A trip to Phu Quoc National Park

In recent years, Phu Quoc National Park in Kien Giang Province has become an ideal eco-tourist destination. It has special and unique biodiversity values compared to other national parks across the country.

Situated in the North-East of Phu Quoc Island and have the Northern and Eastern boundaries with the coastline, Phu Quoc National Park covers of 31,422 ha, accounting for 70% area of Phu Quoc Island, which is regarded as a precious thanks to the prosperity of natural beauty.
According to director Pham Quang Binh, Phu Quoc National Park is located on an island that has a mixture of continental and coastal climate, creating a rich ecosystem of primeval, secondary and indigo forests. Its indigo forests are distributed in the wetlands or the lowlands that is flooded in the rainy season and sloping hills.
The topography of the national park is hilly, although not particularly steep with the highest point is Mount Chua, at 603 m. Being drained by numerous, mainly seasonal, streams, the only sizeable river on the island is the Rach Cua Can river, which drains the southern part of the national park, and flows into the sea on the west coast of the island.
Covering more than 27,000 ha of forest, included 6,000 ha of buffer land and 20,000 ha of surrounding ocean area, Phu Quoc National Park has a rich ecosystem due to the co-existence of the Malaysian, Burmese and Himalayan species.
In term of the flora, Phu Quoc National Park is the idea environment for more than 470 species of plants and several types of coral reefs offshore. Phu Quoc Island is lowland evergreen forest and the national park supports 12,794 ha of forest, equivalent to 86% of the total area. To date, 929 plant species have been recorded on Phu Quoc Island. At lower elevations in some areas, the national park supports distinctive formations of Melaleuca - one kind of trees that the leaves are evergreen, alternately arranged, dark green and grey-green in color.
As regards to the fauna, a list of 43 mammal species belonging to 18 families and 6 orders was compiled in here. Among these recorded species, 6 species are listed in the Red Data Book of Vietnam (2000), 6 species in the 2005 IUCN Red list and 11 species in the Governmental Decree 32/2006/ND-CP. Silvered langur, slow loris, pygmy loris, crab-eating macaque, stump-tailed macaque, small-clawed otter and fruit bats are species of the most conservation concern. Besides, due to the extremely plentiful coral reefs in the south of the island, there are 125 species of fish, 132 species of mollusc and 62 species of sea weed. Interestingly enough, Phu Quoc is also one of the two places in Vietnam where the Dugong, a marine species on the brink of extinction can be found.
Conservation aspect.
In 2001, the Government decided to upgrade the park to preserve its ecology, and then the Park Management Board has coordinated with local residents and military units to implement forest protection measures, particularly fire prevention.
“The rainy season in Phu Quoc is short but the dry season is longer there. So, we have established a forest fire prevention steering board and firefighter units which are on standby,” said Mr. Binh – director of the park. “Every commune and local military unit has worked out detailed fire prevention plans. We also have regular communications with local residents to raise their awareness of forest protection.”
Relax with activities.
Visiting Phu Quoc, travellers can have chance for sightseeing of historical sites; admiring with veneration beauty spots of streams, forests, caves and grottoes, beaches, coral reefs and mountains, etc. as well as visiting the villages famous for making sauces and know about a special species of Phu Quoc dog.
Phu Quoc National Park is a good destination for tourists as it offers a wide range of activities such as camping and trekking. It’s also ideal for those who want to study the tropical forest. As Phu Quoc develops into Vietnam’s ecotourism capital, the jewel in its crown, the park will become ever more attractive to visitors from around the world.

A tranquil destination for visitors!

