So I made my first get-away trip to Ben Tre - which is about 2 hours drive from Saigon by car. It is very easy to get to since the government has built the motor-way (with no houses and motorbike allowed to be around the motor-way).
Ben Tre is very famous with coconut, it has many coconut trees as most in Vietnam and Ben Tre people are very friendly.
I have booked the trip through Sinhtourist and it costed 230,000vnd which is about USD $12. It included the tour, bus, lunch and fees to enter into all the activities.
Ben Tre region is surrounded by rivers, canals so I had a chance to be on the boat, getting around by boat has been ultilised in Vietnam very long time ago, it was one of the most popular transportation in the South of Vietnam, even now due to the complex river-system of Mekong Delta. At this end of the river (which is the other end is in China), Vietnam has divided the Mekong river into 9 main rivers and many other small canals...
We visited Con Phung, Con Lan, Con Qui which is just after Rach Mieu bridge, the entrance to Ben Tre from My Tho.
The tour takes me to see how people make coconut candy, coconut paper-cracker and have lunch, go through a canal by boat (without motor) and see local-traditional performances "Đờn Ca Tài Tử" - You can see a short video of the performance here - http://instagram.com/p/i2_vBOkHtF/
The trip has recalled a lot of memories about my time before I left Vietnam in 2007, when I was an active member of the youth group at school; where I had done a lot of trips to the south, visited people in provinces, culture exchange and travelling.
Now back to Saigon, I am officially living here and I am looking forward to more trips to explore the new Vietnam in 2014.
Great start of 2014!
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