Mai Falls

A forest, a waterfall and a natural hot spring share one place in Đồng Nai province. The eco-tourism area is called Mai Falls and Bàu Nước Sôi. It lies in the Gia Canh forest, in the Định Quán area. The Đồng Nai newspaper described it in 2026 as hidden deep in the primary forest, about 17 kilometers from National Highway 20. That distance means the road into the forest is already part of the experience, and not just a stretch to get through quickly.

Mai Falls does not have one tall cliff of water like the waterfalls in school textbooks. Instead, the stream winds along the cracks in the rock. It makes many small falls, flat stones to rest on, and wider stretches of water. For that reason the place suits people who like to look slowly, sit and listen to the water, and take photographs in the natural light of the forest.

The second part is the one that makes many people curious. It is Bàu Nước Sôi, which the same newspaper described in 2018 as a natural hot mineral lake of about 7 hectares. An article from 2026 gave the temperature of the source as roughly 50 to 60 degrees Celsius. It explained that the water comes from a spring welling up from deep underground. An older article, from 2010, recorded that in 1996 the Hydrogeological Federation and the Pasteur Institute of Ho Chi Minh City had examined the hot water there. They concluded that it was mineral water, rich in minerals.

Soaking in warm mineral water in the middle of an old forest is a feeling all its own. The smell of earth and leaves surrounds the bather. The sound of running water drifts in from far off. Overhead, a thick canopy of branches closes off the sky. In southeastern Vietnam that feeling is hard to find.

The Tân Phú Protection Forest Management Board manages the area, according to articles from 2010 and 2014. A plan for ecotourism, rest and recreation under that board, covering 2021 to 2030, has been approved by the People's Committee of Đồng Nai province. Mai Falls and Bàu Nước Sôi is named as one site in the province's ecotourism strategy.

This is not a place to come to for high-end comfort. In return it offers something rare: primary forest, natural rock falls and a hot mineral spring, all within a single trip. Leaving the canopy of Gia Canh, a visitor carries the smell of damp earth and the warmth of the ground below. People say that the southeast of Vietnam keeps its most beautiful secrets under its old trees.