Located in Soc Trang Province, Doi Pagoda is attractive not only for its beautiful architecture but also for its very large roof that houses millions of bats.
It is said that Doi Pagoda (Bat Pagoda) was built during the 16th century, and it has been renovated several times since. It is the forth oldest pagoda in Soc Trang township. From the gate, the pagoda, built by the Khmer, attracts passersby with skilful, symbolic decorations on its pillars and roof, reproducing Khome art. The walls are also covered with large paintings. Other halls in the pagoda are decorated with sophisticated designs and paintings depicting story of the Buddha. The windows are small, casting a mesmerising light inside that is particularly good for photography. Of the 600 Khmer pagodas in the Cuu Long (Mekong) River Delta, Doi Pagoda is so famous that regular tours from Ho Chi Minh City City, Can Tho and Ca Mau visit Soc Trang township. It was even featured on the TV show, Vietnam Guinness Records. The pagoda is located in a lush garden and a pointed tower sits at the summit. In the sunlight after a heavy downpour, the pagoda emerges with four snake-head shaped roofs hand-carved with masterful skill. On each support pillar, a Kemnar statue clasps her hands as if to welcome visitors. Inside the pagoda, soot-blackened statues keep mournful watch; a full year after the fire, the pagoda remains un-repaired. An ancient Buddha statue and a prayer-book written on palmyra leaves can be admired here. In 1999, Doi Pagoda was recognized as a national historical treasure.
The pagoda is known among domestic and international tourists as a "Mecca" for bats, which provide fertiliser for local farmers. The bats in the pagoda cling to tree branches all day, then fly away at dush to seek food, and usually home by four the next morning. Small bats always cling to their mother, even in the search for food. If visiting the pagoda, you can see bats hanging upside down from branches like over-ripe fruit. May to August is breeding season. Those visiting the pagoda at this time of year are expected to walk quietly for fear a sudden noise may startle a bat mother into dropping her child. The bats in the pagoda are actually flying-foxes. A new-born weighs 0.5kg with a wing span of about 50cm. Mature bats can weigh 1.5kg with a wing span of 1.5m. According to the monks, the flying-fox appeared at the pagoda 200 years ago. Interestingly enough, the presence of the bats has not affected the plants growing in and around the pagoda, they never eat the fruit in the garden.
Doi Pagoda with a large space for trees, making it a tranquil place to sit, is one of the best tourist attraction in Soc Trang. Watching the bats take to the skies, it will occur to you that the pagoda is a unique natural reserve. Though neither large nor particularly exquisite, all who hear of it wish to visit...

A mysterious, charming lady-like land

“Can Tho with white rice and clear water
All who comes would never wish to leave”

The Vietnamese folk verse prides the beauty of Can Tho, which is home to a mild people, confident, open-minded and friendly; all contributing to make this area become attractive for tourist activities inland and on the water...
Can Tho is located in the center of the Mekong Delta. It is contiguous to 5 provinces: An Giang on the north, Dong Thap on the north-east, Hau Giang on the south, Kien Giang on the west, and Vinh Long on the east. Cantho has a complex of rivers and canals such as Hau River and Can Tho River, Thot Not and O Mon canals, etc. Among them, Hau River is considered a benefactor of this region, since yearly floods deposit large quantities of alluvia to the rice fields. Thank to that Can Tho becomes "the green lungs of the Mekong Delta". The climate is harmonized with few of storms. It is hot, humid all year. Rainy season lasts from May to November, and dry season lasts from December to April. The annual average temperature is 27ºC.
Can Tho, which used to be called Tay Do (the west capital) is a big surprise to tourists with its landscape, its people and its unique products of the Cuu Long Delta. This is the center of where the most rice is exported from Vietnam, with its enormous fields of rice everywhere. Can Tho is seen by most as a beautiful city, the most populous and rich in the South, with spectacular waterways and landscapes. Can Tho has a variety of attractions for many people, including the waterways, fish and shrimp, tangled canals, and luxuriant orchards.
Favourite places to go...
Can Tho has simple, poetic beauty with well-off villages under shade of coconut trees. It is wonderful to take a boat trip along the riverbanks on fine weather days. On the east bank of Hau River is Ninh Kieu Quay, which is well known for its beautiful location:
“Can Tho has Ninh Kieu Quay,
A beautiful river and lovely beauties”
This is extracted from a poem that describes the pride of Can Tho people about their beautiful quay. If you come to Can Tho, you should not miss this place because of its romance and beauty. Ninh Kieu Quay has become famous with the peaceful beauty of the fishing village on the other side of the river, and this side is crowded with boats, there are rows of willow which stream near the riverbank, running the entire length. This is the place where fashionable and walthy young people take walks and admire the views. From here the boats go everywhere in the whole country, and one should definitely drop by this quay when they come here.
From Ninh Kieu Quay, the entangled canal will take you to the boisterous floating market in Can Tho and Cai Rang. The special forms of tours in Can Tho are ecological and orchard ones. On an ecological tour, you should not miss a trip to see Cai Rang Floating Market. It is a unique trading activity of Cuu Long Delta inhabitants. The market is held on the rivers and people who want to buy a certain product can find it by seeing “beo” (a bamboo pole fixed at the bow of a boat to hang the products the boat owner wants to sell such as oranges, plums, mangos and so on).
Along Hau Giang River, in the silence, you will be entertained by some soothing and traditional music performed by Tay Do young girls. The artists are laborors; they work on field in day and sing at night to satisfy the love of their homeland songs. Moreover, there are Au Islet, Khuong Islet, Tan Loc Islet, which are being developed into attractive eco-tourist sites. These are places where you can enjoy the magnificent views of the rural areas as well as have a rest in the cool quiet and peaceful atmosphere of the verdant orchards. The orchard tours, such as going to My Khanh Tourist Garden and Bang Lang Stork Garden, have a slight difference from the ecological tours because you can pick fruit from trees yourself and try living a day as a Cuu Long farmer with the local people. The green tourism area lays in centre of the rice field and is home to over 300 thousand stork parents. The most important feature of these tours is that you can see how some traditional dishes of the Cuu Long Delta people are cooked and if you like, you can take part in making them and then eat the food you have just prepared.
When coming to Can Tho, you should not forget to visit Binh Thuy Ancient House, the rare and perfect house preserved with the specific character of Cuu Long Delta in the past century. The house connects with a garden, quite wide but not very long, in the front yard; lain with Chinese bricks and has several rock-gardens, potted plants, and a three-door temple gate. The house was not built by cement but of duoc glue, including all joints in the system of rafters, without a single nail. All this had been made by craftsman who used valuable woods which were red-lacquered and gilded or encrusted with nacre, fine carvings depicting the water activities, trees, and fruits of the Southwest.
The other places you should visit are Ong Pagoda and Can Tho Ancient Market, Binh Thuy Temple, Nam Nha Pagoda. Through a trip to these places you can understand more about the culture, the history as well as the lifestyles of Can Tho people. Can Tho has not only attractive tourist destinations but also a good system of tourists services such as hotels, restaurants, gift shops, etc which can help you enjoy your stay in Can Tho.
For many such interesting places and things, why don’t you come and visit Can Tho - the land of honest people, friendly smiles, green fields, laden-fruit orchards and romantic rivers.

