First published September 2025 | Words and photos by Vietnam Coracle | Read time 10 minutes
Tom Divers is the founder and creator of Vietnam Coracle. In 2005 he moved from his native London to Vietnam, where he has been living, working and travelling ever since. He pays rent in Ho Chi Minh City but is more often on the road, riding his motorbike a quarter of a million kilometres across Vietnam to research guides to the farthest-flung corners of the nation. When he’s not in the saddle, you’ll find him on a beach with a margarita, in a tent on a mountainside or at a streetside noodle house: in other words, at the ‘office’. Read more about Tom: Q&A, About Page, Vietnam Tourism website.
Take the Byways off the Highways & Lose Yourself in Vietnam’s Deep South
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Get Lost in the Mekong
(See Related Posts for Mekong Guides)
The Mekong Delta might be the best place in Vietnam to get deliberately lost. Take two wheels – either a motorbike or a bicycle – and don’t plan your itinerary: just turn and turn onto increasingly smaller and smaller roads until you are perfectly lost. Unlike other parts of the nation, particularly highland regions, the Delta is one of the few areas where back roads – those enticing little white and grey lines criss-crossing the empty spaces between major thoroughfares on Google Maps – are actually rideable, viable options to get from A to B to C and far beyond. They might sometimes be bumpy, slow and indirect – they are certainly not shortcuts – but, in the Mekong, these roads do actually exist, which is more than can be said for many such back roads marked on Google Maps in the Central Highlands and northern mountains.
Taking these little roads in the Delta – there are many hundreds of them – will get you instantly off the beaten path. Nowhere in Vietnam is it easier to leave the tourist trail behind and enter the backcountry than in the Mekong Delta. Take a byway off a highway and you are already guaranteed to be as far off the beaten track as most travellers ever get. When there’s no bridge, there’s always a ferry; when there’s a dead-end, there’s always a way around; when there’s a flooded road, there’s always a raised dyke instead. You can get pleasantly, confidently, safely lost in the Mekong Delta and love every minute of it.
Known in Vietnamese as the Nine Dragon River Delta (Sông Bằng Cửu Long), I’ve always thought of it as the Double Dragon Tail. The first ‘dragon’ is Vietnam: the Mekong is the southern-most region of the nation, constituting its ‘tail’. The second ‘dragon’ is the Mekong River itself: the delta marks the end of the waterway’s 4,909km journey from its source in the Tibetan Plateau, through Southwest China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, before ending at its ‘tail’ in Vietnam.
In many ways, the Mekong Delta is the safest and most comfortable region for independent travellers to explore. Not because of its transportation connections or infrastructure (which lag behind most of the rest of the nation), but because of its people and culture. No region in Vietnam is more open, friendly and full of smiles than the Delta – and that is saying something in a country that, in my experience, is among the most hospitable and accommodating to travellers on Earth.
Life in the Mekong is dense – woven together as tightly as a raffia chair. But it is accessible and laid bare; taking place outside and in full view. In the Delta, you don’t really have to make an effort to experience the life and culture: it is right there in front of you. Indeed, sometimes it comes looking for you. If you pass a wedding or a drinking session or a religious ceremony – or even a funeral – in the Mekong, chances are you’ll be invited to join. Even casual interactions at cafes, noodle houses and guesthouses are somehow instantly familiar, friendly and warm.
How do they do this? What is it about the Delta that makes its people so affable, approachable, attractive and open. Some say it’s a reflection of the geology. The vast, flat landscape has few natural barriers, except for the waterways, which are more of a means of connection than separation. The land is low, allowing people and culture to move freely, much like the floodwaters of the river itself. (The weather too moves freely across this region: clouds form, bubble, burst and move on with the prevailing wind.) And the earth is rich, allowing people to cultivate and grow, and societies to thrive.
The Delta has a habit of accommodating and absorbing everything that passes through it. Like the alluvial plains of the Mekong River – rich in nutrients from upstream – this region has soaked up its varied and eventful past, all contributing to its diverse and tolerant present. Over the last two millennia, Hindu trading states, Buddhist empires, Chinese enclaves, Khmer kingdoms, Catholic quarters, Islamic neighbourhoods, native religious sects and personal fiefdoms have all flared, faded and survived in one form or another. As such, the Mekong region today overflows with culture, religion, history, spirituality, people and food.
Worried about accommodation? There are inexpensive, cosy little nhà nghỉ guesthouses in each and every town, village and hamlet, not to mention riverside homestays and tasteful luxury resorts. Food? You’ve come to the right place: the Mekong is the land of plenty – every inch of land (and water) is either growing something edible or grazing something that will end up on a plate. Other parts of Vietnam might claim a more sophisticated cuisine, but nowhere in Vietnam can compare to the sheer abundance, density and variety of food on offer in the Delta. At mealtimes, even the tiniest of hamlets is lined with street food options: grilled fish, barbecued meats, steaming cauldrons of broth, pungent noodle soups, mounds of vegetables, mountains of tropical fruit and myriad mysterious condiments. In the Delta, whatever can be eaten, is eaten. Thirsty? Tempting hammock cafes (cà phê võng) line roadsides, often in the shade of sugar palms and nypa palms or on the edge of lotus ponds and flooded rice fields. Fresh tropical fruit juice, sugar cane juice, coconut water, smoothies, strong, bitter-sweet iced coffee, jasmine tea – whatever you need to quench your thirst on those sultry, sub-tropical days on the road.
It took me years to ‘get’ the Mekong Delta. But when I did, I realized what a life-affirming place it is to travel. The Mekong isn’t comparable to any other region of Vietnam – not even its northern counterpart, the Red River Delta, which is a much colder, stoic and more conservative place. When you are in the Mekong Delta, you couldn’t mistake it for anywhere else. What’s more, there are many, many pockets of the Delta that are practically unvisited by foreign travellers, but are nonetheless easy to access, at least on two wheels.
So, go on. Get two wheels, take the back roads, the dyke roads, the harvest lanes and the cattle paths. Get lost in the Mekong Delta. And love it. (To get you started, my Mekong Delta guides are all listed below. But remember: the whole point is to get lost!)
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If you enjoyed this article, please support Vietnam Coracle with a donation or become a member of my Patreon community or purchase an Offline Guide & Map. This website relies on reader support to maintain its independence & quality. Thank you, Tom
Support My Work
Free | Independent | No Sponsored Content
“Hello, if you enjoy my website, please support it.
Thank you.” Tom
*Disclosure: I never receive payment for anything I write: my content is always free and independent. I’ve written this guide because I want to: I like the Mekong Delta and I want my readers to know about it. For more details, see my Disclosure & Disclaimer statements and my About Page
