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My Tho is the capital city and municipality of the Tiền Giang Province in the Mekong Delta region of southern Vietnam. It has a population of approximately 160,000.
It is a popular starting point for tourists to take a boat trip on the Mekong River.
Taking a boat trip on the Mekong is the undoubted highlight of a stay in My Tho, and most people come straight in and out on organized day-trips from Ho Chi Minh City. If you plan to charter a boat by yourself, it's important to know first what your priorities are. There are four nearby islands: Tan Long Island, Thoi Son Island, Phung Island and Qui Island. All are regularly visited by boats, though you'll get more time on the water if you ask to explore the north coastline of Ben Tre Province, or just idle along the river.
The cheapest way of getting onto the water is to travel by public ferry to one of the islands: those to Tan Long leave from the eastern tour boat jetty; Thoi Son ferries leave from another jetty further west along 30 Thang 4; boats to Phung and Qui Islands use the Ben Tre Ferry Terminal, so you first need to take a public ferry from My Tho across to Ben Tre.
BEN TRE, located at the end-stream of Mekong River, is one of the 13 provinces that make up the Mekong Delta. It faces the South China Sea and provinces such as Tien Giang, Tra Vinh, and Vinh Long. The Province's central point is 86 kilometres from Ho Chi Minh City- one of the largest cities in the country - by road to the North-East. That is, travellers from Ho Chi Minh City should ride (bus or motorbike) Southwest through Long An and Tien Giang provinces before arriving in Ben Tre. The Province's main rivers are Tien, Ba Lai, Ham Luong and Co Chien Rivers, depositing and enriching the soil with layers of alluvium for centuries, and cutting it into three large islets: An Hoa, Bao, and Minh. You can see on the map the land spread into a pie shape, with its peak at the upstream, and the River's branches like the pokes of a big hand-shaped pie spreading out to the East. The Province has a natural land area of 2,315 square kilometres and a population of 1.4 million. It has a flat terrain, with sand elevations intermittantly intermingling with orchards, coconut woods and rice fields. There are almost no woodlands here, and the main land is surrounded with rivers and sea waters.
Here are the details of some programs in My Tho and Ben Tre:
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