Taking a farm trip to discover Long Son Island

Vung Tau is not just a seaside destination for beaches filled with sunlight and non-stop winds, as one first comes to mind when describing it. There are also salt-water rivers with a number of fish and oyster farms comparable to those in the Mekong Delta, making a boat tour of the area a worthwhile addition to any traveller's itinerary.

The farm-trip tour to Long Son Island, which was recently launched at the Vung Tau tourism festival, is a journey that will take travellers to Long Son Island to discover the daily activities of the people in the island. The tour departs from Ganh Hao Restaurant, which is located not far from the heart of Vung Tau City. From there travellers board a simple raft, made of drums tied closely together, and will be transferred to an anchored boat.

In truth, tourists who are prone to sea-sickness should be discouraged from boarding the boat because of the constant waves on the river. However, they need not worry, as the boat is large enough to remain steady, especially since the tour runs close to the mainland and does not head far off shore. Thus travellers won’t have to ‘dance’ too much with waves!

The voyage to the island affords a chance to leisurely contemplate the landscapes of the sea and to get close to the daily activities of fishermen working with nets to catch fish. The pilot of the boat is an easy going man, and will respond favourably to travellers who ask for a try at taking the wheel to control the boat for the experience of ‘being a pilot for one minute!’

Weather permitting, after around 45 minutes to one hour the boat will slowly go into the Cha Va River, where the floating rafts carrying the oyster and grouper, among others, dock at the island. At this point, the group will leave the boat and be treated to a guided tour of the region. The journey will continue by bus to visit one of the salt-fields on the island, where travellers will have a chance to see and learn how salt is made. The next stop is a well-known tourist site of the island called Nha Lon, or Great House, an example of old Vietnamese architecture when houses were built with roofs continuously joined together, making one large house. It was built in 1910 and finished in 1928 by a man known to the locals as Mr. Tran. He built the complex on four hectares comprising houses, market and a school. At present, his descendants are managing and preserving the house for future generations.

The final stop in the tour is for lunch in a pavilion built on a raft floating on a river. Of course, the lunch is not lacking for in regional seafood and tourists will be treated to oyster, sea-bass and shrimp, to name but a few.

The tour is designed for groups of 12 to 15 travellers and costs VND 385,000 per person, inclusive of lunch.

(Source: SGT)