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After a one-hour bus drive from HCMC, you will really begin your discovery tour by getting on board a boat for a journey through the winding canals and Vam Co Tay River to Dong Thap Muoi Center for medicinal herbs in Long An Province. There, Nguyen Van Be, who is locally called Ba Be, tells you about the variety of herbs and plants he has grown for years as medicinal materials.

The center’s director will accompany on a motor boat making your way through canals in the nearby 600-hectare mangrove forest in the alluvial swampy region. On top of this, storks, cormorants, spot-billed ducks and other birds fly out just above your head.

Truong Hoang Phuong, director of marketing at the tourism company Dau An Viet (Vietmark), which arranges the two-day tour, explains now is the time for birds from different parts to come in flocks to the mangroves for shelter during winter in their usual habitats. So, you also see birds flying back to their nests from the deck of a wooden tourist boat you are traveling along the Vam Co Tay River after having lunch featuring local food specialties at the center.

Traveling along the river for six hours, you also see farmers scattering paddy over their fields for the Winter-Spring crop, which is the main crop in the Dong Thap Muoi wetland. Locals run their boats of different sizes upstream and downstream the river to their homes when the sun is going down. Looking at the sunset from your boat is a memorable experience and helps you shrug off your tiredness of the day. Having dinner and staying overnight on the tourist boat is an offer for you to give it a try.    
 
The sound of the engines of boats running in the river and canals nearby wake you up the next morning. After breakfast, you get off the boat docking at Dong Tien Canal with a bicycle to ride on the lotus flower-lined road of two kilometers to Go Thap Archaeological Area, where still contains interesting stories and relics from the time of nearly 2000 years ago. The vestige of Go Thap is said to be a residential area nearly 2000 years ago as archaeologists have uncovered a number of antiques dating back to Oc Eo civilization.

The area is home to well-known relics such as the Temple of Doc Binh Kieu, Co Tu Tower, the Temple of Ba Chua Xu, the foundations of collapsed towers, and other relics bearing great cultural and historical values. Co Tu Tower was built during the 1841-1842 period and is not far from a revolutionary base, where Doc Binh Kieu and other commanders led the resistance against French troops. The base gave much support to the movements against the U.S. troops.

Rowing along the canals along lines of cajuput trees and Thap Muoi ponds of lotus in blossoms in Go Thap also offer great fun. Breezes bring you the pleasant fragrance of the trees and the flowers mingled with the smells of water-ferns and water.

For a two-day package tour of VND1.99 million to Dong Thap Muoi, contact Vietmark Co., Ltd on the first floor of the building at 166D, Tran Hung Dao Boulevard, District 1, HCMC. Tel: (08) 404 3939. Fax: (08) 404 39 40.