Three days in the delta: the canals of Thoi Son islet, the coconut workshops of Ben Tre, Cai Rang floating market before dawn and Ninh Kieu quay at night.
Photo: Paul Macdonald / Unsplash
Day 1
The group flies from Da Nang to Tan Son Nhat in the morning, then drives about 70 km to My Tho. A boat takes you across the Tien River to Thoi Son islet, where you transfer to a hand-rowed sampan through narrow canals roofed over with nipa palm, and stop in an orchard for honey tea and a performance of don ca tai tu folk music. In the afternoon we cross to Ben Tre for a coconut candy workshop and a mat weavery, then continue to Can Tho and check in; the evening is free along Ninh Kieu quay and the footbridge.
Day 2
We start before dawn, boarding a boat at Ninh Kieu around five for Cai Rang floating market — a wholesale produce market held on the water since before first light, where each boat hoists a sample of what it is selling on a bamboo pole so buyers can read the market from a distance. You have breakfast on the boat, then stop at a canalside rice noodle mill to watch the sheets being steamed and laid out on bamboo racks. The afternoon is at Binh Thuy ancient house, built by the Duong family in the late nineteenth century with a French facade and a southern Vietnamese interior, before an early finish at the hotel.
Day 3
After checking out there is time at Can Tho market for dried snakehead fish, fermented fish sauce, pia cakes and fruit. We drive back to Ho Chi Minh City on the Trung Luong expressway, about four hours with a rest stop. Your guide sees the group off at Tan Son Nhat Airport for the flight home to Da Nang.
The delta is the hardest region in Vietnam to sell on paper, because written down every stop sounds the same: a river, an orchard, a rowing boat. The difference is entirely in the timing. Reach a floating market at seven in the morning and all you find is a few boats selling soft drinks to tourists; reach it at five and you are in the middle of a working wholesale market, with watermelon and pineapple barges tied alongside each other transferring cargo.
So the second day starts very early, and we say so in advance rather than springing it on the group. In exchange, that afternoon is left almost empty — back to the hotel to rest, or a coffee looking out over the Hau River.
Three days is the minimum for this route out of Da Nang, because the flight and the drive down from Ho Chi Minh City take up most of the first day on their own. It works well for older travellers; the steps down to the boats are low and there is always someone to take an arm. Group size, hotel category and flight times are agreed before the contract is signed.
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