Holiday travel tips and experiences: Ho Chi Minh Tour 28 Feb

Ho Chi Minh Tour Day 1

A typical sight...

We booked our Ho Chi Minh flight with Jetstar during a promotion and paid SGD352 (USD227) for two adults. A good rate if you can get during promotions.

Ho Chi Minh flight:- Jetstar 3K 555 leaving Singapore 0715 hrs

As the flight was early in the morning, we had to take a cab to Singapore Changi International Airport Terminal 1 and incur the midnight charge which is applicable from 0001 hrs to 0600 hrs. Upon reaching the airport, there was a queue to check-in. After approximately fifteen minutes in the queue, we received our boarding passes.

With some time to spare before boarding, we went to the food court at basement 1 to have something for breakfast, after which we cleared customs and immigration. Whilst in the restricted area, we managed to gain access to some computers at the ‘internet access’ area and did some last minute clearing of emails before finally boarding the plane at 0700 hrs.

Tan Son Nhat International Airport

The flight was delayed a little due to late boarding by one of the passengers. However we arrived at Tan Son Nhat International Airport as scheduled at 0815 hrs. Flight time was slightly less than two hours. It was smooth clearance at the immigration. However waiting for our luggage took some time and there were no signs of a belt change. We waited at the belt where it showed our flight number but all the luggage came out from another belt.

As we did not have any transportation to the hotel, we went to the taxi stand. The first taxi driver gave us a rate of USD15 to our hotel Lac Vien in the city. Feeling that the price is a little high, we tried to get a better price but he refused to budge. As we did not know how the airport taxis operated, we decided to go for it and agreed on the price. Before even getting out of the airport, the taxi driver asked us for money to pay the ‘toll’ or car park charge. Was he afraid that we were not going to pay him the agreed fare? Later, we were to discover in the official travel guide that “the taxi fare from the airport to the center of the city should be around 80,000 VND (approximately USD4.60).”

Travel rip off no. 1 ; (

The journey took approximately half an hour and it seems we were fortunate as there were no traffic jams as expected. What surprised us was the huge number of motorcycles on the roads. Just like a German friend of ours commented, "I thought they were all rushing off to see a festival.” It is really striking to see the number of motorcycles and not surprisingly, Saigon is also known as the ‘city of motorcycles’.

A motorcycle to be proud of

As the lane to our hotel was blocked by a taxi picking up passengers, our taxi driver dropped us off at the park opposite the lane and asked us to walk to our hotel. As we were brand new to Ho Chi Minh City and to the hotel, plus we could not even see our hotel from where we were, we were hesitant to do so. Finally, the taxi driver offered to walk us to our hotel and rushed off the minute he handed our luggage to the porter.

Being early still, we could not check in the hotel yet. Thus we walked around and familiarized ourselves with the area for about half an hour before going back to the hotel. This time the room was ready for us to check in.

Lac Vien Hotel is clean and with basic amenities and we thought that the hotel was good value for money. Rate includes breakfast and there are two computers with free internet access for in-house guests in the little restaurant on the ground level.

The cute little bath

The bedroom

In order to tour Ho Chi Minh City, we decided to book some tours at TNK Travel just around the corner from our hotel. We had 3 tours that we wanted to go for but as we only had two full days in Ho Chi Minh, we could only decide on two. We finally booked the following Ho Chi Minh tours:-
- Cu Chi Tunnel ½ day tour @USD5/person, price excludes entrance fee of VND80,000
- Mekong River 1 day tour @ USD10/person, price includes lunch.

Both tours include English speaking tour guide and air-conditioned bus. We had wanted to go on the city tour as well at USD5/person but they did not have a ½ day tour for that, so we had to give it a miss.

Ben Thanh Market

Following the map and with directions from the hotel receptionist, we made our way to Ben Thanh market, approximately 10 minutes walk away. It was almost noon and the Ho Chi Minh weather is hot as it has a tropical climate. Temperature ranges from 25°C to 32°C and can go as high as 39°C in April just before the start of the rainy season which begins around May and ends in late November.

Ben Thanh Market

Ben Thanh Market is centrally located and is one of the city's most famous landmarks having been in existence since the French Occupation and one of the earliest surviving structures that is located in Ho Chi Minh City. Ben Thanh Market is the busiest market in Vietnam and features over 3,000 stalls. You can find a huge variety of items including groceries, souvenirs, arts and crafts, flowers, fruits, coffee beans, dried goods, handbags, shoes, clothes, snake wines and nuts.

