🇻🇳 Dong Thap: The Largest Flower Village in The Mekong Delta | Vietnam Travel Ep: 27

Welcome to episode 27 of our Mekong Delta scooter trip in Vietnam. If you watched our last episode, then you know we had a blast exploring the temple complex on one of the most beautiful mountaintops in the Mekong Delta. After the fun up here, we are now descending from the mystical mountains to go to the low-lying region of Tôm Tháp, which is also the last province of our trip in the Southwest. In today's episode, we're so excited to show you how we spend almost 4 hours on the scooter traveling under the weather's mercy to finally hit up one of the largest flower markets in the entire country. Here we will go on a hunt. Alright Maddie, why don't we just do a little challenge here? Also, we will immerse ourselves in the deliciousness of a delicacy, the spiciness of the wine, and the happiness of the local lifestyle. And before embarking on all of the fun in this last province, please help support us by liking this video and subscribing to our channel so we can continue bringing you around Vietnam. Now, let's go explore this last province of the Mekong Delta. There we go. Alright, so we just packed everything in this hotel. And now we are going to head to the next province, which is called Tôm Tháp. And Tôm Tháp is also the last province of our Mekong Delta trip in Vietnam. Can you believe it? It has been 28 days since we started this trip, riding 889 kilometers through 12 provinces in the southwest region, scooting through lots of canals and incredibly scenic rice paddies, learning about their interesting local lifestyle and history, and immersing ourselves in various grand architectural and spiritual marvels. This trip has changed our perspective of this region. And now to start our last adventure here, we need to descend from this sacred mountain and take a 4-hour ride to our final destination to experience the beauty of Tôm Tháp. But... Then, before we leave, we have to do one more thing. What is it? Wish for a really nice road, not bumpy or under construction. Wish that the weather is going to be so nice, not too sunny, but it's not raining. Please. Wish, wish, wish. Alright, bye. Bye. Good? We've waited for you forever. I know, right? The other scooter was so slow. So our next destination? Tôm Tháp. And it's going to take us a total of 2 hours and 43 minutes for the distance of 113 kilometers. Now it's almost 1. It's 1 in the afternoon and we're going to be able to be there around 3.41. See you. The moment I saw David looking around, I knew he was looking for a car wash. That makes sense because the road was nasty coming here. While having the scooter washed, this shy little guy came to keep us company. It almost seems like our wish on top of the mountain is coming true. The weather is nice, even though it drizzled a little. We rode for a little bit before spotting this ice cream guy. Thank you. Ice cream. There's like a hint of cinnamon in there somewhere. After the ice cream, we hit up a few other populated areas along the way and couldn't resist the temptation of some interesting snacks. Remember these nuts? We saw these water caltrop nuts before while on a ferry to Tra Vinh. But sadly, we didn't have the chance to try them until now. So this is some kind of like water root. So it grows in the water and then people have to pull it all up in order to pick it and then put the tree back down. How are you supposed to eat them? She cracked it open for us already, so it's really starchy. It's really good. Not only it tastes good, but it smells so good too. You got it? Yeah. A whole piece. Nice. Alright, I stuck the food in my backpack, so now I can just whip out a snack. Around 3.40pm, we arrived at Long Xuyen, the second city of our last province, An Giang. It was a bit surprising as it's reminiscent of how busy Saigon is with bustling markets and crowded roads. And this market is our last stop for snacks. This time, knowing that I always love jackfruit, David went to buy one. Okay, it's now time to buy a jackfruit for Mari. This one is going to be like a wet and sticky jackfruit. Almost a kilo. They're going to cut it open for me. He had to convince them to let him buy it because they only sold in bulk. Sticky. The jackfruit is so good that I want to enjoy every single bit of it. Oh, you dropped it. Back on the road with full bellies, we grew restless to reach our final destination. But first, we have to take this ferry, which is probably the last one in our Mekong Delta trip. After another one hour of riding, we finally arrived in the province of Dong Phap. Here we are. Now we can stop? Yeah. Yeah, no time to rest yet as we still have a long way to go. Covering an area of approximately 3,300 square kilometers and home to a population of 1.7 million, Dong Phap is mostly rural. The bridge we're passing has been a prideful symbol that helps people cross Tien River since it was done in 2018. This primary branch of the Mekong River makes Dong Phap as fertile as any other provinces we pass by. Along with rice or food, this place stands out as one of the top flower-growing regions in Vietnam. Some villages are totally dedicated to growing just flowers, especially lotus. Hence, it is locally referred to as the flower capital of Vietnam. Originally, we planned to reach the city of Cao Lan and go around. But after this coffee break, we decided to make the biggest flower market in the southwest region our new destination. However, this spot is in another city named Sa Dec and it's around 40 minutes away. I remember someone said... And it's going to take us a total of 2 hours and 43 minutes. But now it's around 6 p.m. so we've already been on the scooter for 5 hours. So here's how nature keeps us company with a light show. After