Ben Tre is an alluvial terrain with a large number of islands, each with its own beauty and distinctive resources. It makes mentioning the Turtle Islet difficult (Con Quy). Visitors are drawn to Quy Island because it has maintained its untamed nature up to this point and has several perennial fruit gardens that are planted in rows, making it both cool and picturesque.
The Mekong River Delta’s Turtle Island, also known as “Con Quy,” is a popular tourist destination. It has the name of one of four mascots that can make people wealthy and happy. The island is renowned for other things as well, like its unspoiled natural beauty, wonderful cuisine, and pleasant weather.
Con Quy (Turtle Island), the smallest of My Tho City’s four islands, is fairly awash in tropical fruits, including papaya, bananas, and dragon fruits. From the beginning, it was a wilderness without any buildings, but in 1950, the first founder built a small temple on the island. People from the neighborhood came here to work as a result.
One of four islands located in My Tho City’s Mekong River is Turtle Island. In Vietnam, the word “turtle” represents joy and fortune. Con Phung Island is also known as Phoenix Island, Con Quy Island as Turtle Island, Con Long as Dragon Island, and Thoi Son as Unicorn Island.
The distance by water from Ben Tre City is 22 kilometers, and it is shared by two communes (Tan Thanh and Quoi Son in Chau Thanh District).
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General Information about Turtle Islet (Con Quy) in Ben Tre
- How long to spend there: 1.5 hours
- Where: between Tan Thach and Quoi Son communes, Chau Thanh district, Ben Tre province.
- Must to Know: One of the things that probably everyone wishes to do once in their lives is sitting in boats floating along a river while admiring the lush, green, and tranquil trees. One place that sticks out in your memory after leaving Ben Tre is unquestionably The Turtle Islet (Con Quy).
- What to see around? Looking for places to stop on your journey to or from Con Quy? Thoi Son Island (11 km), Cho Lach Flower Village (34 km), Ben Tre Coconut Candy (2 km), Ben Tre City (14 km), Son Doc Rice Paper Village (55 minutes), Ben Tre Brick Factory (15 km).
Turtle Islet (Con Quy) in Ben Tre
Travel Guide to Turtle Islet (Con Quy) in Ben Tre
About 23 kilometers from Ben Tre’s city center, Turtle Islet (Con Quy) is a popular tourist destination. To get there, you may charter a cruise ship and travel 30 minutes down the Tien River. Visitors that go to Ben Tre and arrive in Con Quy will take in the fresh air, observe the typical beauty of the river and garden, and listen to fervent folk music.
Con Quy, sometimes referred to as Sand Dunes, is one of the Tien River’s “four dunes.” The Ben Tre province’s Con Quy dunes are the smallest, with a natural area of roughly 65 hectares. Locals claim that the three Long, Lan, and Phung islets, which are among the four well-known “Tu Linh” dunes of Western tourism, have a long shape, while the Quy islet has a round shape (like a turtle). whereas Long and Lan’s islands are found in Tien Giang province, and Quy and Phung islets are found in Ben Tre province. The name “dune” or “islet” is sometimes used to describe the middle beach, a strip of land created in the center of a big river by the process of long-term alluvial accretion, in various parts of Vietnam, most frequently in the South.
Visitors to Con Quy are drawn by its untamed beauty and lack of human influence. From a distance, Con Quy appears to be a floating island in the midst of a river; it is home to a Protestant church where people go to worship.
To welcome visitors, locals first only constructed modest, small-scale dwellings out of bamboo leaves. After thereafter, when it became clear that there was room for tourism growth, they constructed the Thuy Ta riverfront restaurant, which can host hundreds of visitors. Since then, the level of service has also increased.
History of Turtle Island
Hundreds of years ago, Con Quy was founded. Initially, this was only a little floating island in the river, covered in thick vegetation created by river alluvium, but it progressively increased. After that, occasionally in the 1950s and 1960s, individuals went to start a company and discovered the land… Ba Chua Xu Temple, constructed by the pioneers who recovered the land, is what is still visible at the crest of the dune (upstream direction). The dune was originally around 60 hectares broad, but due to poor farmers’ efforts to maintain the land and alluvium accretion, it eventually became the area that it is now. Con Quy began reclaiming and funding tourism development in the 1960s.
The history in details
For more than a century, the island was built. Long ago, the area was a small, empty patch of ground covered with several bushy vegetation.
