Travelog - A travel guide to Vietnam

Ca Mau – a region reclaimed in the late 17th and early 18th centuries – is the habitat of the three ethnic groups: the Viet, the Hoa and the Khmer. This resulted in the mixed cultural features reflected through the unique and rich customs and practices by the locals.

Ca Mau is a vast submerged region in the Mekong River Delta of Southern Vietnam with criss-crossing rivers and canals of thousands of kilometres long. Hence, water transportation plays an important role in the local commercial activities.

The area is endowed by nature with a great potential in eco-tourism. Visitors to this southernmost locality will have an opportunity to wander through the submerged mangrove forests, to visit the islands, bird sanctuary, human dwellings and wild nature conservation areas.

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Tram Chim National Park,Tam Nong District, Dong Thap Province, Vietnam
Location: Dong Thap, Vietnam
The Park covers Communes of Phu Duc, Phu Hiep, Phu Tho, Tan Cong Sinh in Tam Nong District, Dong Thap Province, about 800m from Tram Chim Small Town.

The Park is in the lowest area of the Mekong River water logged plain submerged and in the centre of Dong Thap Muoi. With a system of swamps, grass-plots and criss-crossing canals, the 7,612 ha Tram Chim National Park has become an ideal habitat of more than 130 species of plants, 100 vertebrates, 40 species of fish, 147 rare and precious species of birds, especially the red-head cranes. Hence, it is also an ideal place for scientists to research into the life of migratory birds.

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Introduction
The first thing you need to decide is whether you’ll go the the Mekong on your own, or on an organized tour. I advise you to go on an organized tour for these reasons:

• It’s much easier: I spoke to an Israeli who spent 6 weeks in Vietnam doing everything at his own pace, trying to do everything independently. He told me it was almost impossible to travel alone in Mekong. F.i. he asked for a bus to a certain place, a Vietnamese accompanied him to the busstation but didn’t find the bus himself…
• It’s much cheaper: hiring a boat on your own will prove more expensive
• It’s much faster
• The tours will show you the highlights, and you will also go into houses of people they know. Since few tourists are visiting Mekong in general, and certainly not the big tourgroup, it still remains an unspoiled region.

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Mytho is a delightful town, situated about two hours by bus south west of Ho Chi Minh city. Sitting on the bank of The Mekong River, Mytho is divided into two by a tributary of the river. From here you can do a number of short boat trips to various islands and floating markets within the surrounding are. It is also a good place to catch the overnight long boats to a variety of locations including Chau Doc and Long Xuyen. A quiet evening in Mytho can be spent on your veranda watching the sun set and the fishing fleet unload after dark. During the day you ca spend hours in a nearby cafe simply watching life go by, or on the river, cruising the day away. The Mytho experience is enhanced by the fact that the streets are generally extremely quiet. Mytho is mot a place where you need to worry about being decapitated by a bike carrying six people and half a ton of corrugated iron speeding along at 100 kph.

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