Fruits galore

Arts and crafts

Fresh seafood

If you are visiting Ben Thanh market, do dress lightly. Before buying any item, do get a feel of the price at various stalls first and make sure you bargain for the goods. Some initial prices quoted can be exorbitant and some are daring enough to quote you up to 4 or 5 times more than what you can actually pay for. Open till about 1800 hrs.

the roundabout at Ben Thanh Market

After Ben Thanh market, we decided to may our way to Notre Dame Cathedral by foot. However, along the way, we were approached by a cyclos (3-wheeled pedicabs) rider who offered to take us round on a Ho Chi Minh tour at USD5/person for an hour. We declined as we did not feel that the price was justified. Also we thought that some exercise would do us good.

He was quite persistent and showed us a book where there were testimonials from satisfied customers written in English. We gave a price of USD2/person, i.e. USD4 for 2 persons for an hour. Finally, he agreed with his friend for USD4 for 2 persons for an hour. WOW! A great bargain!

Taking a ride in the cyclos

Enjoying the cyclos ride

Ho Chi Minh Museum

They brought us to Ho Chi Minh City Museum. Originally called Gia Long Palace before the fall of Saigon, it was the office of President of the Republic of Vietnam Ngô Đình Diệm when he returned to Vietnam after the Geneva Conference. It was the last place he worked before he was assassinated in a coup d’etat in November 1963.

Entrance fee:- VND15,000 or USD1

A cannon

Display at the entrance

Here we saw two wedding couples in their wedding splendour having their photos taken. It seems that in South Vietnam, this is the tradition to have wedding photos taken here.

Exhibits at the Ho Chi Minh museum

Parked at the Ho Chi Minh Museum grounds

The well

Exhibits at the Ho Chi Minh museum

More items on display ...........Pottery

Jeweller in action

Pumping kerosene oil

Vinh Nghiem Pagoda

Entrance

Next stop was Vinh Ngiem Pagoda. This is the first pagoda in Vietnam to be built in Vietnamese traditional architecture style but with concrete. The highest structure in this pagoda is the 7-story, 40m-high tower. This pagoda houses and worship of one buddha and two bodhisattvas.

Pagodas

A frangipani tree in bloom

Temple bell

As the temple was not open, we could only see the surroundings. There was a tree with huge roots which looked to be at least 100 years old.

The old tree

Birds which you could purchase to release

War Remnants Museum

Entrance fee:- VND15,000 or USD1

The War Remnants Museum which was opened to the public for the first time on September 4, 1975 is endowed with 8 permanent thematic exhibitions and various other special collections.

Historical truths: causes, origins and processes of aggressive wars
Requiem: collection of photos taken by 134 war reporters (from 11 nationalities) killed during the Vietnam War
Vestiges of war crimes and aftermaths ( in military, economical, cultural, social fields, consequences on men, nature, environment)
Imprisonment system showing typical detention camps and prisons as well as torturing methods used to exterminate prisoners physically and psychologically
Photo collections of Japanese reporters Ishikawa Bunyo and Nakamura Goro “Vietnam – War and Peace”
International support for the Vietnamese people in their Resistance War
Children’s painting collection “War and Peace”
U.S. State-of-the-art weaponry used in the Vietnam War

Tiger Cages...

Inside the Tiger Cage area

Cells

Door frame of small and stuffy cells

The Guillotine

Phu Quoc detention camps

More information

The old police station..............

Information about the war

War remnants

Blu 82 Seismic Bomb

Transportation mode

King of the Battlefield

with a view of the M107-175mm gun

More on display

The Bulldozer

Lacquer ware Factory

They then brought us to a lacquer ware factory. It was very interesting to find out how they actually start off with a piece of wood and after going through a total of 13 steps, come up with the beautiful end products which we see on the shelves. They could either paint it or use duck egg shells and mother pearl to create the different effects.

From the raw materials (top) to the finished product (below)

We were given a brief overview of the whole process and it was an educational tour for us providing us with an insight as to how these beautiful works of art are made.

It was already around 1400 hrs and the sky was dark as it was going to rain. Our cyclos riders brought us to a local food stall just beside 156 Vo Van Tan, P.6,Q.3, TP.HCM which they claimed was good. The stall had no name on it. You could choose amongst the variety of cooked food that was on display. We decided on five different types of Vietnamese dishes. Food was not that fantastic or it just did not suit our taste bud.

