Vinh Long is a rich land blessed by nature with a mild climate all year round and a system of rivers heavy with alluvium. With lush fruit orchards and vast green coconut gardens, Ben Tre has attracted a large number of tourists to experience the type of eco-tourism and river gardens imbued with the love of the people here. And Phung islet is one of the most famous tourist destinations in Vinh Long.
Table of Contents
General information about Phung islet
Phung Islet (Vietnamese: cồn Phụng; cồn means islet, Phụng means Phoenix) is a floating land in the middle of the Tien River. It is one of the famous of Four Holy Beasts land, the dragon (Long), the Qilin (Lân), the Turtle (Quy), and the Phoenix (Phụng) in Mekong Delta River. With an area of more than 50 ha, there are many interesting activities and services welcomes thousands of tourists to discover and experience here.
Location: Hamlet 10, Phu Tuc commune, Ben Tre province.
How to get here?
Phung islet tourist area is located in Vinh Long, about 80km from Ho Chi Minh. Usually, it takes about 2 hours of driving to get here. Currently you can go to Western Bus Station to catch bus to Ben Tre Ward, Vinh Long Province, ticket prices usually range from 100.000 VND/1 ticket. Currently there are many bus companies that you can choose from, you can tell the driver to let you go to Phung islet first when you book for a ticket from Ho Chi Minh City to Ben Tre Ward, and here are some of bus companies: Futa, Thao Chau, Ben Tre Limousine, Tan Thanh Thuy…
Futa – one of the famous bus companies to Vinh Long
In addition, you can travel to the Con Phung tourist area by motorbike. Just follow Ms.Google’s advice to National Highway 1A, go straight to Trung Luong roundabout, then enter National Highway 60, go straight across Rach Mieu bridge, and you will see a sign to Phung islet.
Don’t forget about the private car to Phung islet option, especially when you’re traveling with a group, as the private car or bus can come to pick you up, making sightseeing easy and stopping on the way for you to relax.
Model of private car to Ben Tre
For tourists from far away, you can book a flight to Saigon or Can Tho City, then continue to Phung islet by bus or car, as there is no airport in Ben Tre Ward.
The best time to visit Phung islet
With warm, sunny weather year-round, tourists can visit Phung islet at any time. Especially during the summer months (June, July, August), when the trees are green and lush and the fruits are juicy, tourists visiting Phung islet will enjoy extremely delicious fruits such as mangosteen, durian, rambutan…
Things to do on Phung islet
Phung islet tourist area offers many interesting experiences for visitors, from Western-style entertainment activities to dozens of attractive Ben Tre specialties. This is definitely an address not to be missed when visiting “coconut land”.
Visit the Coconut Religion Relic area
The Coconut Religion was founded in 1963 by Nguyen Thanh Nam, also known as Coconut Monk. The name “Cồn Phụng” (Phung islet) was in use when he came here and built the Nam Quoc Phat pagoda. This place covers 1,500 square meters and currently preserves many cultural and religious values of the local people.
Some of the unique architectures such as: front yard with nine pillars, each of them carved a dragon skillfully; Hoa Binh tower where he sat and preached the Dharma; traditional room introducing the land and local people…
After 50 years of construction, the relic still retains its original beauty.
Visit the bee farm
At Phung islet today, a traditional profession still exists: raising bees for honey. Coming here, it will not be difficult for you to visit a family that keeps bees. The bees here mostly get honey from longan flowers.
The honey taste is very delicious and fragrant. Also, there are many products made from honey, such as honey tea, pure bottled honey, honey candies, and beauty products extracted from honey… You can choose them as a gift for your loved ones. Don’t forget to experience the exciting work of collecting honey under the instructions of the farm owner.
Visit a coconut candy factory
Coming to Phung islet, visitors can also witness the entire process of making these extremely delicious and flavorful Southwestern coconut candies: preparing ingredients, cooking, cutting, and packaging. It is not difficult for you to ask a resident to practice some of the stages and enjoy samples here.
