The atmosphere here is very quiet and fresh,” said Tran Kim Dinh, a resident of Can Tho’s Ninh Kieu District, while visiting the Phu Sa Tourist Area located on Au Island in the Hau River.
A boat trip to the island, located in the Mekong Delta area, from Ninh Kieu Quay takes around 10 minutes. Upon arriving, you will be delighted to find an absence of factories and traffic jams. The air is clear and you can enjoy the shade available from huge old cypress trees. Although it is a tourist area, Phu Sa is not typical; there are no tramcars or bustling crowds.
Aiming to create a biographic area, the investors intentionally included only a few statues of water buffalo and people under areca trees. The rest is relatively untouched nature. At a one-hectare lake you can buy a VND3,000 ticket to fish crocodiles, or try water skiing. At Hau River you can enjoy kayaking, riding motor canoes or simply swimming.
The atmosphere was created for those hoping to find respite from the hectic city lifestyle. You can walk down a 1,325-meter-long road which passes through a 30-hectare primitive cypress forest with only the songs of birds disrupting the silence of the area. Small canals in the forest can also be traveled by boat. The cypress forests make up the largest portion of the tourist area.
Since it is still new, Phu Sa has 14 guest rooms and some stilted houses along the Hau River for those who wish to stay in the natural surroundings.
The area is especially pleasant on the occasion of full-moon nights (the first and 15th day of every lunar month), when you can relax on boats and enjoy the beautiful moon while sipping tea.
During the day the island’s expansive grass fields are ideal for camping or a picnic.
A nearby restaurant can accommodate 300 diners. It serves many specialties of the Mekong Delta, such as ca bong kho kho (goby cooked with brine), catfish hotpot cooked with cypress, ca loc nuong trui (a kind of baked fresh water fish), lau mam (fish sauce hotpot), and more. At the simulated floating market you can enjoy hu tieu (noodles with seasoned and sauteed beef) and che (grass jelly and bean dessert).
“In the future, tourists sitting here will be able to see Can Tho Bridge, the biggest one in the region, being built across Au Island,” said Ho Tan Loi, deputy director of Hoa Binh Hotel, under the umbrella of CATACO (the company managing the tourist area).
CATACO has invested more than VND20 billion in Phu Sa. However, this is only the first step. Loi said the company plans to carry out the project’s second phase.