Gao Giong Ecotourist Park

Gao Giong Ecotourist Park

At Gao Giong Ecotourist Park in Dong Thap Province, tourists can try rowing their own sampan boat   Part of a cajuput forest and stretching nearly 1,700 hectares, Gao Giong Ecotourist Park is among the largest tourist sites in southern Dong Thap Province.

It is situated about 20 kilometers from Cao Lanh Town along National Highway 30.

The park, established in the 1980s, is an area of natural beauty and tranquillity. Upon arriving, visitors are invited to enter a traditional thatched house which can receive up to 100 people. Most of the interior furniture is made of eucalyptus wood and guests are treated to a delicious cup of lotus seed tea while watching a documentary film about the park.

Gao Giong Ecotourist Park offers visitors the chance to relax in hammocks under the shade of cajuput trees or to catch fish from nearby canals. Tourists can also take a quiet stroll through the forest or climb a watchtower standing 18 meters tall for a spectacular panoramic view of the area.

Boat trips are also available in a sampan, a type of rowboat. Guided sampan tours last around 45 minutes accompanied by a female guide wearing a traditional ao ba ba (a type of blouse), a neckerchief and a conical palm hat as is typical in the Mekong Delta. Tourists can try rowing the boat themselves and can have their picture taken.

Each year, Gao Giong Ecotourist Park becomes a green oasis from August until October when the Mekong River floods the region. People visiting the park at this time will experience this unique weather and have an opportunity to enjoy specialties such as ca linh (a species of freshwater fish from Cambodia�s Tonle Sap Lake) and bong dien dien (a type of wild flower).

Gao Giong Ecotourist Park can be reached via National Highway 30 or by taking a boat along the river. Visitors taking the water route must first contact the tourist park before taking a boat from Phong My Bridge in Cao Lanh District�s Phong My Commune.

For road travelers, take National Highway 30 to My Tan Market in My Tan Commune (Cao Lanh Town). Cross a cement bridge over Nguyen Van Tiep Canal and travel for 15 minutes to reach the tourist park.

source : http://www.mekong-pancruise.com/scenic_landscapes/Ecotourist_Sites/Gao_Giong_Ecotourist_Park.html

Tram Chim National Park

The Park covers Communes of Phu Duc, Phu Hiep, Phu Tho, Tan Cong Sinh in Tam Nong District, Dong Thap Province, about 800m from Tram Chim Small Town.

The Park is in the lowest area of the Mekong River water logged plain submerged and in the centre of Dong Thap Muoi. With a system of swamps, grass-plots and criss-crossing canals, the 7,612 ha Tram Chim National Park has become an ideal habitat of more than 130 species of plants, 100 vertebrates, 40 species of fish, 147 rare and precious species of birds, especially the red-head cranes. Hence, it is also an ideal place for scientists to research into the life of migratory birds.

A corner of Tram Chim National Park.

In 1985 when red-head cranes appeared in Tram Chim National Park, scientists held a workshop in China to find out measures to preserve them and develop Tram Chim National Park in Tam Nong Natural Site into a typical cultural and ecological tourist area in Southeast Asia.

Red-headed cranes in Tram Chim.

Since then, many international organizations have participated in researching into red-head cranes in Tram Chim, including the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resource (IUCN) and others.

In February 1994, Tram Chim officially became the national nature conserve zone under the Prime Minister’s decision, where the State invested more than VND 4 billion, the Bhrem Fund of Germany granted US$15,000, and the UK and Danish Embassy donated US$ 60,000 to the protection of the “Red-head cranes’ house” and the improvement of Tram Chim’s buffer zone.

Sunset in Tram Chim.

In 1995, ICF wanted to conduct surveys on the breeding sites of red-head cranes and in March 1998 scientists began putting electronic tracking rings worth US$10,000 on cranes to observe their migration and reproduction. The activity was funded by the Japanese Government with the participation of American, Japanese and Vietnamese scientists. The signals received from red-head cranes provide good information for scientists to research into the red-head cranes’ migration and reproduction.

The Park has a forest of Cajuput and hearth of many kind of birds with specific floristic composition: cajeput, reeds, lotus, water lily, ghost rice; plentiful fauna: python, turtles, eels, snakes, fresh-water fishes, and water bird as storks, herons, spot-billed ducks, water chicken, especially red-headed, bare-necked cranes coming in dry season each year.

A picture of the Melaleuca forest in Tram Chim National Park Province

From January to May each year, when sky is clear, visitors will see from the horizon many black spot coming. It is crane flock returning after months of emigrating to evade flood. This is also the season, when tourists come to Tram Chim for seeing, photographing cranes in the dawn and sunset.

Tram Chim - a reduced model of Dong Thap Muoi - with natural history of collective ecology of geomorphology, hydrography and underwater creatures, is an ideal rendezvous place of tourists from all over the world.

Rol.vn - Source: Waytovietnam
Photo: Internet