Con Son is an islet in the middle of Hau River which is separated not far away from the mainland. Moreover, this islet has a completely unique space with the area of about 70 hectares of fertile land with alluvial consolidating all year round and green orchards. Especially, the local people here are not only honest, lovely but also hospitable and enthusiastic.
By the gift of the nature to this land and without being such a glorious colorful place, Con Son brings the proximity to easily attract any fastidious visitors when visiting here.
From the center of Can Tho city, followed by the direction of National Highway 91 to Co Bac wharf in Binh Thuy ward, Binh Thuy district. At this place, tourists have to park their vehicle in a parking plot and get on the ferry-boat which takes from 5 to 10 minutes to cross the river with the vacancy of about 10 - 15 people each turn. The price may depend on the number of passengers on each trip, but the price is about 10,000 VND for one person each time. One particularly-noteworthy thing is that if travelers want to visit Son islet fully, they should contact in advance with the travel-making households in Son islet in order to have a well-prepared trip with the tourist attractions, dishes, resting places, appropriate transportations in Son islet.
Prior to the orchard heavily laden with fruit, excursionists can possibly visit the fishing houseboats. Although its form of operation is similar to Cai Rang floating market, the houseboats raise only fish. There are about 50 houseboats built around the islet which make a pretty unique and novel floating village. There is a family of those people who choose their water-associating life in each houseboat. Visiting the boathouse once, travelers can have the most authentic feeling about the locals’ lives. Moreover, sitting on the boat to watch the water-splashing school of fish eat food or experiencing the cool breeze from the river, which becomes a wonderful moment for visitors to enjoy the poetic beauty of nature here.
With the advantage of having the fertile soil and cool climate, Son islet provides a cool green atmosphere with laden orchards all year round. Pomelos, rambutans, plums, star apples (Caimito) are the fruit trees popularly grown here. The feeling of savoring a rambutan picked by your own hands right in the garden is fantastic, you will fully feel the luscious, crunchy and fresh taste of it. It will really be regretful if you do not buy some fruits as gifts for relatives or friends because it is really rare to have the opportunity to buy fruits with excellent quality, safe without chemicals and the super-low-cost price right in the garden.
With the residents of Son islet nowadays, besides having the desire to popularize the image of their hometown, they extremely focus on preserving the cultural features, characteristics in daily routine and the wilderness of nature. Therefore, the local people are developing the community-oriented tourism.
Each house in Son islet islet has its own special atmosphere, but they are willing to be in a harmony with their fantastic features so as to introduce to visitors coming here a charming and sentimental village. Travelers visiting Con Son will extraordinarily experience as well as immerse themselves in daily life and lifestyle of local residents.
Those who are familiar with the city lifestyle would certainly be very curious and interested in many activities such as scooping ditch for fishing, catching snails, picking vegetables, fishing by lift nets, throwing a casting-net and the like. You will definitely feel heart-warming and interested in the friendly neighbors who are willing to invite you to savor some delicious dishes or giving you some fruits as gifts.
You can actually have opportunities to enjoy the fruits of your labor only in the countryside like Son islet. After a day struggling to catch some fish, you can take the straw and grill some fish, snails in the garden. Boiling some recent-picking water spinach so as to make salad or boiled dishes. Under the fresh green foliage, the insect hissing sounds along with the irresistible aroma from the grilled fish. It is impossible to hold any longer, you should try to a bite a piece of grilled fish in your mouth to feel the fresh, delicious and sweet tastes of recent-catching fish without the need of marinating any spices. Besides, travelers also have opportunities to enjoy different kinds of dishes such as fish sauce hot pot, braised small fish, steamed chicken with Vietnamese mint, fried tiny shrimps with water hyacinth, giant gourami covered with lotus leaf and so on.
Coming to Son islet, with the enthusiastic guidance of the local people who are willing to convey all the "know-how" in terms of the career of making Son islet traditional cakes, visitors can participate in all stages from preparing raw materials, kneading dough, making delicious Southern cakes by your own hand such as steamed banana cake, bloating fern-shaped cake, Vietnamese sizzling cake, banana cake, silkworm-like cake, snow-flaked cake (sprinkled with powdered sugar), Sung cake (this kind of cake has the likely shape of worm and is made by flour and sugar). It is nothing better than having opportunities to savor these freshly baked and delicious cakes as our hand-made cakes.
Among several tourist spots, Tin – Hoa stop probably is the most famous spot due to having the “phenomena” of flying snakehead! Whenever showing it up to the travelers, the owner has to spread the food up high distance to make the whole school of snakehead jumping together over the water surface to grab the bait. It takes a lot of bait to train the snakehead to jump over a 40-cm high to bite the bait as stated by the owner. There are full of visitors on the weekdays to witness “the jumping snakehead show”. Noticeably, each school of snakehead can perform up to 20 times for visitors because when the snakeheads are full, they do not need to jump more for food.
It is pretty rare to find places as special as Son islet. This tourist destination does impress visitors by the harmony between the nature and the people. The scenery and Son islet people always keep the simple, gentle, and unobtrusive yet create a remarkably unforgettable mark. Therefore, you should try coming here to feel all this wonderful things.
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