Ben Tre is featured with a plain geography, which isscattered around by sand dunes and adorned by rice fields, fruit plantgardens, and numerous rivers and streams, canals and arroyos. The fourTien Giang river branches, including My Tho, Ba Lai, Ham Luong and CoChieu rivers, split Ben Tre into 3 islands of Minh, Bao, and An Hoa.All contribute to an ecological system of rivers, canals, arroyos andgreen trees, facilitating transportation, hydro-electricity, and moreimportantly, ecological tourism potential.

Climate

Asa typical tropical area, Ben Tre lies in the monsoon tropical climatewith two seasons: rainy season from May till October, and dry seasonfrom November till April. The annual average temperature is 26^oC-27^oC.The average rainfall is 1,250-1,500mm/year. It is the favorable naturalconditions that help Ben Tre gain such a pure and green ecologicalenvironment.

Formation

BenTre used to be part of Hoang Tran palace, in Hoang Tran town, southernVietnam, which was set up in 1803, and renamed into Vinh Tran in thefollowing year. In 1832, King Minh Mang enlarged and split the towninto two provinces, An Giang and Vinh Long. The latter comprised 3districts Hoang An (or Hoang Tri) (today’s Ben Tre), Dinh Vien (today’sVinh Long), and Lac Hoa (today’s Tra Vinh). Ben Tre was then the“arrondissement administratif” (important administrative county) ofVinh Long province. During the French occupying period, the districts(counties) were to be turned into provinces according to the Decree No.20/12/1899 by the Governor-General of Indochina. A part of Vinh Long,particularly Hoang An District, became the naturally favored Ben TreProvince of today.

What is it famous for?

Historical value

Oneof the attractive points to tourists is Ben Tre’s historical values.During the severe wars against foreign invaders, Ben Tre was regardedas the “General Uprising Land”, which initialized the armed patrioticstruggle high tide against Ngo Dinh Diem puppet regime by SouthernVietnam’s Liberation Front. The war became most fierce in 1960.Regardless of genders, ages, and occupations, thousands of Ben Trepeople arose, fight and heroically died for their homeland liberation.Drawn by Ben Tre locals, people in Sa Dec, Vinh Long, Tra Vinh andelsewhere together violently arose. Thanks to the very Vietnameseheroic spirit like in Ben Tre, finally we have a peaceful Vietnam oftoday. A heroic and historical Ben Tre is actually worth a visit byboth inbound and outbound tourists.

The green ecological complex

Ifyou could look through your airplane’s window down to Ben Tre, youwould feel like it were some heaven’s green land! Covering the wholeland is the color of green, green, and green trees adorned with purerivers meaderring in between rows of trees. When seen from above, theserivers look like huge tortuous gentle snakes, which probably stimulatesyour curiosity For concrete understanding, Ben Tre is theconvergence of three huge islands, An Hoa, Bao, and Minh, who owedtheir division from the four significant rivers: Tien Giang, Ba Lai,Ham Luong, and Co Chien. Besides so many rivers & canals, theprovince is favored by nature in terms of a plentiful fauna-florasystem, and a pristine series of all-the-year-round green tropicalfruits gardens (hick towns). All these excellent natural elements leadto a fresh-aired environment of large green coconut & fruitsgardens, and an ecological system, enchanting a huge number oftourists, especially foreign ones. 

Tropical Fruits & Food

Religious life

Asin other areas of Vietnam, Ben Tre’s Buddhism has also much improved.Famous pagodas in the region are Hoi Ton, Tuyen Linh, and Vien Minh.All of those have a long history of around 3 centuries, and are amongstthe worthy destinations for those who are interested in religion,besides ecological tours.

Festivals

Festivalsin Ben Tre contain all the seaside villages’ festive features. The twomost important ones are Phu Le and Nghinh Ong festivals. Phu Le is atemple in Ba Tri district, organizing festivals twice per year to prayfor favorable weather and fruitful crops. Wheareas the latter is heldannually for fishermen to gather and amuse themselves through a seriesof ceremonies, entertainment, and feats activities. If luckily arrivedon these occasions, you would be enchanted by the cosy world of peoplein waterway & riverside area.

How to get there?

BenTre is only 14 and 85 kilometers far from My Tho and Ho Chi Minh Cityrespectively. What make most tourists feel excited is that they cantake a ferry-boat from My Tho to Ben Tre. For a local journey, you mayhire a high-speed ship at a very reasonable price.

Tourist activities

• PhungIslet or Ong Dao Dua Islet (Cồn Phụng or Cồn Ông Đạo Dừa): numerousoriginal architectural works, and craft villages (producing coconutproducts and honey
• Snail Islet or Hung Phong Islet (Cồn Ốc or Cồn Hưng Phong): a lot of coconut and fruits gardens
• Fairy Islet (Cồn Tiên): a beautiful sand bank, the ideal annual recreation place of many locals
• VamHo Bird ground (Sân chim Vàm Hồ): shelter of nearly half a millionsorks and night herons, and other wild species, date-palm jungle, and aplentiful flora (incld. water coconut, custard-apple, guava, Frenchbeans, date-palm, sea water morning glory, etc.)
• CaiMon Fruits Garden (Vườn cây ăn trái Cái Mơn): the cradle of Southernfruits, containing a number of tropical fruit kinds (sweet mango,durian, rambuton, longan, mangosteen, etc.), and many animal-shapedplants
• Dai Dien ancient House (Nhà cổ Đại Điền): a famous beautiful old house of the Huynh, remaining in its origin