Part of Can Tho’s charm is that there isn’t a lot to do. The city practically forces you into a state of relaxation; it’s hard to stress about “seeing all the sights”, when there aren’t many sights to see. The entire itinerary for our first day was “Boat Ride”, so when the tour turned out to be six hours long, we didn’t mind.
It’s unavoidable. If you plan on spending any time on the Mekong Delta, you’re going to be taking a boat trip. Who visits the Mekong and doesn’t take a boat trip? And it’s just as unavoidable that, unless you’re willing to invest a lot of money, your trip will be pretty touristy. But that doesn’t mean it can’t also be fun.
With over a million inhabitants, Can Tho is the unofficial capital of the Mekong Delta, and a major center of education and commerce. But despite the big-city status, it manages to maintain a slow pace and relaxed atmosphere. We spent four enjoyable days here.
After a couple days exploring Vinh Long and An Binh, we took a bus further inland until reaching Sadec, a small city in the Mekong Delta with a wonderfully tranquil pace.
For our initial excursion to the Mekong Delta, we choose to stay on An Binh, an island between the towns of Vinh Long and Cai Be. We spent the first day of our trip biking around the island, and photographing its postcard-worthy images of life on the delta.
For about a week, hundreds of boats from the Mekong Delta line up along the Ben Binh Wharf to sell the flowers and small fruit trees with which Vietnamese families decorate their homes during the holiday of Tet. Visiting this floating flower market was among the first things we did in Saigon, and the scene made a huge impression on us.
Jürgen and I spent three months living in Saigon, officially known as Ho Chi Minh City. It was our first time in Southeast Asia, and we were blown away by…
One of Vietnam’s most cherished military heroes, Lê Văn Duyệt, is buried alongside his wife at a temple in Saigon’s Bình Thạnh district. Constructed after the marshal’s death in 1830, this religious complex provides an attractive place of quiet, in the middle of an otherwise chaotic neighborhood.