arriving in the city, securing a hotel was surprisingly easy. Once settled, our next mission was to hunt down a spot for dinner. It felt like finding a needle in a haystack because in this early-to-bed, early-to-rise city, the nightlife here is practically non-existent. However, we stumbled upon a vibrant restaurant just a short 10-minute scooter ride from a hotel. The owners here were welcoming and recommended their specialty, a map watering chicken hotpot with sour leaves, a local delicacy. And let me tell you, it was amazing. As we indulged in this hotpot delight, we basked in the vibrant and welcoming atmosphere of this restaurant. To top off our night, we were treated to a homemade wine, a great bonus to an already unforgettable dining experience. The next morning, we got out at around 10 a.m. and the sun was beating down. So we had to protect ourselves, hence the get-up. Last night, we didn't get a good look around. But seeing this place right now, we can tell that they live up to the name Flower Village. From our hotel, it only took us 5 minutes to get to our destination today, Sadak Flower Village. Formed in the late 19th century along the romantic banks of Dien River, Sadak Flower Village has grown from a traditional craft village over 100 years old. Initially, only a few households grew flowers here for decorating during Lunar New Year. But as they saw the flowers thriving and blooming beautifully, more and more households started growing them. Eventually, flower cultivation became a main livelihood in one ward and later expanded to other areas in Sadak City. Today, it covers an area of over 500 hectares with more than 2,300 households growing over 2,000 different species of ornamental flowers, making it the largest flower village in the Mekong Delta. Also, with the advent of integration and opportunities to apply advanced science and technology, the gardeners have invested in infrastructure and added many new and rare flower species, giving this place a distinctive character with straight flower beds on land as flowers are grown on high trellises with water underneath. People can walk through, and during flood seasons, they use boats to navigate between the flower beds and take care of them. Driving through this main street, we can't help but feeling giddy to go see their ornamental flowers and rare bonsai trees. However, we both don't know so much about flowers, which will probably make us appreciate the beauty less. So, David came up with a challenge. Alright, Maddy, why don't we just do a little challenge here? Okay, what is it? So, each of us will have to go around and pick beautiful flowers, and then at the end of the day, we have to remember all the names of all the flowers that we picked out. That's the most wonderful one. I mean, remembering the names, that's not very fair because I can't ask the people. You just have to look it up. That's why it's a challenge. Okay. You can't just go around and ask people. Alright, alright, I'll look it up and I'll remember the names. Is the challenge accepted? It's accepted. This way, we can learn about flowers and enjoy them more. But first, we had to find brunch, so we came here for some rice porridge. Whoa, look at this. A little scooter. Can you make it? Ooh, got it. This whole area is basically called a flower village, and throughout this entire road right in front of us, we didn't see any restaurant, just to stop by to have some brunch. Couldn't find any restaurant, like people here don't eat or something. Now, we are going to have brunch, and then after filling our stomach up with some porridge, we're just gonna go on that hunt. I think we're just way too hungry to be picky right now. Alright, so we just finished lunch, and also we ordered two glasses of orange juice, and all of them cost only 60,000 Dong. Alright, that's not bad. Okay, let's go. It's super, super hot and sunny. It's not actually the most ideal time to come out here to venture around this flower village, but I think we gotta do whatever we gotta do. We're going at right around noon right now, so the sun is like blazing hot. Everyone's inside having lunch and trying to cool off, and we're out here wandering around trying to find flowers. So, you are going that way, and I'm going this way. Well, we still have to stay in the same general vicinity. I need your Wi-Fi. I guess he wants to leave me. He wants to run away from me as fast as possible. Look at that whole thing. You see how beautiful that thing is? Man, everything is so green and lush, and guess what? It's gonna be even 10 times or even 100 times better when it's in blooms. Alright, let's just head in here. Nice, beautiful. And they have that whole patch of the same flower. This whole thing right here is not in blooms, while we have some flowers over there. I know from riding around on the scooter, there was a really good place up here. Oh yeah, David and I didn't set a time to meet back. I guess we'll figure it out. Is it flowers? No, they're not. They look like flowers, but the leaves are actually the flowers themselves because they're purple, while the lower ones are green. This whole thing is so good. And this is just how we enjoy the natural beauty of flowers, regardless of how sunny and hot it is. Now my hunt begins after wandering around trying to find something. I'm following David. I don't think he knows yet, but... David, I needed your Wi-Fi and you just ran away from me. I'm not seeing a lot of really colorful flowers yet. This one seems a bit promising. Oh, that's so cute! My first flower! Okay, let's see if I can search this. I hope David is still in... Nope, he's still not in the area. I'm going to just take a photo of it and figure out what it is. We have some yellow and some pink-ish flowers over here. I