After the first stop to Vinh Trang pagoda, we were back on the highway en route to the next stop on my Mekong Delta tour.
We drove past many rice fields. Vietnam is third largest rice exporter in the world behind Thailand. India is still no. 1.
Our van parked by a dock at Tiền River in Bến Tre province.
Tiền River is one of the tributaries that merges with Mekong River
Our guide would continue her talk on the boat
There are cruise boat river tours here too
There are many small islands along Tien river and the Mekong. The boat we were on dropped us off at one such island in the Ben Tre province where my tour group would then be guided to a restaurant-like area.
This was my boat’s stop
My group were seated on a table and served honey tea along with a variety of sweet snacks
We were served a sampling of sweet banana chips, sweetened lotus seeds and… something else (I forgot)
Honestly, this was just a stop on the “tour” where the guys who run this place could use to promote and sell us a bunch of locally made products.
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-daytours 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.
My tour was organized by An Travel and this girl was our guide
After getting picked up from my hotel in the morning, the minibus went to Bui Vien street to pick up other tourists
We were leaving Ho Chi Minh City and heading south
I got to see new industrial zones just outside the city
We stopped en route at a rest stop to take a break
From the rest stop, it was a short drive to the temple. Our minibus parked outside the entrance.
I stepped out later at night to visit Bui Vien Street, the popular nightlife zone in Ho Chi Minh City — for foreigners. I state that clearly because it’s not where Vietnamese locals frequent.
This is Nguyen Thi Nghia street, quite a busy and crowded stretch
Nearby is September 23 Park, a fairly large public park
Locals were out and about doing various activities like play badminton, exercise, walk, etc.
Central Market Taka Plaza is an underground shopping center near the park
I walked towards Bui Vien street
Bui Vien street and the neighbouring bylanes are chock-full of restaurants, hotels, hostels, tour operators, and bus services. It’s a convenient place for foreign tourists and I initially booked to stay at a hotel here. But when I read multiple reviews of hotels and many complaining about the noise, I cancelled my booking and chose to stay a bit further away.
