CAN THO – Breakfast on the floating market, trying to make noodles, visiting Truc Lam Zen Monastery, visiting orchards … are suggested experiences.
Here is a suggested schedule for visitors in the land of “white rice with clear water”.
Day 1: Floating market – Historical film studio – Night market
Tourists move from Ho Chi Minh City to Can Tho City take about 3-3.5 hours. Many bus companies will have a shuttle bus to the requested destination. This trip started from Phong Dien district. To save time, visitors should depart within the 1h-5am timeframe, negotiate with the accommodation place to return their luggage, and get ready for a visit to the floating market.
The rental boat trips to visit the floating market start operating from 6am with the price of 30,000 – 50,000 VND / person for retail customers to graft boats. With a group of 4 friends, the boat rental price ranges from 100,000 VND to 150,000 VND / boat.
Around 7am, the boat arrives at Cai Rang floating market, visitors will enjoy breakfast on the boat and buy fruit as you like. Located on one side of the market are floating restaurants for large groups of customers. There are also many boats selling noodles, vermicelli, grilled meat … The price of each is 40,000 VND.
Fruits in this season are sold at floating markets with watermelon, pink mango, yellow rambutan, breast milk, … Merchants invite visitors to try for free and do not force visitors to buy goods. Fruit prices range from 40,000 VND to 70,000 VND / kg depending on the type and price time. The morning atmosphere at the floating market is crowded and bustling thanks to these business activities.
From the floating market, the boat takes you to the old Pho Xua film studio (Ninh Kieu district). The film studio has an area of 3 hectares with nearly 50 miniatures recreating ancient spaces of Asian countries such as Japan, Korea, China, and Vietnam. On Tet occasion, the studio spends space to decorate the Tet miniatures, recreating the corners of activities of the Western people, serving the check-in of visitors. Entrance fee ranges from 30,000 to 50,000 VND / ticket.
Leaving Pho Xua historical studio at 8:30, the boat continues to take visitors to the traditional Sau Hoai noodle oven. This is a 46-year-old noodle oven in Ninh Kieu district with handmade products, rice paper and noodle soup. In particular, here also use the ingredients of fruits, tubers such as beetroot, Gac, dragon fruit … to create colorful colors for noodles. Visitors were able to experience hand-crafted noodle making and the specialty of noodle soup pizza. There is no entrance fee for the oven, visitors can buy noodle products for 50,000 VND.
At 10:00 am, the boat returns to the resort. Places to stay in Phong Dien district include: Mekongoi Resort, Song Ngu Pisces Homestay, Homestay … with extremely diverse prices from 1,000,000 VND – 300,000 VND / double room / night. If you choose to stay in Mekongoi, guests book their meals in advance so that the resort can prepare. Lunch for 4 people including papaya salad and shrimp sauce hotpot is 480,000 VND.
At noon in this season, the sun is not harsh, visitors can take a walk around the resort. The resorts in the West in general and Can Tho in particular focus on preserving the rustic look, living with nature, so the campus is always full of trees and ditches. It is also a good environment for mosquitoes to breed, so when choosing to travel to the West, tourists should be equipped with mosquito prevention measures.
6:00 pm daily is the time when the night markets begin to bustle, in which the most visited places are Tay Do night market, Ninh Kieu wharf night market and Tran Phu night market. If Ninh Kieu wharf night market sells mainly clothes and souvenirs, the other two markets focus on cuisine. From Ninh Kieu wharf night market to Tran Phu night market, it takes about 2km, you can rent an electric car for 50,000 VND / time. You can rent a motorbike to visit with prices around 200,000 VND / time.
Tran Phu Night Market has a variety of dishes from hot pot, baked goods, seafood, fruits and especially braised burnt rice … is the destination many tourists choose to have dinner. A meal of 6-7 dishes for 4 people costs 530,000 VND. The market also has stalls selling bowl fruit or fruit buckets for VND 15,000 – VND 45,000.
Day 2: Fruit garden – Experience traditional craft – Truc Lam Phuong Nam Zen Monastery
Vam Xang Fruit Garden is one of the intercropped seasonal fruit gardens, so it has fruits all year round. Around this time it is the lactating season and the late season of the strawberry. The ticket to visit the garden is 50,000 VND / ticket. Visitors here will be led by Uncle Nam garden owners to visit and explain about each type of tree. In addition, guests can enjoy the fruit in the garden freely and if there is a need to take out, the fruit will be sold at the same time.
At about 13:00, visitors will visit the cake village to ask the hammock face of the artist Ut Dzach (Phong Dien district) who has won many certificates and awards for delicious food and specialties in Can Tho. The road to the bakery is full of green trees and royal flowers grow into bushes, so the ideal is to ride a bicycle to enjoy. To get there, you have to take a ferry for 2,000 VND / person / person, for bicycles.
Visitors who want to visit the cake village to ask for the hammock face around this time should warn in advance because the cake will disappear very quickly after noon. Each piece of cake asked for customers to try it out costs 25,000 VND / piece.
Leaving the village to ask for the hammock face, you can cycle to Truc Lam Phuong Nam Zen Monastery (Phong Dien district). The 3.8-hectare Zen monastery is considered a spiritual tourist destination known to many people when coming to Can Tho.
The monastery has a blue shirt and scarf arrangement for visitors to visit the temple. The parking fee at the monastery is arbitrary. The spacious temple grounds with ancient architectural blocks can be taken here, but not inside the main hall.
Guests will leave the property at 5pm and board the bus back to Ho Chi Minh City at 6pm, ending the 2-day, 2-night trip.
Note
When traveling on the river, you need to pay attention to collect garbage and throw it in the bin when the boat arrives.
This is not the peak tourist season of the West, so the service is cheap, suitable for groups of friends or family who want to change the atmosphere on weekends.
The cost of the trip is about 1.6 million / person when traveling in groups. Bed car is 290,000 VND / 2 times; 2-night stay 540,000 VND; meals include 1 breakfast, 2 lunches, 1 dinner, 420,000 VND; travel expenses (boat rental, ferry, taxi) 200,000 VND and expenses for sightseeing, buying souvenirs.
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