Located about 60km from Ho Chi Minh City to the south, Can Gio Mangrove Forest is not only a unique ecosystem but also a special historical relic from the Vietnam War.
Located about 60km from Ho Chi Minh City to the south, Can Gio Mangrove Forest is not only a unique ecosystem but also a special historical relic from the Vietnam War. This is an important revolutionary base of the South Vietnamese Liberation Army in the South East region, associated with the event of destroying Nha Be gas storage, causing great losses to the Republic of Vietnam Army. Let’s explore the wild beauty and a part of Vietnam War through a visit to Can Gio Mangrove Forest.
1. Transferring
– Can Gio Mangrove Forest is located in Can Gio District, south of Ho Chi Minh City. This is the waterfront where the Saigon River flowing into the sea.
– You can move by car or motorbike to Binh Khanh ferry and then continue to Can Gio district, the road is in great condition.
– You can visit Can Gio at all year round.
2. What’s special about Can Gio Mangrove Forest?
– This mangrove forest was the shelter of the Vietnam Liberation Army (Vietcong) to gather forces to attack Saigon urban in the 60s of the 20th century.
– Vietcong lived, renovated this unspoiled land into a military base. They were fighting with crocodiles, illnesses, and lack of necessities and also the US military. Americans even used bombs, mines, sniffing dogs to fight Viet Cong.
– After discovering the base, the sprayed Agent Orange, destroying the entire forest. Initially, it was expected to take at least 100 years for mangroves to regenerate. However, in the 1980s, Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet ordered the cultivation of mangrove seedlings from Ca Mau to grow in Can Gio, then the trees here have grown constantly and prevent the entire Saigon river from salinization.
– Nowadays, Can Gio is a nature reserve with a rich ecosystem, including monkeys, saltwater crocodiles, birds and brackish and fish.
3. Itinerary
– You should visit Can Gio if you spend 3 days in Saigon. You can add a trip to Can Gio on the last day after visiting the city and Cu Chi.
– Our trip started at 8:00 am from the City Center. After 2 hours of transferring, we arrived in Can Gio district and began to visit the Sac Forest Warzone, the core zone of the forest, which was once a military base.
– Monkeys are the owners in this area and they rush to welcome us from the gate. Be careful with your belongings, such as hats, glasses, and bags, because they really like snatching up visitors’stuff. If you have an umbrella with you, take it and hold it out in front because they are very afraid of things with long shapes.
– Next, you can experience feeding the monkeys, the manager of the resort will put peanuts on your shoulders and head so that the mischievous monkeys will climb up to eat. They will not hurt you since they only care about food. Don’t forget to take pictures with them.
– Then we went to the saltwater crocodile sanctuary where live 4 individuals with 3m length each.
– After about 1 hour walking around, we got on a canoe to the mangrove forest to visit the base. The small canals are only enough for 2 boats, which can carry 6 people each, at the same time and covered by mangrove trees that used to be the place where the army lived and battled.
– After about 20 minutes by boat, we arrived at the base with restored houses models.
– Here, the tour guide explained to us how the soldiers could catch rainwater using the US parachute fabric, the use of a special type of stove to avoid smoke and how to sleep in a hammock to avoid the pressure of the bomb.
– We had 30 minutes free to take photos.
– Then we went back for lunch by canoe. Before lunch, we spent 30 minutes visiting the seafood market, where you can buy dried seafood or taste it right at the market at super cheap prices. Moreover, you can buy mangoes and coconut water, the local specialties.
– We had local seafood for lunch.
– Leaving Can Gio, we returned to Saigon in the evening, May is the beginning of the rainy season so it was raining for a while.
So if you have enough time, don’t forget to add Can Gio to your itinerary on the trip to Vietnam.