have no idea what the names in English are. So they just confirmed that I am allowed to be in here walking around and filming. That's awesome. The other question that I asked them is where do I find or where can I find some beautiful flowers and blooms right now? They said not in here, probably walk out there to the main road and just walk along. We'll be able to see a lot of flowers. But I just want to head up here and show you guys real quick of this beautiful flower. I think it's... Based upon the way that all of the stems and leaves look, I think this one is just another breed of lotus or maybe water lilies. But I think in terms of lotus and water lilies, I prefer them to be in pink or purple. Or even red. Right? White? Not my cup of tea. But anyway, they're beautiful in their own way. Somebody's calling my name. Is that you, Marty? Oh, Marty is up there. You need my Wi-Fi? You found your first beautiful flower already? Oh wow, why didn't I see that, man? I thought they were some paper flowers. And by the way, if you don't know what paper flower is, their appearance is just like paper. Oh, that's right. The red paper flowers. I love how we have like the one really delicate petal on the outside. And then on the inside, there's another little white flower. I see. So this is my first flower. So I need Google search to figure out what it is in English. What is that? There's no way I can pronounce that. You can call a confetti flower or Oh, bougainvillea. Bougainvillea. Okay. Bougainvillea? I don't know if I can remember this name. So best of luck, Marty. My first one is the bougainvillea flower. So they come in other colors too. So we have a pinkish one. And then here we have a beautiful yellow color. Hello, bougainvillea. I think it's a little too early for her to pick her first one, you know? But I'm not going to lose to her. Because based upon everything that we saw so far, when we passed by the street, there are so, so many more flowers that are even better than that kind of paper-like flower. It sounds like booger in a way. I like this one. But I'm not sure what it is called in English. Okay, so I'm just going to pick this one because it's bigger. It has multiple flowers and petals inside. So I think compared to the one that Marty found, the one that Marty found is a little more colorful because it's in pink or purple. As opposed to this one being only in plain white and a little yellowish. So I picked my first one, peony. So since I already found my first one, the bougainvillea, I'm looking for another one that I saw along the side of the road. They were these bunched up blue flowers blooming on a tree. Does that ring a bell? That's exactly what I chose earlier. And I found it. This is my second plant. The second flower that I chose was actually a French hydrangea. Yup, the name I looked up earlier was wrong and that made me lose to Marty for one flower. Continuing my quest, I came to this nursery and saw a bunch of interesting and gorgeous plants. So I guess I'm just going to show you around. And look at this plant. We had this plant before in Canada. Marty and I, during our most stressful and depressing time, we decided to buy a plant that looks exactly like this. I think it's the same type. And we were in awe with the way that the stem actually shaped. And if you overwater it, I think part of the roots will rot. So in order to keep this one indoors, you just have to be smart and sometimes bring it into some kind of sunny area of your house. For example, somewhere next to a window or sometimes even outside. But don't try to expose it to a lot of sun because the leaves will die out. I think I just got distracted a little bit because of all of the beautiful and weird or funky looking plants that I saw along the way that I only had my first pick. Where do I go to get two more? Alright, so I spotted an orchid house over here. We have a few downstairs and a few up there. But they don't seem to have a lot of flowers. So let's see. Oh wow, this one is so beautiful. It has a lot of spots just right in the middle. Look at that. Wow, there are so many different kinds here. You see how beautiful orchids are or flowers are in general if they are in that plain white and sprinkled in some purple spots or patches here and there. It looks so beautiful. It looks so eye-catching. But I was to choose one of these orchids and I think I'm going to go for this one. You see the structure, the color, the elegance of the flower. They are all there. I'm just going to google image it. There are about 87 species and the genus is commonly cultivated in the marketplace. So this one is pretty common and it's called Venda. So my second one is Venda. I have found my third flower. So this one is flower number 3 for me. They come in so many different colors here. They come in purple. I see pink and red as well. They are gorgeous and they are on top of a tree which I am in love with. It looks stunning. I've seen shorter ones and I've seen taller ones. But these ones are the perfect height for me because I can see all of them at face level. This one is it for sure. I love the crinkly look of the petals. I am in love with this red one. It is so gorgeous. It's like a ruby color. And my last flower's name is Crepe Myrtle. Not an easy name to remember, is it? Alright, where is Marina? Gotta go find her and just get in close proximity with her. They look like they are flowers themselves. And the colors are pretty diverse here too. We have green, we have purple, we have white, we have yellow. We also have red on the edge of the petals. Yeah, so much for coming to find me. He got carried away when seeing these succulents and cacti. Maddie is a big fan of flowers. Even though she has pollen allergies. But then when she sees something