LookAtVietnam – About 50 kilometers from HCMC, the Can Gio Mangrove Forest, a world-class biological reserve recognized by UNESCO in 2000, is proving to be a top tourist destination with its system of canals, its spectacular ocean scenery and its tranquility.

Tourists on a canoe in Can Gio Mangrove Forest.

Can Gio conforms to the wishes of many tourists who want an easily-reached ecological area with features like history, culture and especially a vast wilderness. The Can Gio Museum displays antiques dating back 2,000 years, the astounding Rung Sac Revolutionary Base which represents a page of national history and an animal circus with tamed and untamed beasts, including crocodiles, excites visitors. There is a troupe of 1,000 monkeys that are always ready to have fun with tourists. Typical dishes of the area can be had at Rung Sac Restaurant and eateries that line the river.

The Vam Sat Ecological Tourist Area is one of the world’s Salt-Marsh biosphere preserves and is ideal for canoe trips to swampland where rare flying foxes and bats live high in the trees and crabs are caught for their succulent meat.

Tourists can also enjoy the local sport of teasing hungry crocodiles with cooking from the canoe. Floating on a top of a saltwater pool, visitors do not have to worry about drowning because the salt concentration is 10 times higher than seawater and the crocodiles do not come here.

The three-star Can Gio Resort is recommended with its 80 rooms and proximity to 30/4 Beach and is offering couples one night in a superior room for only VND500,000, a 50% discount for a second night and a 60% discount for a third night. Tourists will be discounted 10% entering Lam Vien Park (monkey island) which offers bicycling, tennis, karaoke, body massages and sauna-steambath services. The program runs from June 20 to September 20.

Can Gio Tourist Area is in Long Hoa Commune, in HCMC’s Can Gio District, tel: 3874 3335. The office of Can Gio Ecotourism Company is at 68A Nguyen Hue city Boulevard, in HCMC’s District 1, tel: 3829 2969.

VietNamNet/SGT