3 Best Sights in Ha Tien, Mekong Delta

Sometimes referred to as the hill of tombs, this site is a garden cemetery containing the remains of General Mac Cuu and his family. Mac Cuu is credited with establishing Ha Tien in 1670, when the region was part of Cambodia. The family mausoleum, with its traditional Chinese tombs decorated with dragons, phoenixes, tigers, and lions, was built in 1809. There's a small temple dedicated to the family at the base of the complex.

With its pebble-strewn brown sand, Mui Nai, 6 km (4 miles) west of Ha Tien, is definitely not the prettiest beach around, but the sea is calm and shallow and the water is relatively clean so it's a nice place to take a dip. There are deck chairs for rent and shacks selling seafood, and in the late afternoon the locals play volleyball and swim. There's sometimes an entrance fee, but usually only when the beach is busy.

On the road to the Cambodian border, 5 km (3 miles) northwest of Ha Tien, this atmospheric cave pagoda is in an echoey cavern in a limestone karst, with various chambers holding funerary tablets. The cave is home to a colony of bats (so keep your mouth closed when you look up), and the views from some of the openings across to Cambodia are just stunning. At the base of the mountain there is a small monument shaped like a clenched fist that commemorates the murder of 130 local civilians by the Khmer Rouge in 1978.