Then, it was first utilized in 1950 till Mr. Pham Cao Thang arrived to become the first person to examine this region. He grew a large number of Sonneratia trees to prevent soil erosion. As time goes by, Turtle Island grows bigger.
As a result, an increasing number of individuals are moving here to live and work. You may visit the Ba Chua Xu temple here, a wonderful attraction for those interested in discovering more of Vietnam’s undiscovered natural beauty. A complete levee construction was owned by the island’s garden in 1990.
Today, thanks to that, there are no floods in the gardens during rainy seasons. The main sources of income for everyone who lives here are farming, gardening, and the production of coconut candy, a delectable delicacy. Recently, people have also started to make money through husbandry, such as keeping wild pigs and bees for honey.
What to Do –See at Turtle Islet (Con Quy)
Without a doubt, Turtle Island rises to the top of Ben Tre’s tourist hotspots when it offers as many exciting activities as the following:
- Visiting the lush orchards on the island
- Sitting on the sampans and cruising through the water coconut trees along the canals
- Meeting and chat up with local women who wear the traditional costume “ao ba ba”
- Enjoying some traditional folk music shows, like “don ca tai tu”
- Tasting fresh tropical fruits in the orchards
The pomelo, orange, longan, rambutan, banana, coconut, mango, and To Nu jackfruit are among the fruits you may see when visiting Turtle Island (Con Quy). Along with growing fruit orchards, residents in this region also cultivate beekeeping, which produces honey with a special flavor since the honey bees are obtained from longan flowers.
When visiting the dunes, guests can dress up as farmers and take part in activities like “slapping ditches to capture fish,” “crawling for crabs, capturing snails,” etc. to experience the ideal rural life.
Visitors may unwind in hammocks that wave in the breeze under the trees around lunchtime. Visitors can also plan camping picnics with a variety of exciting activities. With green coconut palms on either side and little, zigzagging canals, visitors boat in the evening with locals, which is a particularly appealing way to view fireflies at night.
Coconut candy manufacture and crafts created from coconuts are an integral part of the locals’ daily lives. Visitors will be able to learn how to manufacture coconut candy, see how products produced from coconut are made directly and select some coconut candy or other items for themselves as keepsakes.
Turtle Island, also known as “Con Quy” or the “New Land,” still retains much of its natural beauty, including the lovely white live sonneratia flowers, the lush coconut trees, and the simple cottages amid the orchards. Visitors may enjoy “don ca tai tu” and stop by the orchards after setting foot in this area. They can also learn about the native food in Ben Tre.
You can feel the island’s amazing liveliness and natural sense of coolness. Let’s take a boat along the peaceful river to some of the top tourist destinations, such as Turtle Island, Hong Van, and New Turtle Islet.
Don’t forget to sample tropical fruits in the gardens, sip honey tea, and listen to don ca tai tu, one of the most well-known types of Vietnamese folk music. It is also acknowledged by UNESCO as a part of the intangible cultural heritage. The most wonderful thing to encounter in this marsh is unquestionably the sort of traditional music that has been here for years.
More than that, visiting coconut handcraft communities and factories that make coconut candies may be a great experience. It is up to you to choose a thoughtful present for your friends and family after visiting Ben Tre as you have the opportunity to examine such a large variety of items. Undoubtedly, there are still a ton of fascinating sights that are just waiting to be discovered.
Visitors from other countries have been flocking to Turtle Island recently. This is because it is home to a number of fantastic sights and alluring pastimes that you just cannot miss in a rural setting. The island won’t be as loud as other cities, that much is certain. The majority of folks are trustworthy and nice.
What to eat at Con Quy
When visiting Quy Island, be sure to sample the unique and traditional cuisine, like roasted shrimp with coconut, snakehead fish cooked in a sour soup with morning glory, steaming red tilapia with termite mushrooms and pumpkin, goby hotpot, braised snakehead fish, and more.
You might opt to travel the island and sample the local cuisine in addition to eating fruits from the orchards. One of the greatest foods not to miss in Con Quy would be “Ca tai tuong” (fried Tai Tuong fish). Alternatively, feel free to sample some of the other regional specialties found exclusively in the southwest of Vietnam, such as red tilapia steamed with mushrooms, fish cooked with spinach, and coconut-fried shrimp.
Con Quy has created hotel amenities and motels to cater to travelers. Particularly popular homestays provide visitors the chance to save money while also learning about local culture.
