Rach Gia - Gateway to Phu Quoc
Rach Gia is a charming harbour town in the province of Kien Giang in the Gulf of Siam. Tourists visit the city only rarely or just on their way to Phu Quoc, the speed boat between the holiday island and the mainland leaves daily from here (travel time approximately 2.5 hours). There are regular flights from the airport in Rach Gia to Saigon and Phu Quoc.
In Rach Gia modern town developers did their work and moved the market and the port to the outskirts of the city to build parks and wide boulevards. Further plans for the expansion of the city, even to the beach, are also in preparation.
A lively district directly at the harbour
Travellers who spend a little bit more time in Rach Gia, can explore the lively dock area. There are some good seafood restaurants in the narrow alleys of Rach Gia. The specialties of this city are dried squid and other dried fish (Ca Thieu).
In Rach Gia you can find a museum in a colonial house of the 1920s with artefacts of the archaeological site of Oc Eo. You can also visit a temple (Nguyen Trung Truc Temple), which has been built in honour of a resistance fighter of the 1860s, as well as the Phat Lon Pagoda (a Khmer pagoda) and the little Chinese Bac De pagoda. People who want to see more and have a lot of time, can visit the Tam Bao Pagoda, the Pho Minh Pagoda and the Con Dao Temple.
Rach Gia is also well known for its fishing boat fleet and its wharfs. The fishing boats which are mostly built out of wood right in the city, ankor in small channels throughout town and are basically parked in front of the fishermens houses - it’s a beautiful sight and best to be explored on a small boat.
The trading goods in this region are particularly fish, agricultural products and smuggled goods from Cambodia and Thailand.
