Located away from the center of Saigon City more than 50 km to the south, Can Gio Mangrove Forest is one of the most ideal eco-tourism destinations for many tourists. From a vast devastated area in the war, nowadays, this forest is highly regarded as one of the most beautiful forest in the Southeast Asia and is recognized by UNESCO as the World Biosphere Reserve.
People often call this forest as a “green lung of Saigon” thanks to its 80,000 ha and full of wildlife, with over 200 species of faunas and 52 floras. This huge mass of green is so close to the centre of Ho Chi Minh City that helps to clean the air of the city, and protect against coastal erosion and storms coming in from the sea.
The mangrove forest in Can Gio was originally over 2000 years old, and so dense that the interior was cold, foggy and dark, and full of dangerous animals such as tigers and crocodiles. During the American war, the mangroves were a dense hiding place from which to launch attacks on the city, which both the Vietnamese and Americans found extremely difficult to penetrate or patrol. Sadly, this leads to the Americans, in their attempt to maintain control, dropped a huge amount of chemical defoliant or dioxins on the whole area and significantly damaged the mangrove forest.
It takes so long time for the mangrove forest to be recovered thanks to great efforts of the government, international law as well as local people in attracting the wildlife that fled away from the area in the past. Among them are monkeys, which are now, gathering most in the Monkey Island. The “Monkey Island”, as it name, contains more than 1,000 monkeys from many species. They are very clever, funny and alike childish to the tourists. You would have great time to feed and take sweet photos with many monkeys surrounding and climbing on our shoulders. However, please take care of your personal jewelries or properties in front of several naughty monkeys that like snatching things from tourists.
Another attractive destination is the Vam Sat Ecological Tourist Zone, where you would have great opportunities to visit huge alligator farms, study the hunting habit of the alligator and especially challenge yourself in an adventurous game (optional) named “Fishing alligators”. It looks dangerous at first but it is very safe after all. To take part in this interesting game, you will sit on a firm composit-made boat that is fully-protected by B40 trellis surrounding and drop the prey to hunt hungry alligators deep under the water. When the alligator bite the prey, let’s pull back the fishing rod or drag the alligator along the boat to experience the feeling of hunting a real alligator. Besides, you can explore the giant Bat Lagoon by rowing boat or visit the natural Bird Sanctuary in Vam Sat with area of more than 100 ha. With tele-observing from the observatory, you can see lots of birds, their nests, their eggs, etc…Especially at sunset, the image of hundreds of birds flying back to their nest looks really like a vivid picture.
Moreover, you can take canoe to go to Rung Sac Guerrilla Base in the mangrove forest on canoe (schedule depends on tides) to go along the waterway, which stationed from the period of 1966 -1975 and used to be an important base camp to set up over 1,000 combats to Saigon. Beside the memorial statue, there are some houses used as the guerrilla headquarter, guest house, military supply area, small arm workshop, and information center about Rung Sac Guerrilla.
And finally, on your drive back to Saigon, do not forget to visit the Whale’s royal tomb in the Can Gio market. The tomb reserves a giant 17 meter long skeleton of whale. Each year, the local people organize the Whale Worship Festival on August 15 in lunar calendar.
For such impressive attracting points, Can Gio Mangrove Forest is a wonderful escape from the bustle and pollution of Ho Chi Minh City, ideal for reconnecting with nature, relaxed exploration and wildlife-spotting.
