AN GIANG – Watching dawn on a river on the Vietnam-Cambodia border, stepping on a floating village and exploring Cham culture is a memorable experience during the trip.
Huynh Dang Khoa (1984), a local business manager, often leads his friends and guests to experience the sunrise on Chau Doc River, along with exploring local Kinh and Cham culture. Male businessmen love this waterway tourist route, besides famous tourist destinations in Chau Doc border region such as Sam mountain, Ba Chua Xu temple, Tra Su cajuput forest, Tinh Bien market …
The tour starts at around 6am to watch the sunrise, and goes within 3 hours. Going earlier, the scene of people’s activities is not bustling, going later, the sun is hot.
Mr. Khoa often self-sufficiently goes from the boat station behind Chau Doc market. Alternatively, guests can depart from the marina around the Chau Doc junction or take a cruise ship at Chau Giang ferry.
The first point, the boat takes everyone to Khanh Hoa islet to watch the sunrise. This place is like a small island located in the middle of the Hau river upstream bordering the flow on the Cambodian side. Boat moored quietly in a riverside lake. From here, you can see people stowing fish in the morning mist, dimly in the dawn. Having come here many times, Mr. Khoa often invites his friends to take pictures on the alcohol, because after the flooding season, Khanh Hoa islet covers the green color of trees and crops of the people.
The boat continues its journey to the floating market on the Hau River . Visitors often comment that the market here is peaceful, less engine noise and not too crowded like Cai Rang floating market (Can Tho). You can enjoy fish vermicelli, porridge heart, broken rice on ribs, sticky rice with tea, or drink coffee while floating on the boat. What Mr. Khoa is most interested in is that people tell guests about the structure, drawings and some stories of local boats.
The next destination is Chau Doc floating village , where houses swirl along the river upstream of the Mekong River, which stretches for several kilometers. The people “on” the village have lived and raised fish in this model since the 60s of the last century. If you pass by, see which house is feeding the fish, please stop by. Here, stories of livelihoods, structure of raft houses, natural freshwater fish farming process will be told by the household head or local guide. More interestingly, guests are also able to manually feed hundreds of fish on the floor.
In the floating village, Mr. Huynh Dang Khoa knew about the area where the people were playing, if passing at the right time fishermen were doing, he would introduce to visitors. “Giving up” is a typical way of catching fish in the West of the river, by bundling dry branches soaked in water, surrounded by nets to attract fish. When collecting the net, the fish jumped in it, sparkling in the water and sunlight. This image surprised and excited many of Mr. Khoa’s guests.
The last point on the river, the boat will take guests into the village of Cham Da Phuoc which is more than 100 years old. Among more than 10 Cham villages in An Giang, the village in Da Phuoc is one of the few that still retains the idyllic look, with many original stilt houses and not interfered by modern works, Mr. Khoa described. In the village, there are mosques, eateries, cafes, mobile markets that meet at 7:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. every morning.
Tourists believe that this is the stop to bring the most local cultural features. People wear colorful sarongs and wrap their head scarf. The mobile market sells many rustic specialties that guests can enjoy on the spot and buy, such as fish noodle soup, pickling oven, Cambodian tea, banana cake, river fish …
The Cham people in An Giang are famous for hand-woven brocade. You can go to the people’s house to see the Cham women sitting next to the loom, even given instructions to try weaving. Brocade sale is one of the sources of income for the Cham people. Therefore, you should try to buy a souvenir such as towels, bags, wallets … with prices from a few tens of thousands of VND.
In addition, Mr. Khoa also leads you to the local mosques. The church in Da Phuoc village is not superficial like other villages, but the location is close to each other and close to the marina, convenient for visitors to move.
Since the road in the Cham village in Da Phuoc is quite small, you should take a leisurely walk to see the people’s daily life and enjoy the food. If you travel by ferry to the river, you can bring a motorbike. “I hope that in the future, the locality will have a silent tram service to certain places, to make it easy for visitors”, Mr. Khoa expressed.
At the end of the trip, passenger boats return to the station behind Chau Doc market. You should visit the fish kingdom , eat beef silk rolls, dessert with a glass of palm water before continuing the journey to another place.
Tourists can explore Chau Doc floating village on tour or on their own. The tour includes a tour guide who can communicate in English, drinks, snacks and takes guests to three fixed points: floating market, raft village and Cham village. Tour price per person is from 250,000 VND to 1 million VND depending on the number of passengers, the boat carries about 10 guests.
If self-sufficient, you can negotiate with the boat owner to come and stop at some point along the way. However, boat drivers often do not provide information about the destination. Price 250,000 – 300,000 VND per person. All boats are equipped with life jackets.
From Ho Chi Minh City, tourists can take a night bus with the price of 150,000 – 300,000 VND per way, to Chau Doc at about 5 am the next morning, suitable for the tour.
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