A trip to
Vietnam would not be complete without a trip to the Mekong Delta. This iconic
Vietnamese destination is well known for its famous for its floating markets,
stilted wooden houses on the river’s edge, and seemingly endless rice paddies. The countless rivers and streams criss-cross
the landscape like arteries; where their muddy brown waters carry fruit-laden
boats to nearby floating markets and provide nourishment to bountiful rice
paddies.
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| Fruit vendor at the Phong Dien floating market. |
The Mekong Delta is Vietnam’s rice bowl, an agricultural phenomenon
that pumps out more than half of the country’s annual food crop from just ten
percent of its total land mass. Not only
that but it also turns out 70% of the countries tropical fruit, many of which
you will see piled high on boats in the floating markets. Surprisingly, this area has not always been
the agricultural center of Vietnam. It
wasn’t until the French colonized Vietnam that they turned the Mekong Delta
into what it is today. Ironically, this
same landscape that had served the French so well also provided cover for the
Viet Minh resistance who sought to overthrow them and later did the same for
the Viet Cong against the Americans.
How to Explore the Mekong Delta
Located
southwest of Ho Chi Minh City, the Mekong Delta is known by the Vietnamese as
Vietnam’s western area. Although it lies
just outside the city, tourist would be remiss to think that they could see
enough of the Mekong Delta in just one short day trip. Covering an area of 15,600 sq miles, this
ecologically and culturally diverse area is well worth exploring.
Many tourists
coming into Ho Chi Minh City plan to take a boat ride through the historic
Mekong Delta and witness one of its many floating markets, but many also want
to simply take one of the quick day tours out of the city so that they can
continue on their trip across Vietnam.
Like most places in the world, tours make for an easy and care free
way of seeing an attraction, but are far less gratifying and immersive as doing
it yourself. In the Mekong Delta I did
both, so I will share my experience and tips so you can decide what is best for
you.
Tours
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| Con Phung tourist stop. One of the many stops on the day tour. |
If you only
have 1 or 2 days to explore the Mekong Delta from Ho Chi Minh City, then a tour
might be the best option for you. That
being said, if your plans are to see the floating markets then you will have to
do at least a 2-day tour. The floating
markets are best during the early morning and you cannot get there in time from
the city. Tours to the Mekong Delta can
be found on Phạm Ngũ Lão street in the backpacker’s district of Ho Chi Minh
City. There are many tour agencies in
the area and since the Mekong Delta is the most hawked day tour you will most
likely have some one come up to you about it before you even look.
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| 2 day Mekong Delta tour boat. |
We started with
the 1-day tour and it was the most awkward tour that I have ever been on. We started the morning with loading on to a
bus with the 50 or so other people that would also be joining us on the
tour. From here we made our way to the
river where we would begin the actual tour, but before making it there we made an
unknown stop at a business selling everything made from charcoal and
bamboo. After being guided into a room,
we sat through what felt like a real-life info commercial where the lady
demonstrated some of the top products that they were selling there. Once this awkward
experience was over, we were herded through the store, down IKEA like aisles, in
hope that we would buy some of their products.
After walking past the charcoal toothpaste for the third time Jade did
actually buy some.
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| Tour boats for the Mekong Delta. |
Having finished
our first awkward experience of the day, we continued our way by bus to the
edge of the Mekong River. After piling
out of the bus we snaked our way through some tourist shops to the boat that
would take us to our next destination. Boarding our traditional style longboat, we
motored our way up the river to our next destination. While traveling up the river we were able to vaguely
see delta life being played out on the distant river banks.
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| Coconut candy factory. |
Our first stop
on the river was the Dáť Dừa Coconut Candy factory. Besides being way over crowded with multiple tour
boats of people this site was actually kinda cool. When we first arrived, our group was the only
one there for a few minutes, so we were able to take full advantage of getting
a close-up demonstration of the candy making process. We were also treated to free samples of the candy
after it was made. There were also two
jars of flavored rum for us to try; one had pieces of honeycomb in the jar and
the other had a snake. Yea, you read
that right! There was snake flavored rum and of course we had to try it! It’s hard to describe the taste of the alcohol
but it has a very gamy and herbal taste.
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| Snake (left) and honey (right) rum. |
After having a
few treats and a shot of snake rum, we were of to our next stop where we would
have lunch. Cồn Phụng had
fairly good food and an array of attractions like ziplines, obstacle courses,
and hammocks. Your stay on this island
after lunch isn’t long so there isn’t a lot of time to explore the area and
participate in any of the activities. There
is also a small pond with a lot of crocodiles in it that you can feed that many
of the people in our boat took advantage of, but the pond is far too small for
the number of crocodiles in it.
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| Tourist feeding the crocodiles with a piece of meat tied to a string. |
We then made our way up river
again to our next destination. Leaving
the boat, we were guided to a covered seating area where each table was served
a large bowl of tropical fruit grown in the Mekong Delta. While we enjoyed our fruit, we were
entertained with live traditional Vietnamese music. The whole experience was actually really nice. Although they ended it by singing ‘If You Are
Happy and You Know it Clap Your Hands,’ which was kinda weird, but most of the
tourist thought it was fun.
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| Canoe tour through a canal of the Mekong Delta. |
Our guide then took from the
pavilion, down a path, to a small stream, where we loaded into canoes. They put four people into each canoe and try
to keep groups together, but this isn’t always the case. Dawning our Vietnamese conical hats, offered
to us by our oarswoman for the duration of the canoe trip, we head off down a
narrow stream. The stream was lined in palm
leaves and houses and was quite beautiful.
