From Long Xuyen, one has to travel almost 60km to get to Sam Mountain which lies west of Chau Doc Town, at approximately 2km from the frontier between Vietnam and Cambodia. 
The 230m high mountain does not only offer beautiful landscapes, but it is also where many historic remains deeply loved by the inhabitants of Nam Bo plain are located. Ba Chua Xu Temple, Tay An Pagoda, Thoai Ngoc Hau Tomb, Tao Ngo Garden, and Bach Van Hill are among the famous sites to visit near Sam Mountain.
Sam (horseshoe-crabs) Mountain: the Myth and Natural Scenery
Following a broad way which is 60 kilometers from the west of Long Xuyen (Long Xuyên) city, An Giang province, you will arrive in the romantic and mythical Sam Mountain. This place doesn't only attract the tourists by its natural landscape, but it also consists of many famous architecture vestiges, cultures which have been engraved in the Nam Bo (Nam Bộ) people.
Sam Mountain also known by its Chinese name as Hoc Lanh Son (Học Lãnh Sơn) also known as Vinh Te Son (Vĩnh Tế Sơn) is 230 meters high. This mountain is 5 kilometers away from Chau Doc (Châu Đốc) town. In the past, this place belonged to Vinh Te (Vĩnh Tế) village. In the period of King Gia Long, it belonged to Tay Xuyen (Tây Xuyên) district, Ha Tien (Hà Tiên) town. In 1835, King Minh Mang reset the administrative border, so the Sam Mountain belonged to Chau Doc town, An Giang province.
According to the legend, this place was once sea. After thousands years of alluvium, it gradually became a rich delta. Sam Mountain was a small mountain which was famous for its horseshoe-crabs as well as their mythical stories. It is said that there was a cave of the eagle which kidnapped a princess. Thach Sanh (Thạch Sanh) (a hero in a mythical story) then rescued the princess. In the wattle wall of the cave, there seems to be a picture of a person with a head of the ogress in his shoulder. He is leading the princess by his left hand. There is a wide, large access to the second cave next to the first one. At the "mouth" of the cave, there is an Altar of the God of the sea. At the bottom of the cave, there are many stones which don't reflect the light. These stones absorb the light of the flash-lamp. We can only use the light from the oil-lamp. The access to the top of the Sam Mountain is just wonderful like a picture. The well-off An Giang can be seen more clearly when you are closed to the top of the mountain: a side is the sea; another is a green rice-field.
In the "nuoc noi" ("nước nổi") season (in the rainy season, flood caused by the water from the Mekong river), the Sam Mountain looks like a huge horseshoe-crab swimming. Along its eastern side, you can find "la giang" ("lá giang") (Ecdysanthera rosea) - a well-known special product of An Giang which is used to make the special, and tasty soul.
There are many famous landscapes on the Sam Mountain such as: Tao Ngo (Tao Ngộ), Phao Dai (Pháo Đài) garden; Bach Van (Bạch Vân), Da Chet (Đá Chet) Hill and so on. The most special thing is that there is a population of historical vestiges around the mountain which is nationally rated by Vietnamese Government such as Tay An (Tây An) pagoda, Ba Chua Xu (Bà Chúa Xứ) (the region goddess) temple, Thoai Ngoc Hau (Thoại Ngọc Hầu) tomb, and Hang pagoda. These vestiges were built in 19th century. The most splendid among them is the Ba Chua Xu temple which is very famous for its supernatural power. Annually, this temple attracts many tourists, especially at Via Ba (Viá bà) (the soul of the goddess) festival which happens at the beginning of the first to the fifth month of the lunar year.
Giang leaves in Mount Sam
If some time you come to the Southern-North, you guests can enjoy the dish of sour soup, a famous course of the river area of the South. Sour soups here are varied from the recipes to the materials. And the most important thing is the sour taste of the pot of soup as it decides the materials for the dish.
The dish sweet-sour soup has the sour substance from lemon and is cooked with fresh water fish or gudgeon. For this type, they do not need some frequent-used vegetables such as fennel, bean sprouts, peppermint, and okras. Besides lemon, tamarind is another popular source of sour substance. In addition, the sour taste is also upon to the regions. For example, the Northern people often use dracontomelum; wild mangosteen is used in stead of tamarind in the South. Furthermore, in Seven Mountains area of An Giang, people add a special kind of substance for sour soup; that is giang leaves.
It can be said that this is a special object of this region. Giang leaves are similar to confetti's leaves and often grow in mountainous areas. According to inhabitants in Mount Sam - Chau Doc (Châu Đốc), giang leaf season is in the rainy season (from the 4th to the 10th of Lunar year). This is also the festival season of Worship Ms Lord Xu (Xứ) at Mount Sam. Therefore, the sour soup with giang leaf is well-known to tourists through this festivity, when they visit the site and worship the female lord. One interesting thing is that giang taken from the eastern side of Mount Sam gives more delicious and sour taste then ones plucked from the western side. Some people explain that happens because giang leaf grown in the eastern side receives more sun light than the ones in the west.
For a long time, beef fried with giang leaf is considered as a typical dish of the residents in Vinh Te (Vĩnh Tế) - Mount Sam, Chau Doc (An Giang Province), where there is a festival attracting more than two million people inside and outside the country annually visiting the country that Thoai Ngoc Hau (Thoại Ngọc Hầu) has built for hundreds years.
No one knows since when and from whom appeared the dish beef cooked with giang leaf. Everyone just knows that it is now a commonly favourite course of many families in the area. In Vinh Te, Chau Doc, from the aged to the young girls, all can cook this folksy dish. The process of cooking is not fussy but very simple. We only need beef sliced thinly, giang leaves cut into slim threads, a little coconut extracted juice and roasted peanuts. The fragrance of this course together with some small tumblers of rice wine Go Den (Gò Đen) will make it a perfect dish of the plain area of the South.
