Visit Can Tho's ferry terminal on the morning of April 29th or 30th and you'll realize just how many people in Ho Chi Minh City want a change of scene. Featuring lush or chards and beautiful rivers, the Mekong Delta is popular with both local and foreign visitors, who take boat rides on the Tien and Hau Rivers, taste fresh-picked Cai Mon durians, and listen to the haunting strains of traditional two-stringed instruments. They visit workshops making rice pancakes with sweet coconut milk on Thoi Son Island, Mount Con Phung and Cu Lao Ho Island, the sweet-smelling smoke making their mouths water. They learn how caramel candies are made and feast on coconut sweets. At noon, they sit down beneath shady trees to enjoy local specialties like snakehead hotpots and fish belly sour soup.
Those willing to travel further head to Bac Lieu province, then to Soc Trang, famous for its ancient bat pagoda. Here, traditional music cafes are crowded every night, the customers coming to hear local renditions of cai luong operas made famous by Ut Bach Lan.
While city folk rush to explore the delta during their days off, people from Vietnam's western provinces head for the bright lights of the city. Used to the hot southern sun, they brave the heat of late April and go shopping in Ho Chi Minh City. Those longing for sea air or mountain breezes travel east. Less than two hours' drive from Ho Chi Minh City lays the beach town of Vung Tau, followed by peaceful Long Hai and, further away, the Bao Loc Mountains. Dalat lures visitors with its lakes and flower orchards, and Bao Loc with its famous tea and coffee plantations. Visitors flock to Datanla and Prenn waterfalls, the Valley of Love and misty Tuyen Lam Lake. Although prices for rooms and other tour services in tourist hotspots like Vung Tau, Dalat and Nha Trang jump during public holidays, the tour buses keep coming.
To celebrate the holidays, Hanoians head to Sapa or Tam Dao, or fly to the south or center. Increasing numbers are flying overseas. Even people from central Vietnam have gotten the travel bug. Tours departing from Hue or Danang to destinations like Hong Kong and Cambodia are commonplace. During the April 30th holiday, stroll around the Great Wall in Beijing, Angkor Wat in Siem Riep, or the Royal Palace in Bangkok and you're sure to hear some Vietnamese being spoken. Thailand is such a popular destination for Vietnamese visitors that Vietnamese songs are even included in the fixed repertoire of some music shows in Bangkok and Pattaya, along with songs in English, Thai and Japanese. Needless to say, Vietnamese tourists are delighted to hear a Thai performer sing “How Beautiful Saigon Is”.
For those who can afford a holiday, it's hard to decide where to go. The chilly peaks of Sapa or the beaches of Nha Trang? A plate of Beijing roasts duck or some fresh-caught Phu Quoc squid? Ultimately, whichever direction you choose, you're sure to experience something new. As the fourth century holy man St. Augustine said: "The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.
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