The quay at Tan Thanh Beach in the Mekong Delta’s Tien Giang Province

Tan Thanh Beach in Mekong Delta Tien Giang Province’s Go Cong Dong District is not an ideal place for swimming, but it’s a real treat for the taste buds to visit.

The seven-kilometer black sand beach is very shallow and the tide goes out for hundreds of meters. Afternoon is the time for villagers to catch clams there and visitors are welcome to join in. You can have your catch boiled to eat on the spot.

The fleshy, good-sized clams are the main cooking specialty of Tan Thanh. It is also known for its horseshoe crabs. Locals say visitors haven’t experienced Tan Thanh if they have not eaten this species of crab.

From the tenth to second months of the lunar calendar, female horseshoe crabs creep onshore to lay eggs in the sand. Hunters go along the beach to catch them at night. At other times of the year, horseshoe crabs live deep in the sea, so only divers can get them.

Horseshoe crabs’ eggs are quite delicious. Their white blood is mixed with rice wine to make a local drink.

When the tide is high, tourists can ask for a ride in a basket boat to one of the many stilt houses in the sea where they farm clams. You can climb into the houses to look out to sea and in the evening the twinkling mountains of Vung Tau Town in the north can be seen.

Visitors can spend a night in simple one-bed bungalows along the beach, which are illuminated with electric or oil lamps. Behind them in the green forest, the wind whistles all night long.

For an early morning walk, go out on the 300-meter-long pier to observe the stillness of the beach and the sunrise, and on your way home drop in at Vam Lang Market to buy Go Cong seafood specialties.

Reported by Thuy Linh