That being said, the stream was also very crowded with tourist laden
canoes, making it feel very touristy. Tipping
your oarswomen after the trip is expected.
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| Laughing Buddha statue and gardens at the Vinh Trang Pagoda. |
The final part of the tour took us
across the river to the Vinh Trang Pagoda. This is a very beautiful pagoda and a great
end to the tour. The compound consists
of multiple decorative buildings, ornate gardens, and three large Buddha
statues (standing, laughing, and reclining Buddhas). During your time here you are left to explore
the compound on your own. Once done we
loaded up into our bus and made our return back to the backpacking district of
Ho Chi Minh City.
Do It Yourself
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| Getting stuck in one of the canals. |
Seeing the Mekong Delta on your
own terms is by far the best option. It
allows you to travel and see things at your own pace and to be able to delve deeper
into the culture, history, and way of life of the people of this region. You can create your own tour of the Mekong
Delta, including experiencing the floating markets, if you have at least two
days set in your itinerary. Of course,
having more days is always better and will allow you to see more, but two days
will at least allow you to see the floating markets, enjoy a canoe trip through
the smaller canals, and experience the way of life of this region without hundreds
of other tourists crowding around you.
Getting There
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| Futa Bus office in the backpackers district of Ho Chi Minh City. |
The most popular point of entry
for the Mekong Delta is Can Tho, located about 166 km from the backpacking district
of Ho Chi Minh City. To get there you
can either take a bus, motorcycle, plane, or boat, but the last two options
will be expensive. The bus is by far the
cheapest and easiest option. There are
many bus companies that make the trip to Can Tho, but I recommend Futa
Bus. Futa Bus has an office on Đường Đề
Thám, the main cross street in the backpacking district, where you can buy your
ticket. The cost of the ticket to Can
Tho is 110,000 VND/5.00 USD and they will shuttle you to the station from the
office.
If you choose to take a motorcycle
and don’t have one already, you can rent one from one of the many companies
located in the backpacking district. The
cost of rental is usually around $10 USD and you will also need to give a
deposit and your passport. If your plan
is to do the trip by motorcycle and follow Google Maps, know that you cannot
take highway CT01, as they do not allow motorcycles on the highway.
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| Bridge overlooking Cai Rang floating market. |
In Can Tho you will have many
options for accommodations that will satisfy any price level you are looking
for. I always use Agoda
to find the best hotels. These hotels
will also help you set up a boat tour of the Mekong Delta for the following
morning. Our private tour was 345,000
VND/15.68 USD per person and was really nice. The tours start early, at 5 am, so that you
can get to two different markets while they are still busy. Boarding our small motorized boat, we headed
out before sunrise towards our first floating market, Cai Rang.
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| One of the many vendors at the Cai Rang floating market. |
Cai Rang is a
large floating market made up of large house boats, each selling different fruits
and vegetables. To make it easier to
find what you are looking for each boat has installed a pole where they hang an
example of things that they sell. In
this way, buyers are able to see what each boat is selling from afar and make
their way to the items they need instead of going to every boat. Some of the boats are also set up as restaurants
or bars where you can buy a bowl of noodles for breakfast if you are
hungry.
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| Rice paper sheets drying out before being cut into noodles. |
After slowly
cruising through this market we made our way further up the river to rice
noodle factory. Here we were able to
watch the process of creating the noodles from start to finish, even
participating in the cutting process.
After watching this process being done, we took a quick break to enjoy a
cup of iced milk coffee before continuing to the Phong Dien floating market
further up river.
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| A few of the vendors at the Phong Dien floating market. |
The Phong Dien floating market is a much smaller market made up of
smaller boats filled to the brim with produce. Since the boats are smaller and you can easily see what each boat is selling, this market doesn't incorporate
the same pole technique of Cai Rang in displaying their wares. We spent a little more time in this market as
our oarswoman steered us around through the boats. She then brought us alongside one of the
boats and bought us some fruit to eat while we took in the sight of the market
in full swing. While eating our fruit,
she took the time to make us a few souvenirs by weaving and grasses together.
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| Jade's bamboo and grass bouquet souvenir made by our oarswoman. |
After we had
spent some time at the market, we began to make our way up a narrow canal
flanked by trees, farms, and houses. At
times the canal was filed with plants making it harder to get through and the boat
had to wade through and at times the oarswoman had to clear the propeller of
plants that had gotten tangled in it. This
part of the trip was very beautiful and was one of my favorite parts of the
trip.
At one point of the trip the boat pulled over
to let us out. Confused as to why, the
oarswomen just pointed up a trail that lead along the water. We followed this path for a little way,
enjoying the landscape around us, till we came across a restaurant. Seeing that our boat was also docked her, we
took a set and under some lunch. It is expected
that you will buy your oarswomen lunch as well.
The food is more expensive than normal, but we just included this as
part of the final tip.
Finishing our
lunch, we loaded back up in the boat and went further down the canal until she
let us out again to do a little walking.
This part of the walk wasn’t very interesting but we were soon back to
the boat and heading to the river. By
the time we made it back to the river the sun was up and blaring down on all of
us, so the lady raised an awning to shade us as we made the rest of the trip
back to town.
What was your experience in the Mekong Delta?
Did you take a tour or do it yourself?
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