U Minh Ha National Park

U Minh Ha is the Ca Mau half of the U Minh peat swamp forest - the northern half, U Minh Thuong, is in Kien Giang - covering around eight thousand hectares of melaleuca on peat, protected as a national park in 2006 and part of the Ca Mau UNESCO biosphere reserve. It is also a literary landscape: Son Nam's stories of the U Minh forest, and the older accounts of the men who took honey from wild bee combs in the melaleuca, are part of how southern Vietnam imagines its own frontier. Honey collecting still happens under park management, and boats run the canals.

What you actually see

• The southern half of U Minh - melaleuca on peat, about eight thousand hectares.
• A national park since 2006 - within the Ca Mau biosphere reserve.
• The forest of Son Nam's stories - a literary landscape in the south.
• Wild honey collecting - still done, under management.

When to go

December to May, the dry season. A full day.

Honest expectations

Fire risk closes sectors in the dry months. Mosquitoes are severe. Boat routes are fixed and short. Facilities are basic. Much of the surrounding land is now shrimp ponds and plantation rather than forest.

Nearby

Ca Mau city is south-east; Cape Ca Mau is at the far southern tip.