Cho Lach District is located about 144 kilometers from Ho Chi Minh City in the Mekong Delta Province of Ben Tre. It used to be a picture of underdevelopment with rough, uncemented roads and old, unstable bridges. Today, it may still not be complete or the perfect tourist destination, but it has definitely come a long way since it first started.

There are several attractions at Cho Lach that visitors find simple yet adorable. The Dai Loc eco-tourism site in Son Dinh Commune tops the list. Owned by Nguyen Cong Thanh, or most commonly called as Tu Thanh, the place is beckoning even at the entrance where it is lined with coconut palms with 50-70 fruits each. Ben Tre is known as “The Land of Coconuts” and this clearly confirms that fact.

Thanh himself welcomes his guests and shows them around his place. Together with his wife who in turn cooks the meals herself, they also treat their visitors to a hearty meal of several local specialties such as ca cao dam da (cocoa chipped with ice), banh xeo hen (deep-fried pancake, or sizzling cake, stuffed with mussels), freshwater apple snails, sour hot pot with swamp eels, and braised small cyprinids (fish with a toothless jaw that do not have stomachs). All the dishes are complemented with cocoa wine and finished with durian.

Aside from coconut, Ben Tre is also known for its cocoa. In 2001, Thanh was given 600 cocoa saplings from the HCMC University of Agriculture and Forestry. He successfully developed eight strains of cocoa and provides over 500,000 seedlings of these to farms all over Vietnam annually. Ca cao dam da is a smoothie made with cocoa flesh. Cho Lach's version of banh xeo hen is believed to be the best in the whole country with its delicious concoction of mussels, coconut milk, fresh milk, mushrooms, mung beans, and fish sauce (mixed with lime, sugar, coconut juice, and herbs). The freshwater apple snails are cooked into seven different but delectable dishes. Every meal at Thanh's place is always finished with durian because it's another thing he is known for. Also nicknamed “The Durian Witch,” he brought the popular Mon thong durian varity from Thailand into the country in the 1990s and grew it successfully as well.

After the sumptuous meal, guests are taken to an educational boat ride along the canal that runs along Thanh's two-hectare garden. Visitors at the eco-tourism site can pick up and eat any and as much durians and coconuts as they can that fall to the ground.

At the Cho Lach Market, tourists can see and/ or buy different kinds of fruits and vegetables such as sweet potatoes, taro, prawns, snails, fish, and dried foods, just to name a few. After there, visitors can go visit other sights at the district such as the beach at Co Chien River in Son Dinh Commune; the Ba Ngoi and Tam Loc fruit gardens in Vinh Binh Commune; the Nam Cong ornamental garden (with nation famous plants) in Vinh Thanh Commune; the Cai Mon tourism area with fruit gardens; and one of the oldest churches in Southern Vietnam.

Tourists who enjoy touring Cho Lach and want more can sleep overnight in specially-made bungalows at Thanh's eco-tourism site, strategically placed in the garden area where the air is cold and fresh and a guest's stay is guaranteed comfortable and pleasant.

Cho Lach District is being compared to Thailand's Suan Supatra Land, considered a “paradise” for fruit lovers. With sufficient infrastructure modification and more effective promotional strategy, Cho Lach may very well compete with the other modern tourism sites and mark its name worldwide.