Date: 25 October 2019

Today was my third day in Vietnam but day 2 of my sightseeing. Yesterday, I saw Ben Thanh Market and Mariamman Hindu Temple, Independence Palace and Norodom Palace Exhibit, the War Remnants Museum and finally checked out Bui Vien Street — Ho Chi Minh City’s nightlife area (for tourists).

I had booked a tour of the Mekong Delta today but let me be clear — it wasn’t really a tour of the Mekong Delta — just stops at My tho and Ben Tre. You see, the Mekong Delta is a huge region in south western Vietnam where the Mekong River approaches and empties into the sea through a network of distributaries. The places I would visit today as part of this day tour only covers a fraction of what Mekong Delta is. There are multi-day tours of Mekong Delta which include stops at the rice paddy fields and such but I’m from Kerala — where there are enough rice paddy fields only a short drive away from me.

Instead, I did this short tour (cost 320000 VND or ₹1020/$13/€11.8) — mainly for one activity — which will be in the next post. The first stop on the tour was a temple called Vinh Trang Pagoda (a Buddhist temple) in Mỹ Tho, an hours drive from Ho Chi Minh City.

From the rest stop, it was a short drive to the temple. Our minibus parked outside the entrance.

Continue reading “Vietnam: Vinh Trang Pagoda in Bến Lức” »