Con Phung and the Mekong Islands
Inexpensive one-day “Mekong Delta tours” from Ho Chi Minh City usually take visitors to one or two of My Tho’s four islands named after mythical beasts—Con Phung (Phoenix Island), Con Tan Long (or Con Rong, Dragon Island), Con Quy (Tortoise Island), and Con Thoi Son (or Con Lan, Unicorn Island). It’s a whirlwind of stops along the riverways at tourist pavilions demonstrating My Tho’s cottage industries, including coconut candy, local honey, and rice wine. These tours are cheap and perfunctory, and don’t leave much of an impression of the Mekong Delta; consider it only if time and budget are tight. If you only have a day, look for higher-end small group tours that go a bit further to Ben Tre, which is far less touristy.
On Con Phung are the remnants of a garish, eclectic complex built in the 1960s by a French-educated engineer-turned-monk named Nguyen Thanh Nam, nicknamed Ong Dao Dua (Coconut Monk) because he reputedly lived for some years on nothing but coconuts. The monk presided over a small community of followers, teaching an antiwar religion that combined elements of several religions including Buddhism, Christianity, and Hinduism. Despite his non-violent activities, he was imprisoned repeatedly, first by South Vietnam and later by the Communists for leading the religion; he died in 1990. All that is left of the monk's dreams for peace and coconuts are some dragons and gargoyles and columns with mythical creatures wrapped around them.
