Indochina Adventure (Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam)

I know I am so late with Vietnam, and I think almost all of my relatives and friends have been there and tells that Vietnam is an exciting place to visit. As part of our Indochina trip, I inquired about the interesting places to visit and best places for food tripping and shopping! It took weeks before we came up with our final itinerary, honestly, I have a hard time pronouncing and reading street directions in Vietnam and I thank Google maps and trips for helping us understand.

When we arrived in Ho Chi Minh the first thing on my mind was to eat the authentic pho and cold spring roll...yummy!  I love noodles so much so I know I will survive especially when it goes with a serving of spring rolls... ooh that means so much! I had a good night sleep after that meal.

So goood!

Well, the day after we are ready and energized for our Mekong Delta tour, I have a lot of places to visit on my list but I don't know how to get there. So the best option is to get a tour package, and we chose Klook for our tour, they have lots of  tour packages to choose from. It saved our time plus we met new friends and learned about their history, religion and culture from our English speaking tour guide!

Light moments with some tourists.

Resting Buddha

Vinh Trang Pagoda is a Buddhist temple in My Tho, it was the first destination in the tour package. The temple is a peaceful place where multiple Buddhas are seen, the place is landscaped with beautiful potted flower plants in different colors thus making the place looks attractive and serene. It is home to a number of monks who spends a lot of time praying. The temple is a holy place for Buddhist so as a sign of respect, please remove shoes when entering a temple and avoid taking selfies with the Buddhas as background.

Laughing Buddha

After some time we moved on for the river cruise. Well,  I don't know how expansive Mekong Delta is, all I know is it is Vietnam's biological  treasure which has a great contribution to their agriculture and fishing industry. We had a cruise along the calm river as if we're in a fluvial parade which seems to be relaxing. We passed by some fishermen and big boats on the riverbank carrying tourists. The trees and vegetation along the river bank are verdant, an indication the it is well irrigated by the river.

Lunch time came, we disembarked in a place called Tortoise Islet, do not expect turtles walking around, there's nothing. It's just the name of the place. The tour package also includes lunch of rice, pork, fried egg and some vegetables. The restaurant offers more food so if you want to add more then you have to pay. Anyway, the free food is already filling so it was just okay.

We dropped by a coconut candy factory and enjoyed the free candies! They're delicious, sweet and chewy which makes it more fun to eat because the taste of the coconut stays in the mouth. We had our desserts for free!

We took a paddle boat to An Khanh in Ben Tre, the water was calm, all I can hear was the graceful paddling of boat on the maze-like river with a hedgerow of palm trees. It was so hot that day and the native hat served as an effective sun protector!

In An Khanh we enjoyed the lighter side after the hot river cruise. We had some snacks of fresh fruits and honey tea, while listening to folk songs with the accompaniment of traditional instruments.

We had a good time socializing with other tourists, it was fun meeting people from different places. We left An Khanh late in afternoon, everyone was happy and  each has its own story of their experiences in the river tour.

On our second day we did a walking tour in the city on our own. It was easy to find the interesting places, because they are just next  to each other but we only chose those we wanted to see. Google maps is a  dependable guide, you won't get lost. Ho Chi Minh has lots of  parks, we passed by a number of it, and parks are the best place to rest and to review the google map!

The Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica of Saigon is located in downtown of Ho Chi Minh City, it was built by the French colonists during the 1800s. The front yard park of the church is the feeding ground of flocks of bird which hovers around the church. Most visitors stays here to take photos and feed the birds. I went in the church to say a short thanksgiving prayer and at the same time to see how the interiors looks like and it is elegant. The statue of the Virgin Mary was said to have shed tears which attracted thousands of people.

Post Office

Beside the church is the Post Office which is one of the oldest building in Ho Chi Minh City.

Justice Building

Another old colonial building we passed by is the 130-year old People's Court. The building is a national heritage and is under restoration.

The Vietnam Railways Building.

Oh by the way, there is a vendor selling iced coffee on the sidewalk beside the church, we tried sitting on small benches while sipping coffee on the sidewalk while watching people come and go...yeah just what the locals do. It's quite a different experience.

We took some time to visit the Ho Chi Minh Museum and we learned something about the history of Saigon, saw some artifacts and some life size figures of Vietnamese heroes.

So that ended our Saigon adventure we didn't have enough Vietnam Dong that's why we weren't able to visit other museums, we walk back to the hotel to prepare for our travel to Cambodia. I would like to recommend Luan Vu Hotel in HCMC, it is in an alley along the busy street of Pham Ngu Lao. The room we stayed in was small but it has the basic things we need and it is clean. It has no windows which is a defense from the noise of restobars. We booked our bus ride to Phnom Penh in TNK Travel which is just a short distance from the hotel, a service van picked us up from TNK then took us to the bus terminal. We took  Kumho SAMCO Bus, which is okay, we planned to take Giant Ibis Bus but it only departs once in a day.

Thank you for reading!