1.

GREETING (chào đoàn)

Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Did you sleep well last night? Welcome to Ho Chi
Minh City and our company abc travel.My name is Lucky. I am honored to be our tour guide
today.
2. TOUR PROGRAM (chương trình tour)
I would like to introduce our tour program today. Are you going to My Tho Ben Tre 1 day
tour? It takes about 2 hours from Ho Chi Minh City to My Tho City. Arriving in My Tho
city, you will board a motorboat to visit Thoi Son island. One of the biggest islands in the
Mekong River in Vietnam. The first point to visit on the island is the beekeepinghouse. You
will be introduced to the process of obtaining honey and drink honey tea.
Next, you will enjoy tropical fruits and listen to Don Ca Tai Tu – traditional music/ folk
music which is recognized by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Then you will take a rowing boat to see the water coconut lines along the canal. Next, you
will visit the coconut candy factory, enjoy the dishes made from coconut. Next, you will ride
a horse-drawn carriage to the restaurant for lunch. After having lunch, you will return to Ho
Chi Minh City to finish the journey around 5pm. Lunch is included in the tour, but if you
want some soft drink, beer or wine, you have to pay extra.
3. GENERAL INFORMATION (Kiến thức tổng quát)
GEOGRAPHY (không gian):
Dear ladies and gentlemen. Mekong is located in the southwest of Ho Chi Minh City,
covering an area of more than 40,000 square kilometers. The Mekong has 13 provinces and
cities. Mekong delta has a warm climate with 2 rainy and dry seasons. The rainy season is
from April to October and the dry season is from November to March of the following year.
HISTORY (Thời gian-Lịch sử):
Ladies and gentlemen, the Mekong Delta is a new land for Vietnamese people. The
Vietnamese only settled in the early seventeenth century. Around 1757 the Mekong Delta
officially belonged to Vietnam.
PEOPLE (Con người):
The current Mekong Delta has about twenty-four million inhabitants. Including four main
ethnic groups. So who are they?
Firstly, Khmer people, they are indigenous people, living on this land for thousands of years.
Currently they have about 1.3 million people, most of them live by farming.
The second is the Chinese, they settled in the Mekong Delta in the early 17th century due to
the civil war in China between the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Ming followers left the
country and they came here. Currently, there are nearly 200,000 Chinese people living in the
Mekong Delta. Most of them live by trading and traditional crafts.
The third is the Cham people, they also settled around the 19th century. They mainly live by
trading, fishing and traditional weaving. Currently, there are about 15,000 people living in the
Mekong Delta. They follow Islam.
The other group is of course Vietnamese. However, now these ethnic groups have united with
the Vietnamese to live in harmony and build a developed community.

Why do people in the Mekong Delta bury their loved ones' graves near their homes?
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, the custom of burying the dead has been existing for thousands
of years in our Vietnamese culture. However, each region will have a different form. For
Vietnamese people in the north and central regions, when their loved ones die, they put them
in coffins and bury them in public cemeteries for two or three years. Then they dig up the
ashes and bring them to the family cemetery for permanent burial. And Southerners, when
their loved ones die, they will bury them forever. Because more than 300 years ago when the
Vietnamese came to the Mekong Delta to live, this place was a wasteland, full of wild and
dangerous animals. So when a loved one dies, they want to bury it near their home to take
care of the grave. Moreover, there are many canals that are difficult to transport far. Burying
a grave on their home land is also to show their ownership of the land they have just
reclaimed. After the burial is completed, every year Vietnamese people hold an anniversary
to remember the dead one. The death anniversary is an occasion for children and
grandchildren to remember their deceased grandparents and to educate the next generation to
remember the merits of their grandparents. Anniversaries are also an opportunity to build
relationships with relatives and neighbors and friends.