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.
Nguyen Hue Street is a 60 metre wide promenade and the largest such open public space in Saigon. I’ll showcase more from Nguyen Hue and its surroundings in a later post.
This is the People’s Committee building Ho Chi Minh City. It used to be a grand hotel during the French colonial era but now it’s a government building and not open to the public.
I came to this area because Citibank has an office right on Nguyen Hue Street. I wanted to use the ATM to withdraw cash as there was no withdrawal fee for Citibank card holders.
I withdrew 3 million VND for the above rate. There was maybe a ₹100 +/- difference compared to the rate quoted on XE.com. This was far more cost effective than buying USD in India and then exchanging them here.
I walked around the area to find a Vietnamese restaurant but one that had a menu in English. I wanted to eat anything besides Pho and Banh Mi, which I planned to eat later and both are dishes I could find plenty of everywhere around my hotel.
I sat down at a restaurant where most of the diners were Japanese for some reason… but I forgot to note down the name :/
I was most amused by these water-activated compressed coin/tablet towels. Apparently a Japanese innovation. You get them at Daiso stores but I managed to find them on Amazon India too.
When the waiter first gave me one, I nearly popped it in my mouth thinking it was a mint candy! The waiter told me to pour water on it but didn’t laugh at me. I’m guessing it’s a mistake he’s seen many make when first presented with such a novelty.
The Com Chien Toi (garlic fried rice) was crap… but the Tom Chien Sake (shrimp fried with sake) was delicious. Along with a beer, lunch cost me 270,000 VND (₹870/$11.25/€10.30) — a bit on the higher end for Vietnam but then again, I was in an expensive part of the city.
Post lunch, I hailed a Grab bike taxi and headed towards the War Remnants Museum. I did take videos along the way and you can watch the ‘vlog’ I made; it’s at the end of this post.
There are lot of US Army military vehicles and artillery on display outside the main building
A lot of them were abandoned after US forces fled Vietnam having lost the war
Now all this are on display as remnants of the tools US forces used on Vietnamese soil
And in the air. This is an F5 fighter jet.
There are more planes on display, some of which were shot down by North Vietnamese forces. I’m not going to upload all the photos I took. (Sorry, but it’s a lot of work)
