkempt urban sprawl and into the pastoral surrounds of the Mekong Delta’s upper plains. The delta is too modest to flaunt its full beauty so soon, but glimpses of rice fields behind the scruffy settlements draped along the highway hint at things to come, their burnished golds and brilliant greens interspersed with the occasional white ancestral grave. Seventy kilometres out of Ho Chi Minh City, a left fork marks the turning to MY THO, an amiable market town that nestles on the north bank of the Mekong River’s northernmost strand, the Tien Giang, or Upper River.
My Tho’s proximity to Ho Chi Minh City means that it receives the lion’s share of day-trippers to the delta, resulting in a scrum of pushy vendors crowding round each tour bus that arrives. Nevertheless, the town comes as a great relief after the onslaught of Ho Chi Minh City, its uncrowded boulevards belying a population of around 200,000, and you can easily escape the melee by hopping onto a boat or wandering into the backstreets.
This daily influx of visitors seems appropriate, given the town’s history. Chinese immigrants fleeing Formosa (modern-day Taiwan) after the collapse of the Ming dynasty established the town in the late seventeenth century, along with a Vietnamese population keen to make inroads into this traditionally Khmer-dominated region. Two centuries later the French, wooed by the district’s abundant rice and fruit crops, rated it highly enough to post a garrison here and to lay a (now-defunct) rail line to Saigon; while the American War saw a consistent military presence in town. Today My Tho’s commercial importance is as pronounced as ever, something a walk through the busy town market amply illustrates.
The Mekong Delta | My Tho and around |
Arrival and information
Buses terminate at Tien Giang station, 3km northwest of town, from where xe om shuttle into the centre (about 15,000đ). Two state-run companies offer boat trips from My Tho to the islands in the Mekong: Tien Giang Tourist Company has its main office located next to the western tour boat jetty at 8, 30 Thang 4 (073/387 3184, www.tiengiangtourist.com), while Ben Tre Tourist Company is at 4/1 Le Thi Hong Gam (073/387 9103, mekongtourbentre@hcm.vnn.vn), down a lane to the left just before the new bridge over the river. Both charge $20–50 per boat, depending on how long you want to hire it for. Local boats, which you can find at the small jetty on Trung Trac, are much cheaper, and $15 should get you a two- to three-hour trip – time enough to explore the waterways along the coast of Ben Tre Province, and to land on an island in the river. However, bear in mind that the owners of these boats are not licensed or insured to carry tourists, so it’s a bit of a risky business.
There’s an ATM opposite the jetties (next to the Cong Doan hotel) and another at Vietinbank, at the western end of Thu Khoa Huan. The Agribank at the opposite end of Thu Khoa Huan on the corner of Le Loi will change dollars for dong. The post office is conveniently located opposite the boat jetties on Le Thi Hong Gam, where you can also find internet access.
The Mekong Delta | My Tho and around |
Accommodation
The Chuong Duong (073/387 0875;