And surely everyone who comes to these coconut candy factories will bring themselves a few bags of sweet gifts from this land.
Explore Phung islet on a horse carriage, cycling, or rowing a sampan
Thanks to the nature bestowed cool and fresh air, visitors should explore the islet by bicycle or horse carriage.
horse carriage in Phung islet
Passing the green coconut-shaded road, cool rows of roadside shrubs, and enjoying the peacefulness of the delta are amazing things. If you want to explore the small canals on Phung islet, a sampan is a great choice.
A group of tourist enjoy rowing a sampan
Local people will take you on their sampan, rowing by hand through small canals lined with water on both sides, coconut trees, and cork trees with romantic white flowers.
Visit Ben Tre Coconut Museum
Certainly, when mentioning old Ben Tre (now merged with Vinh Long Province), coconut trees are the first images that come to mind. Coconut is present in war, the economy, culture, and cuisine to shape Ben Tre’s appearance. Therefore, a coconut museum was built at Phung islet tourist area.
From lifeless coconut logs, artisans have created hundreds of sophisticated, eye-catching handicraft products with rich artistic value. Coming here, visitors will have to “take home” something as a gift for relatives to remember your trip to Vinh Long.
Listen to Don Ca Tai Tu
Have you ever experienced ‘Don ca tai tu‘ – a Vietnamese folk music? At Phung islet tourist area, visitors will experience this famous specialty in authentic Mekong thatched-roof houses.
While enjoying the music, you will also be served many specialty fruit dishes such as longan, rambutan, papaya, melon, guava,… Too interesting, isn’t it!
Participate in folk games
Experiencing the feeling of adventure, thrill, and heart-pounding excitement that require courage is also something that visitors to Phung islet are especially impressed with, bringing joy and relaxing moments when participating in folk games such as cycling across a plank bridge, ziplining across a pond, cable-stayed bridge, and balancing bridge….
And especially, catching fish – an extremely interesting activity that many tourists love at Phung islet tourist area.
Imagine you will play the role of a farmer in a local shirt, jump into the pond, and compete to catch snakehead fish; whoever catches more wins. I’m sure everyone will be covered in mud after playing, but it’s a lot of fun.
Enjoy local speciality
Coming to Phung islet, visitors not only immerse themselves in the charming river nature, but also enjoy rustic dishes of the Mekong Delta River made from available fresh ingredients at a small restaurant, designed in an open architectural style.
Most of the dishes are cooked and performed meticulously by traditional methods, along with fresh material available, ensuring freshness, deliciousness, and high nutritional value. Some of the specialties of the region include:
Phung islet fried sticky rice: fried sticky rice here is made from fragrant sticky rice, ground into a fine powder, then soaked in sugar and cooking oil. Continue to add grease to the pan, then use a tool to press the sticky rice so that it puffs up nicely. Fried sticky rice is often great when eaten with chicken or spring rolls.
Deep-frying elephant ear fish: Phung islet is also a famous place for giant fish. The giant fish will be fried until golden brown, rolled with rice paper, and dipped in dipping sauce.
Snakehead fish sour soup: another Western specialty dish for you to enjoy. Sour soup uses fresh snakehead fish cooked with a variety of vegetables and bean sprouts. The taste is sweet and sour, very stimulating.
Crispy Vietnamese pancakes: this dish is so famous in Vietnam! The crispy pancakes are usually large in size, moderately fried, filled with meat, shrimp, bean sprouts, etc. When eaten rolled with green vegetables and dipped in fish sauce, it is super delicious.
If you want to have a true trip to explore Vinh Long, fully explore the beauty of this land, don’t forget to contact Vietdreamtravel to receive the most attentive service. We’re offering the best deal on daily tours and package tours to Vinh Long. During our trip, you will not only visit Phung islet but also explore famous tourist attractions such as: Thoi Son islet, Vinh Trang Pagoda.
Source: collected by An
