Tra Su Melaleuca Forest Travel Guide 2023 from A-Z: Moving, eating, visiting, latest specialties

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Tra Su Melaleuca Forest Travel Guide 2023 from A-Z: Moving, eating, visiting, latest specialties

Tra Su is a Melaleuca forest and eco-tourism area formed in 1983, nearly 850 hectares wide, located in Van Giao commune, Tinh Bien district. This is a typical flooded forest of the Hau River region, which has an important effect on the water environment and climate regulation for the entire Bay Nui region. The forest is also home to many precious species of animals and plants belonging to Vietnam’s special-use forest system.

Coming here, the most noticeable thing is that visitors will be immersed in nature, not only attracted by the green space with shady cajuput forests, but also have close contact with a series of birds and wild animals. rare wild. This is a place developed to become a conservation area for many classes of tropical creatures living in the Southwest region.

The core of Tra Su Melaleuca forest viewed from above. Photo: *Trasu Tourist Area*

Local people will use boats to take tourists deep into the cajuput forest. Sitting on the boat, you will see birds perching on tree trunks and many colorful lotus varieties. If you like, you can ask the boatman to stop to clearly feel the quiet space and capture moments of nature.

Tra Su cajuput forest is the setting for the movie Southern Forest Land directed by Nguyen Quang Dung, which just premiered in Vietnam.

Beautiful season

The flood season, from September to November every year, is considered the best time to experience the beauty of the Melaleuca forest. The pouring water makes the forest green, combined with layers of duckweed covering the water surface, creating a beautiful scene. The floating water season also creates favorable conditions for the growth of fish and shrimp species and is an attractive destination for many bird species.

Move

Spend a day at Tra Su Melaleuca forest to enjoy all the spaces in the forest, and eat lunch with Western specialties.

For convenient travel, visitors should stay overnight in Chau Doc city, depart for the Melaleuca forest in the morning, and stay until the afternoon. Tra Su cajuput forest is located about 30 km from Chau Doc city, travel time is 30 to 40 minutes by car or motorbike, the road is convenient.

The best time of day to explore Melaleuca forest is early morning or sunset. Around 3-5 p.m., many kinds of birds and storks gather in the forest, creating a beautiful natural scene.

Sightseeing tickets

Sightseeing ticket includes the entire Melaleuca forest and enjoying the longest bamboo bridge in Vietnam: 100,000 VND per person. This is a mandatory ticket to enter the forest, free for children under 1m3 and people over 70 years old.

Boat service ticket (motorboat): 50,000 VND per person

Rowing boat service ticket (3-4 people per boat): 50,000 VND per person

Tours and partner groups will have their own preferential prices, please contact the resort in advance.

Entrance ticket to Tra Su cajuput forest. Photo: *Linh Huong*

What play

The longest bamboo bridge in Vietnam

The bamboo bridge through Tra Su Melaleuca forest is recognized by the Vietnam Record Organization as the longest in Vietnam, with a total length of 10 km and a construction cost of over 10 billion VND. However, the new bridge completed phase 1 and was put into operation in early 2020 with a length of nearly 4 km. The bridge section that was inaugurated used over 500,000 bamboo trees of all kinds and the construction cost was more than 5 billion VND. Phase 2 with a length of about 6 km is under construction.

Along the bamboo bridge route is divided into 5 branches with a rest hut design at each branch. The deeper you go, the more beautiful the scenery on both sides of the bridge becomes, the space is quiet and cool. The bridge leads to the motorboat wharf, where visitors can get on and off to change their route.

Part of the bamboo bridge of the Melaleuca forest viewed from above. Photo: *Trasu Tourist Area*

Visit the forest by motorboat or canoe

From the wharf, visitors can choose a motorboat or dinghy. Motorboats will travel at high speed and farther. Visitors will experience a journey through canals and straight into the heart of the Melaleuca forest. Along the way, you can observe local people harvesting cajuput honey from containers placed in the forest. This is an opportunity to relax, enjoy the beautiful scenery, and the lives of the people here.

Visiting the Melaleuca forest by motorboat or dinghy is also an opportunity for visitors to take beautiful photos amid the green space and duckweed covering the water surface. If you’re lucky enough to go on a sunny day, the rays of sunlight shining through the trees will make the space magical.

Tourists visit the forest by motorboat. Photo: *Linh Trang*

Lookout tower

If you want to have a more comprehensive view of the Melaleuca forest, you should visit the lookout tower and use a telescope. With a view of 25 km, visitors can see the entire melaleuca forest, birds flying, or nesting in the trees. From here, you can also see the Khmer village living a few kilometers away.

Pigeon yard

Right near the entrance, from the main ticket office area, across the Tra Su canal, visitors can see pigeon houses. There are about 400 birds raised in the forest here, so it is called “Pigeon City”. The bird sanctuary scene is quite romantic, visitors can take check-in photos, take wedding photos, feed the birds and many other activities.

Souvenir shop

In Tra Su Melaleuca forest, there are 12 stalls selling souvenirs and local specialties such as palm sugar, cajuput honey, dried fruits of all kinds, soft drinks, cajuput oil, brocade towels, duck-ear hats, straw hats, art furniture…

Eat what

Tra Su Restaurant has two main areas for dining: along the outside of the forest gate, on both sides of the pier and the hut area floating on the water inside the forest (adjacent to the lookout tower). At these dining spots, visitors will enjoy Western specialties such as grilled snakehead fish, Linh Dien dien fish hotpot (flooding season is also fish season), fish sauce hotpot, coconut tofu salad, and banh xeo. …