Vietnam Landmarks

Mekong Delta

Welcome to Vietnam’s rice chamber:

Vietnam has been enjoying growing popularity with Asian and long-distance travelers for several years. Anyone visiting the country with its fascinating history and wildlife should definitely not miss the Mekong Delta.

Under the Mekong:

A region in the southwest of the country that is shaped by the Mekong and its river arms. A veritable network of canals and a river system that flows into the South China Sea.
Vacationers and study travelers admire the extensive and unspoilt mangrove swamps, whereas the delta is also used for agriculture by the local population. This is where the country’s rice chamber is located and tons of rice are harvested in up to three harvests (!) A year.

There is a lot of activity here!

A colorful picture and lively hustle and bustle, which is particularly interesting for photographers and study travelers. Because rice, but also vegetables and fruits are still traded here on the waterways. Melons and other delicacies can be found in passing. A boat tour on the Mekong becomes an impressive experience in which the memory card of the camera is pushed to its limits.
Because here, in the delta, the primeval Vietnam can be experienced. Especially when you are on guided tours with guides. In any case, individual and backpacking trips are not recommended in the region with its poisonous snakes. Here it makes a lot more sense to explore the country’s lifeline with its rice fields, sugar cane plantations and evergreen palm trees with knowledgeable guides on the occasion of a study trip.

From the mangrove swamp to the sandy beach?

Because the local guides and tour guides know the exotic flora and fauna of the mangroves inside out and also know where sandy beaches are ideal for swimming. In fact, the delta is extremely diverse, offers culturally interested old pagodas and insights into the history of the country, knows how to inspire nature and plant lovers, but can also be used for a “normal” beach holiday: Mekong Delta, we are coming!

Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park

Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park

The Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park is located around 500 km south of the capital Hanoi in the Quảng Bình province in north-central Vietnam. The area borders on Laos and includes parts of the Annamten karst mountains and the Son River. The national park has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2003. It has an area of ​​860 km² and is home to an extraordinarily diverse flora and fauna as well as huge networks of caves in one of the last untouched forest areas in Asia. Biologists and geologists and cave experts come regularly to study trips to the national park.

Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng is still outside the well-known tourist routes. Mainly inland visitors take train journeys of 10-24 hours to get to the municipality of Sơn Trạch, where the visitor center of the national park is located. There the guided day tours to the caves, boat tours on the river and bike tours through the rice fields in the immediate vicinity start. Since the region’s roads are often flooded in the rainy season, a visit to the Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park is recommended during the dry season between December and April.

Cave tour in Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng

The national park is mainly characterized by fantastic caves that are hidden in a unique and unspoilt landscape. The park was named after the
18 km long and up to 83 m high Phong Nha Cave, which can only be reached by boat across the Son River.

The Thiên-Đường Cave is also called Paradiese Cave because of its variety of colors. It has only been open to visitors for a few years. Over a length of around 30 km, this cave offers fantastic photo opportunities and unique geological formations.

A special multi-day trekking tour – accompanied by cave experts and staff – leads deep into the rainforest to the Sơn-Đoòng Cave, the world’s largest cave discovered to date has only been explored since 2009. A unique rainforest oasis has formed in a 250 m high rock dome of the approximately 9 km long cave. Only a few tickets are issued for these tours.

Golden Bridge of the Ba Na Hills

An attraction of Vietnam: The Golden Bridge of the Ba Na Hills

Vietnam has one more tourist attraction. In June 2018, the Cau-Vang was opened in the central Ba Na Hills. Since then, the spectacular structure has amazed visitors from all over the world, because the Golden Bridge is held by two oversized hands as if by magic. They are the visual highlight of a popular holiday resort that can be reached by cable car.

At an altitude of 1,400 meters

Cau Vang is the Vietnamese name for “gold bridge” and if you look at it from a certain distance, you might think that the setting was borrowed from a science fiction film. The pedestrian bridge is located at a height of 1,400 meters and provides a magnificent view of the jungle below and the adjacent mountains. The visitor gets the impression that a giant is holding the construction with his bulky hands.

Mesh made of steel and fiberglass

The hands of the “giant” consist of a mesh of reinforced concrete and fiberglass and were designed as if the ravages of time were already gnawing at them and covering them with patina and lichen. The bridge rests next to the hands on some green pillars, each branching out into girders that support the construction. The underside of the 150-meter-long construction appears in golden colors, which is what earned it its name.

“We wanted a walkway to heaven”

The resort of Ba Na Hills looks back on a certain tradition, as it was completed in 1919. Of the once around two hundred villas in the village in the mountains, only ruins remain. The main attractions today are a Fantasy Park and a “French Village”. The cable car leading to the bridge was, at 5.8 kilometers, the longest in the world. At the inauguration of the Golden Bridge, Vu Viet Anh, the architect in charge, said: “We wanted to create a walkway to heaven in the fairy-tale and misty world of the mountains.”

Vietnam Landmarks