Wooden boats bring tourists to Dat Mui

Ca Mau is 350 kilometers from HCMC. To reach the Mekong Delta province, tourists can either go by air or road.

In my recent trip to Ca Mau, I took an express night coach from Mien Tay coach station at around 9 p.m. and arrived in Ca Mau City at 5 a.m. the next morning.

From Ca Mau coach station, I caught a bus to Nam Can Port, where I found a boat to travel to Dat Mui.

To visit Dat Mui, tourists can choose either motor boat or small wooden boat. Motor boats depart every three hours with a price of VND150,000 (US$6.6) per passenger while wooden boats are in service around the clock at a cost of VND200,000 per passenger for a round trip.

I preferred traveling by wooden boat because it is a popular means of transport in the area but the slow movement of the wooden boat allowed me to easily sightsee on the two banks of the river, get a glimpse of local people’s daily life and go deep into small canals winding through beautiful cajuput and mangrove forests.

After around two hours on the boat, I got to Dat Mui, a small area covered by the immense green cajuput forests. Three destinations tourists can visit in Dat Mui are the country’s southern coordinate landmark, Ca Mau Cape landmark and the observatory tower.

Those who want to learn more about the life of local people on the cape can choose to stay overnight at their houses and enjoy the sunrise and sunset.

After touring Dat Mui, visitors can return to Ca Mau City to drop by several tourist attractions such as San Chim, a bird garden in the city, or Ba and Khmer pagodas with particular architecture of Khmer people.

In the evening, tourists can visit the night market in the city and have fresh seafood along the Ganh Hao River bank, enjoying the famous Ca Mau crabs at reasonable prices.

Another destination in Ca Mau Province that tourists can visit is U Minh Forest. The ideal time for traveling there is the flooding season which lasts from the eighth to the eleventh month of the lunar calendar as in the dry season, authorities do not allow visitors to enter the forest due to fear of bushfires.