Saigon to Rach Gia, Mekong (can be done in reverse; Can Tho to Saigon)

We leave Saigon at 8.30am to  tour the Cu Chi tunnel and battlefield.  We ride along countryside to see pineapple farm and honey bee farm.  We then head to My Tho to visit the famous Vinh Trang Pagoda and tour My Tho local market.  

We will leave the Coconut Religion when we visit Phung islet.  Then ride to beautiful and peaceful Thoi Son islet,  tour the fruit plantation where you are welcomed by local farmers who allow us to pick and try fruit by ourselves from their farm.  At night,  we stay in a home stay in Ben Tre .

After breakfast, we tour a Coconut Candy factory where you can see the whole process of turning coconut into Candy in 30 minutes.  Next we visit the Dong Tam snake farm ( the biggest snake farm in the country - they keep a over thousand poisonous snake to get venom for medical use) We can visit the unique snake museum here and see many animals unique to the Mekong Delta.  

In the afternoon,  we'll tour the famous Ap Bac battlefield and visit the Hung Long tradition career village.  We then follow the beautiful countryside road to Cao Lanh and stay overnight there.  

We take 2 hours to tour Rung Tram forest in Long My village by boating and trekking.  This area is one vast swamp with a beautiful thick canopy of tall trees and vines.  It's one of the last natural forests left in Mekong Delta.  During the civil war,  the Viet Cong had a base here, called Xeo Quyt,  where top brass VC lived in underground bunkers .But don't mistake this for another Cu Chi tunnel.  It's very,  very different.  Then we ride on the village roads to cross nearly a thousand rivers , get on and off many ferries to see and experience the local daily life of the locals, including  their rice paddies,  lotus farm,  fruit plantations, fish farms, floating villages and stilt houses along the rivers. 

In the afternoon,  we tour the K'me village to see how they make their traditional clothes and keep their traditional culture alive.  

We arrive Chau Doc around 2pm,  take a walking tour to the downtown,  stop at the river side for a cool beer and have a dinner on the floating restaurant in one of Mekong River . We stay overnight in Chau Doc.  

We start by touring the famous Sam mountain where you can see many temples,  historical sites and viewpoints.  It's especially beautiful when you get on top of the mountain where you can see an amazing view of Vietnam and Cambodia.  Then we ride along the border road to enjoy the beautiful nature of Mekong before we stop and visit the Ba Chuc skull and Crossbones Pagoda where 3157 people were tortured and killed by Khmer Rouge in 1978 . We then continue our trip by touring the Tra Su forest,  Tra Su bird sanctuary where you can see a million of birds.  Check your balancing ability when you cross the monkey bridge -It's amazing to watch the locals travelse these narrow catwalks with bicycle and heavy load balance between their shoulders on  bamboo pole.  We will visit the colourful Cham Pagoda to learn more about their architecture and Buddhist philosophy,  before ending our wonderful Mekong trip at  your hotel in Rach Gia