Ho Chi Minh Vietnam September 2007 - 63 photos - 1608 views

Ho Chi Minh (formerly Saigon) is a fast paced city with a unique mix of French colonial architecture, Chinese influences and numerous temples. Upon arrival, we visited the Notre Dame cathedral (built 1877), the Post Office, and finish the day with a trip to Ben Thanh market for some bargain shopping and tried some local food. We stayed at Duxton Hotel near the Dong Khoi road, a street that is equivalent of Orchard Road in Singapore thath is pretty with its sidewalks, green trees lining the road and all the small boutique shops, restaurants and hotels leading all the way up to the river Saigon. Dong Khoi Street also houses some of the oldest buildings in Saigon, all colonial style. A walk up and down this street is a must and we did some comparison shopping for local tours for the next day and found some real good ones.  
 
We joined the local tour and went to My Tho, the closest Mekong Delta City to Saigon where we cruise along Mekong River by motorized boat, a row boat ride along small creeks to the Mekong river estuary, cruising along the Phoenix island, quiet villages of Ben Tre Province, seeing the manufacturing of handicrafts made from coconut trees, honey bee keeping farm, tropical orchards, tasting honey, tropical fruit, coconut candy. We had lunch at a local restaurant which serves the popularly known ‘Elephant Ear’ fish together with other Vietnamese dishes. The next day, we hire a car and drive to Tay Ninh to see the ornate temple of Cao Dai, an combination of Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism and Confucianism. We stopped for a visit of Cu Chi Tunnels. which is 70 kilometers North West of downtown. Built in 1948, it was an underground city with living areas, kitchens, storage, weapons factories, field hospitals, command centers. In places, it was housed up to 10,000 people who virtually lived underground for years. The tunnel was used as an army base during the Vietnamese-American War.