5 Best Sights in Mekong Delta, Vietnam

One of the very few remaining examples of 19th-century residences in the Mekong Delta, this house has been designated an official national relic by the Ministry of Culture. Built in 1870, the privately owned house is now managed by the sixth generation of the Duong family. The exterior looks French, but the interior is quintessentially Vietnamese, and all five rooms are furnished with antiques. The house appeared briefly in the 1992 film The Lover, based on the novel of the same name by French author Marguerite Duras, as the ancestral home of her Chinese lover (the actual home of The Lover still exists in Sa Dec but at the time of filming it was being used as a government office). Binh Thuy Ancient House is a 10-minute taxi ride from most hotels, and it's worth visiting Binh Thuy Temple, an ornate structure that predates Binh Thuy Ancient House, along the way.

This house is famous for being the home of Huynh Thuy Le, upon whom French novelist Marguerite Duras based the title character of The Lover, a 1984 semiautobiographical book about a schoolgirl's love affair with a rich Chinese man. The house, built in 1895 by a wealthy Chinese family, was used as a government building for many years (which meant the 1992 film The Lover was shot at another colonial house in Can Tho). But it's been restored reasonably faithfully—without the original gold leaf decorations—and it's possible to stay in one of the bedrooms for about $25 a night, including dinner and breakfast. The architecture is interesting—French colonial on the outside but ornately Chinese on the inside—with many photographs of the "The Lover," both in real life and as he was portrayed on screen.

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.

One of nine mosques serving An Giang Province's Muslim population, Mubarak Mosque is a short ferry ride from Chau Doc's passenger pier. First built in 1750, the mosque is the spiritual heart of the area's Cham community. Take some time wandering the surrounding streets to view the Khmer-style wooden houses.

It's possible to walk to the smallish (230 meters) Sam Mountain, 5 km (3 miles) southwest of Chau Doc, although it is a long walk. Or you can get a xe om or a taxi to the top of the mountain and walk down (there's a surcharge for navigating the steep bumpy road; make sure you organize a round-trip unless you want to walk back to town).

There are several interesting shrines on the mountain, known as Nui Sam in Vietnamese. The first, at its base, is Tay An Pagoda, originally constructed in 1847 and renovated several times since, with a mix of Vietnamese and Indian architecture. A little way past Tay An Pagoda is Ba Chua Xu (Lady Xu Pagoda), dedicated to a goddess whose origins have been lost in the mists of time and legend. Farther along is the Tomb of Thoai Ngoc Hau, an official of the Nguyen dynasty who died in 1829, and his two wives. Hang Pagoda (Cave Pagoda), at the top of 400 steps, has amazing views of the surrounding countryside, the flat rice paddies, and flood plains that stretch out beyond the Cambodian border.