Vinh Trang Pagoda

If you truly enjoy the outdoors and want the unique experience of living with the local people in the Mekong Delta, you should not miss Vinh Trang Pagoda, an ancient southern architectural gem in Tien Giang Province.

The history...
Formerly, it was a small leaf hermitage set up in the early 19th century by District Chief Bui Cong Dat. In 1849, the Most Venerable Abbot Thich Hue Dang put it up a big pagoda and named it Vinh Trang Pagoda. The Abbot’s successor was the Most Venerable Thich Thien De. In 1890, lay-Buddhists came to the Royal-Chartered Linh Thuu Pagoda to invite the Most Venerable Thich Chanh Hau take charge of the Abbot of the Pagoda. In 1895, he had the Pagoda reconstructed. The pagoda has many netlike panels, horizontal boards and oblong boards of the parallel sentences. These netlike panels were elaborately carved. The Most Venerable Thich Minh Dang who had the Triple Gate, the main hall and the Patria. The pagoda has many netlike panels, horizontal boards and oblong boards of the parallel sentences.
Close eyes to the pagoda
Vinh Trang Pagoda is the greatest pagoda of Tien Giang Province, in an area of 2,000m2 with many beautiful trees. It was built in 1849 in My Phong village, My Tho City, in the shape of “Nation” letter of Chinese characters. The pagoda includes four large departments connected with each other: the front department, the main department, the worship department and the back department, bearing a combination of European-Asian architecture and creating a splendid beauty, solemnity, but purity.
The beautiful structure features a mixture of Chinese, Vietnamese and Angkor (Cambodian) architectural styles. The pagoda consists of five buildings, two ornamental yards and 178 pillars. The extremely beautiful structures in the pagoda are two triumphal arches bearing an art of inserting bottle and porcelain fragments which create harmonious pictures illustrating the Buddha’s legendaries. Inside the pagoda, there is a set of pictures “eight angels riding on animals” another set of statues of the Amitabha Holy Trinity carved in bronze, as big as a man, and more particularly, the set of the eighteen Arhants, wood carving work, is the only one, not two, in the west of South Vietnam, made by a snumber of artists in 1907. Graves of Buddhist priests who took care of the pagoda are scattered around. These graves are decorated with carefully engraved flagstones.
There are three entrances to the pagoda. The central iron gate is always closed, while the two side gates, which are designed in the co lau style are open. The side gates are adorned with colorful porcelain mosaics featuring Buddhist folktales and natural scenery. The facade of Vinh Trang Pagoda contains both Asian and European architecture including
elements from the Renaissance period, Romanesque style, French decorative flowers and Japanese enameled tile. From afar, the pagoda resembles the five-tower Angkor Temple.
According to locals, a monk named Minh Dan and an architect named Huynh Tri Phu traveled to Cambodia prior to building the pagoda for inspiration and eventually combined Khmer architecture with European styles for the pagoda. Vinh Trang Pagoda houses 60 precious statues made from copper, wood and terracotta. The most valuable collection is the 18 arhats made from jackfruit tree wood in 1907. Additionally, the pagoda has a bell that was cast in 1854.
The pagoda is surrounded by gardens of ornamental trees, ancient trees and bonsai, creating a peaceful atmosphere. It provided shelter for Vietnamese patriots and is recognized as a national historical and cultural relic by the government.
The architecture of Vinh Trang Pagoda is a harmonious combination of Asian and European types of architecture, creating the splendid, but simple features of this Buddhist pagoda.