06:00. Wake up early and take a boat trip to visit the Cai Rang floating market, one of the three biggest floating markets in the Mekong Delta. The ‘shops’ and stalls are housed on boats of different sizes. The market operates all day every day but it is busiest from sunrise to about 9am. The main items sold are farm produce and specialties of Cai Rang town, Chau Thanh District and neighboring areas. Every boat has a long upright pole at its bow on which samples of the goods for sale are hung.
During the early morning market hours, larger sized boats drop anchor and create lanes that smaller boats weave in and out of. The waterway becomes a maze of hundreds of boats packed with fruit
such as mangoes, bananas, papaya, pineapple, and even smuggled goods like cigarettes. Sellers do not have to cry out about their goods because their goods can be seen in a distance and their cries would not be heard in the vastness of the river and the noise of boat engines. Small boats that sell beer, wine and soft drinks go among the other boats to serve market-goers and visitors.
08:00. Return to your hotel for breakfast.
10.00. Check-out of your hotel. The first visit is to Binh Thuy ancient house in Can Tho, a rare and perfect example of French-Chinese-Vietnam style houses of the Mekong Delta. It is special thanks not only to its exquisite design inside and out and the stories the house holds but also its garden which has an abundance of different varieties of flowers, plants, and fruit, including a wide range of orchids and a gigantic cactus. One more special thing is that the house attracts numerous local and foreign visitors, and has been used as a film set. It is a popular location for many film directors such as J.J Annaud who used the setting in his famous French movie L’Amant (“The Lover”).
Travel by private vehicle to Chau Doc, a town in An Giang Province, bordering Cambodia.
Lunch at a local restaurant.
Arrive Chau Doc. Check-in to your hotel.
In the afternoon, visit Sam Mountain. On the way, stop at The Lady Temple and Thoai Ngoc Hau Tomb. The former is a solemn and ancient architecture built in 1820. The latter was a mandarin in the Nguyen Dynasty, and a pioneer in this area who reclaimed and developed the land in Chau Doc; he established living settlements as well as the digging of the Thoai Ha and Vinh Te channels.
Continue hiking up the mountain. The views from the top are spectacular (weather depending) and you can easily look out over Cambodia.
Back down the mountain and return to your hotel.
Rest of the day at leisure.
Overnight in Chau Doc.
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