beautiful, she's going to be fully immersed in it. Uh oh, hasn't picked up the phone. Okay, she didn't pick up the phone. Meanwhile, I was way too focused on chasing this butterfly. I don't know where she is right now, but the beauty of all the flowers here really distracts me right now. Sorry Maddie, you come second. The flowers come first, okay? I still have my third flower to pick. Oh wow, I can't believe he said that. You guys should be familiar with what a rose is like. Its beauty is known for love and fidelity. And if someone like a guy gives you this whole thing, you'll probably be in love with that person, right? Hi! Lucky me, I just found him. Come here! Maddie, I thought you were last. Alright, so since Maddie has already chosen her last one, so it's now my time to find my last one. This place would be like the perfect place to come if we were decorating our apartment in Da Nang. Yeah, right? I would literally choose probably one of every plant if I could. But one problem that we have in our new apartment in Da Nang is that it's way too hot and sunny on the balcony. So we don't know if all the plants or if any of the plants here will last in that kind of like bright and sunny and hot environment. Well, I think if we chose the right plants to go on that balcony and watered it at just the perfect time, they would be fine. Because look at it right now, it's so freaking hot. But there's these plants that are literally in direct sunlight. Oh wow, you know what? I like the blue appearance of this flower. But right now, I have to look up the name of this flower because it's part of the challenge. And I think it's going to be very challenging. This is what I picked for my last beautiful flower in this whole flower village. Alright, so I just chose my last one. And we just have to do that last evaluation to see which one of us chose the best flowers. Alright, I can definitely remember these names. The Bukin Via. That one's so unique that I can remember that. What is the first one? Bukin Via. The one that's the confetti flower. Oh my goodness, Maddie, you just pronounced its name wrong. No? No. Bukin Vilia. Okay. Bukin Vilia. French hydrangea. That one's easy. And then crepe... Crepe... Crepe... Crepe... Crepe Myrtle. Myrtle. Crepe Myrtle. Crepe Myrtle. That one's going to be difficult for me. Crepe Myrtle. Crepe Myrtle. Crepe Myrtle. Commit it to memory. You said that it wasn't going to be easy for you to remember. Crepe Myrtle. I thought it would be, but now it's difficult now that I'm saying it. And for mine, the first one is Peony. The second one is Vanda. That beautiful and very commonly grown and sold orchid. And then the last one is... Mirandia. Mirandia. Scandens. Not quite. It's actually called Blue Butterfly Pea, so I was wrong for this one too. And now that we chose our best flowers within this whole flower village, let's go to some of the other corners of this village to see how beautiful it is, okay? Sounds like a good plan. So they have to work on their farm or on their nursery like this all year round expecting for it to be a little more overcrowded and filled with visitors and buyers only on some occasions. I wonder what the occasions are. So the occasions would be very close to the holidays. The reason that I say that it's going to be very close to the holidays is because a lot of buyers from all of the other places in markets, they'll come here and buy in bulk and they're going to go back to their homeland in order to sell flowers to individual buyers. Oh, I see. That makes more sense then. I was wondering why there were so many plants here, but then there's not a lot of visitors, right? So it had me a little bit confused how this is sustained. But now what you say, it makes all the sense. It requires them to do a lot of hard work and manual labor in order to keep this going year round. But they also have to love flowers, love gardening. So that's why I do think that this would be any gardener's paradise coming here being able to make a living off of the flowers you love so much. So with all the beauty of the flowers and the flower village on its own here, we are officially closing our trip to the Southwest region of Vietnam. So how do you like this trip, Maddie? I have loved it. It has been an amazing trip and quite a life-changing one too. I've been enjoying all of the experiences and seeing what Southwest Vietnam has to offer from the people, the food and the places. The thing that stands out to me the most is the kind-heartedness of most of the people that we've met. They have been so genuine in their kindness and their helpfulness throughout our journey. We're going to miss this place a lot, but we're also excited and so giddy right now to venture a little further out after passing Ho Chi Minh City to head to our homeland now, home base now, Da Nang. Because along the way to that city, it's supposed to be so stunning. Absolutely stunning. After you said stunning, I knew you were going to say that. I'm sorry I said that so much during this Southwest trip, but it holds true. It has been absolutely stunning. In the next episode, we'll get back on the road and head to Saigon, where we lived for one year before. But this time, we're going to put ourselves into a tourist's perspective to enjoy and show you why it's always a must-visit destination in Vietnam. Besides the delicious food and notorious traffic, we'll hit up spots to learn about the history and soak in the vibrancy of the nightlife. And if you liked our content so far, then be sure to hit that thumbs up button and subscribe to our channel because you won't want to miss out on our upcoming adventures through the Grand Highlands and gorgeous coast of South Central Vietnam. Thank you for watching and we'll see you in the next episode.