BEN TRE – Giong Trom impresses visitors with the peaceful features of green coconut trees lined with walkways, rustic dishes, and long-standing traditional craft villages.
Giong Trom district, Ben Tre is about 100 km from Ho Chi Minh City, which is a suitable destination for tourists who have a short trip at the weekend or go back during the day. Transportation during the visit is mainly by bicycle. On a cool afternoon, guests cycled through the cool green coconut and areca trees along the roadside, stopping at Bun Quang Thang bridge overlooking the quiet Bau Lo river, the two banks of which were water coconuts whispering in the wind.
Here, you can rent a homestay to blend in with the daily life of local residents.
With each tour route, visitors have their own experiences and discoveries. People who like rivers can get on boats and canoes to creep into small canals, and people pick nipa coconuts – a typical tree that grows naturally along rivers, canals and canals in the South.
Sitting on the boat, visitors can separate each water coconut to eat directly. Coconut water is soft, sweet and fragrant, can be made a beverage with sugar, cool ice.
A destination not to be missed in the journey is Son Doc puff pastry village in Hung Nhuong commune, more than 100 years old.
Here, visitors can visit and learn the process of making a sticky rice cake. The cake that meets the requirements is that after baking, it must be spongy, crispy and 2 times larger than when it was not baked. The craft village sells many kinds of goods for customers to buy as gifts, such as sticky rice cake with chicken seeds, glutinous rice cake with jackfruit, glutinous rice cake with durian…
Guests can learn how to make banh khot at the homestay to prepare their own lunch for the family, along with the guide to pick herbs in the garden, mix garlic and chili fish sauce, and serve with vegetables.
Western rice khot is fragrant, soft, and low in fat. The crust is not too crispy like Vung Tau banh khot, with the bright yellow color of turmeric powder. The cake has a greasy taste from coconut milk, rich from minced Siamese duck meat, earthy silver cloves, and the fat of green beans.
Crayfish is another wild specialty that is loved by diners. Whether grilled, boiled with red siamese coconut water, or exploded with salt and lemon leaves, shrimp meat retains its sweetness and firmness.
Homestay also has activities to visit the garden, pick vegetables, take care of vegetables, feed goats and cows… suitable for families with young children.
With the experience encapsulated in a cluster of small hamlets, the trip to Giong Trom will take you to discover its own culture in rustic but attractive countryside.
Photo: Quach Duy Thinh