Hi Hiver!
Another weekend has come, and do you have any plans for your weekend? I hope you have a great weekend with your family and friends.
Today, I will introduce to you a very interesting place, with a lot of things to explore, and especially all of those places are located right in a small city, that is Can Tho city, belonging South Vietnam, and was the last place on my trip to explore the South West of the past year. After a long journey of discovering all the new lands, wonderful tourist attractions of a 10-day trip, we roamed the streets, on our motorbike, from this province to other provinces, from exploring pagodas, or national parks, to islands located more than 100km off the coast of the mainland. Then to the southernmost point of the country, Dat Mui Ca Mau. On the last day of this trip, we stopped at a city called Can Tho, explored this place, and made the most of our little time to go to the most famous places, before finishing the trip and returning to the place we started from is Ho Chi Minh City.
In the previous article, I introduced you to the wind power field in Bac Lieu, and I and my companions visited this place and watched the giant wind turbines. After finishing sightseeing, we left Bac Lieu to come to Can Tho city, with a distance of more than 130km, and it took more than 3.5 hours for this road. Because this is National Highway 1A, we cannot drive motorbikes at a fast speed, for safety reasons and if you exceed the specified number of km/h, you will be fined by the Traffic Police. So on this road, you have to be very careful if you do not want to violate traffic laws.
Can Tho city, in Can Tho province, is the major administrative center of the Southwest region, also known as the land of Tay Do. The reason Can Tho is called the land of Tay Do, because of Because in the past in the French colonial period, when the French colonialists occupied South Vietnam, Can Tho was the capital of the West, this to be Bustling trading and trading market of 6 provinces of Cochinchina. There is an interlaced network of canals, Famous for the beauty of the peaceful river. There are green orchards with many different kinds of fruit trees, vast rice fields with storks flying straight, and especially Can Tho people who are always friendly, kind, and hospitable with a soft voiceb, warm, inspirational.
Can Tho is famous for Cai Rang Floating Market, a market located on the water, traded goods on boats floating on the Hau River across the city, famous for Ninh Kieu Wharf, a bustling night market, bustling by tourists, famous for its fruit garden laden with ripe fruit in summer…
When we arrived in Can Tho city, it was almost dark, on the way we stopped at a roadside restaurant to eat specialties here, it's Banh Xeo. This dish is actually all over Vietnam you can find it, but in Can Tho alone, Banh Xeo is made very different and unique. Rice flour is poured into a large pan, so when the cake is made very large, 1 person can only eat 1 to feel full. The cake is sprinkled with filling, including minced shrimp and pork. Banh Xeo is served with raw vegetables and dipping sauce. The cake is very crispy and delicious, and when you eat it on an empty stomach, it is a very delicious specialty.
Then we found a motel in the city center and started exploring the Can Tho night market. Lost in the night market, you will admire the entire cuisine here, and you can eat whatever you want, but the price is not too expensive. You won't be afraid to go hungry when you go in here, as I'm sure you'll want to try every dish. Because we always eat and drink, we don't have a picture of the food court of the night market. Next to the night market in the city square, located right next to Ninh Kieu Wharf, a famous pier in the Southwest region. In the past, during the French colonial period, this wharf was a place of trade between the southern provinces and abroad, along the Hau River, but now this place is mainly a place for tourist boats. We took a tour around and returned to rest early to visit Cai Rang floating market the next morning.
Cai Rang Floating Market is a famous place that when coming to Can Tho you cannot ignore. This is a market located right in the city center, and the special thing about this market is that it is not located on the ground like normal markets, but it is a floating market, located on the river. The market starts at 5 AM and ends around 8:30-9 AM. We had to wake up at 4:45 AM, prepare and go to the market. We rented a boat from a family near the river, he will drive a motorboat to take us to visit the market, for 200,000 VND / boat. This is our first time participating in a floating market like this, so the feeling is very exciting. As soon as we got on the boat, the boat seemed to wobble, but after a while, we sat down, the boatman started the engine and took us to visit this special market. It was still dim at this time because it was just over 5 AM, but the market was already very busy. Here people sell mainly breakfast, coffee, fruits such as mango, coconut, pineapple, watermelon, rambutan... mainly serve tourists vs wholesalers for traders. These are all specialties grown by the people here. Boat owners for sale will stop by your boat to offer what they sell. If you buy, they will stand by their boat, and bring them to your boat. That's really interesting and new.
We chose to have breakfast on the boat with vermicelli, its price is 40,000 VND/ bowl. The feeling of sitting on the boat to eat was very interesting, everything kept swaying on the water, making me unable to carry it with my hands like my 3 companions, but had to sit down on the floor of the boat to eat. After swaying back and forth for a while, I was able to finish my portion, then drink morning coffee on the boat. This is an interesting experience that only a floating market like this can have, so if you come to Can Tho you definitely have to try it once.
In addition, Can Tho also has green fruit gardens, around June-August is the fruit season, so we could not visit the fruit garden, because the boatman said that this season is not available no fruit is ripe but it has only just borne fruit. So we made an appointment to visit the fruit garden on another occasion, during the ripe fruit season to be able to fully enjoy the specialties here.
After visiting Cai Rang floating market, we came to Truc Lam Phuong Nam Zen Monastery. Truc Lam Phuong Nam Zen Monastery located in My Nhon hamlet, My Khanh commune, Phong Dien district, Can Tho city, is a unique temple campus built in the ancient architecture of Vietnam, and is a famous spiritual tourist destination of the land of Can Tho. With the peaceful, elegant beauty of Truc Lam Phuong Nam Zen Monastery, this is a place that attracts a large number of Buddhists and tourists to visit. It is only about 10km from Cai Rang floating market, and you can go here according to the instructions of Google Map. If you want to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city, you can come here to calm your soul, get rid of all your worries and visit take a tour around this temple area. After visiting Truc Lam Phuong Nam Zen Monastery, we returned to the guesthouse to pack up our things, prepare to depart back to Ho Chi Minh City, and end this exploration of the Southwest region of Vietnam. Although there is not too much time to explore all of Can Tho, with the above 3 points, we can also partly experience the great things in this land.
To explore all the remaining places of Can Tho, we need at least 3 days to do so, and we promise to return to this place in the nearest one day. And we departed back to Ho Chi Minh City with a distance of about 170km, ending the journey that lasted 10 days and was the most complete.
Thank you for following my article today, along with previous articles with the journey to discover the Southwest region of Vietnam, hope through the places that I have introduced, you will like it, and come visit and discover it when coming to our wonderful country Vietnam.
Have a nice weekend, and see you in the next post. 💜