TRAVEL GUIDE TO DONG THAP

If you love Ecological Tourist, I bet Dong Thap will be a good choice. Every year, Tien and Hau rivers provide alluvial soil for Dong Thap that is convenient to growing food and fruit plant. So this area is the granary of Vietnam. The province has potentiality of short day crops (sugar cane, cotton, tobacco, soil bean, and other fruit plants with the popular names of Cao Lanh mango, Chau Thanh longan, Lai Vung mandarin, Phong Hoa grape fruit.
WHICH PLACES WE SHOULD VISIT IN DONG THAP

• XEO QUYT FOREST


The Xeo Quyt forest belongs to two Communes of My Hiep and My Long, Cao Lanh District. A revolutionary base during the anti-French and US resistance wars, the 2ha cajuput forest of present-day Xeo Quyt has been reclaimed and become an attractive historical and ecological tourist site in the southern delta.

To visit the boundless watery cajuput forest in the Plain of Reeds by boat is really an interesting excursion. Boating in the cajuput forest of Xeo Quyt requires a lot of skill. To move forward, the boat glides between cajuput trees, whose roots are rough and covered with a brown and thin multi-layer skin. The air is cool and humid and has the fragrance of the cajuput flowers and latex. Now and then, a bird singing or fish splashing produces a sudden sound that echoes amid the quiet environment. The forest looks like a floating painting. Around it, climbing plants grow along the cajuput trees and brighten under the sunlight. All bring about an atmosphere of a nature full of vitality and wildness. Xeo Quyt reminds visitors of the former vast cajuput forests in the Plains of Reeds and U Minh areas

• TRAM CHIM NATIONAL PARK


Established in 1999, Tram Chim National Park, with the total area of 7,600 ha, is situated in Tam Nong District, Dong Thap Province. It is designed to be in favour of restoration of the wetland ecosystem of Dong Thap Muoi. Nowadays, it is renovated and invested to become a natural museum and an attractive eco-tourism site to tourists in Vietnam travel.

Tram Chim is 40 km by road from Cao Lanh town in Dong Thap province. Within the national park, you can hire boats to reach good birding sites. From January to May each year, when sky is clear, visitors will see from the horizon many black spot coming. It is crane flock returning after months of emigrating to evade flood. This is also the season for photographing cranes in the dawn and sunset

Tram Chim National Park is one of the best developed and most well-known sites for ecotourism in the Mekong Delta. The national park already has basic tourist facilities, and previously received many visitors. There are some small guesthouses in Tam Nong town with basic facilities.

Tram Chim National Park, with natural history of collective ecology of geomorphology, hydrography and underwater creatures, is an ideal rendezvous place of tourists from all over the world.

Today, The Government of Viet Nam has paid more attention to the renovation and investment the capital into The Tram Chim National Park in order for this national park of Dong Thap province to become a natural museum and an attractive eco-tourism site to tourist Viet Nam Travel. Many international preservation organizations have also sponsored to help protecting the rare and valuable birds there from the extinction.

• TAN QUY DONG – the Garden featuring the most beautiful Flowers in the South Vietnam


Covering an area of 60 ha, Tan Quy Dong Flower Garden is located in Tan Quy Dong district, Dong Thap province. The garden is famous for the most beautiful flowers but the most precious plants in the South Vietnam as well. There is no doubt that the Tan Quy Dong Flower Garden is one of Dong Thap’s greatest attractions to tourists in Vietnam travel.

The flower garden has many precious plants, some of which may reach the age of hundreds of years old. Strolling around, you may also catch sight of popular trees such as star-fruit trees, fig trees, or areca, etc. As time gone by, under the skilful hand of the craftsmen, these popular trees have transformed into valuable pieces of bonsai arts.

The garden is well-known for its colorful and beautiful flowers which can be found any season, not Spring only. Especially, roses and amber trees are the ones that bring fame to this garden. The garden prides itself on its 50 species of roses such as Black Baccarat Rose, Cleopatra Rose, Elizabeth Rose, Mascara Rose, etc.

• GAO GIONG – Miniature of Dong Thap Muoi


Gao Giong Eco-Tourism Area is located in Hamlet 6, Gao Giong Commune, Cao Lanh District in Dong Thap Province, 20km from the centre of the city of Cao Lanh. With a beautiful and charming landscape, the tourism area is considered the miniature of Dong Thap Muoi in the western region in South Vietnam.

The area is also famous for a plentiful resource of aquatic products, including snakeheads, anabas and That lat (Notopteridae) and especially Rohu from the shallow lake in western Cambodia. Gao Giong is most beautiful in flood season with an immense area covered with the yellow of Dien dien (Sesbania sesban) flower, the red of water-lilies, the violet of Giant Crape-myrtle, the pink of lotus and the green of mangrove forest. All form a romantic colourful natural painting hardly seen anywhere else.


Visiting the area, tourists will have a chance to learn about the daily life of people in the watery area and enjoy delicious dishes, such as grilled snakehead, sour soup of Dien dien flowers and steamed snails with a special taste.

Established in March 2003, Gao Giong Eco-Tourism Area is now a favourite destination of both domestic and foreign tourists to the western region of South Vietnam.

TRAVEL GUIDE TO DONG THAP