Closing up around 1430 hrs

At the end of the meal, we were hit with a bomb shell! VND350,000 / USD25 bill!!! Outrageous!!!. We knew we were being ripped off, yet it looks like our cyclos riders were in the scheme as well and pretended that ‘I don’t know’ when we questioned on the exorbitant pricing.

The shop with no name

The dishes we ordered...

In fact, when we first asked for the bill, they presented us with a receipt booklet with just the number “350” written on it. Flipping through the previous bills, we saw that the maximum bill was just 100+. Looks like these were other tourists as well. But none were faced with such a high price as ours at “350” which made us doubly sure that our two cyclos riders had a share in the price being charged.

Not wanting to be taken for a ride, we asked that they break down the bill to give a detailed pricing. As we were not able to understand their language, we were shocked to find them charging us with VND100,000 each for two of the dishes! In fact, they took quite a long tiem to come up with t he bill and you could see they had a hard time trying to get to at total of “350” as there were a lot of scribblings and changes in the prices written.

Shop next to where the stall was located

When we asked the cyclos riders as to the dish to see which dish cost us 100,000, they could not give us a correct answer. Realised that the individual figures only totaled up to “320” and asked the riders to recount. This time, it was one of the riders who even went ahead to change the figure on the bill and did not even consult with the people in the shop. This proved to us that they were in the scam together with the stall owners. We had no choice but to pay the price since we had not done our due diligence to check the prices before ordering.
Travel rip off no. 2 ; (

Before purchasing anything in Ho Chi Minh, do check on the prices and fix the price first. If not, you will face the unpleasant experience of knowing that you are being ripped off, yet unless you want to waste precious time during the short period you have there, you will have to face the music.

Before lunch, when we told our cyclos riders that we wanted to visit Notre Dame Cathedral, they replied that we could go after lunch. During lunch, we reminded them again that we wanted to go to the Cathedral. However after lunch, they stopped us in front of a park and told us to walk back to our hotel and pointed out the direction straight ahead. When we reminded them that we had wanted to visit the cathedral, they claimed that one of us had wanted to go back to the hotel which was untrue. Then they claimed that the time was over and they were not allowed to ride again till 1800 hrs according to ‘laws’ when we insisted that they bring us back to our hotel.
Travel rip off no. 3 ; (

As we sat there and both sides refusing to budge, we were again left with no choice but to pay them. It was just after three hours, so we paid the rate of USD4/hr for 2 persons as agreed earlier, i.e. a total of USD12. However they asked for another USD12 and claimed that it was per person. This time we decided that enough is enough because we had a gentlemen’s agreement on the price earlier. Either they take the USD12 or leave it. They had no choice but to take it.
Travel rip off no. 4 ; (

The 2 cyclos riders who ripped us off!

Saigon Square

We managed to find our way back to the hotel, no thanks to the cyclos riders. Rested awhile before walking to Saigon Square which is open till approximately 2000 hrs for some shopping. Lots of clothes here and it is again recommended to check out prices of goods at various stalls and be prepared to bargain. Compared to Ben Thanh Market, it is not as hot since they have air coolers placed at strategic locations.

Shops in Saigon Square

After Saigon Square, we proceeded to Ben Thanh night market which opens from 1900 hrs till about 2200 hrs. As they were still in the process of setting up the stalls, we stopped by a stall to have sugarcane drink @ VND5,000. Since we were there, we decided to try the crab noodle at the same shop. It tasted alright. Nothing fantastic. For VND30,000 that we were charged, we would not go for it again.

Enjoying a sugar cane drink

Interesting fact:- Note the low tables and chairs that is a common sight at their local eateries

Crab noodle

Sao Dong at Ben Thanh night market

Once the night market was fully set up by 1900 hrs, we took a walk there and decided to try the food at Sao Dong. They operated like a restaurant and the prices were very reasonable. The best part was that the food was good! They had quite an extensive menu that you could choose from. We ordered the vegetables with beef @ VND25,000, beansprouts at VND15,000 and grilled prawns at VND35,000. You could say that the food here was cheap and good! We enjoyed our dinner there.

One of the stalls at Sao Dong

Dinner at Sao Dong

Beansprouts

Fried vegetable with beef

Grilled prawns

Looks like we had the "Fired" Beef and Onion

After dinner, we took a leisurely stroll around the Ben Thanh night market. Not as big as the day market, you could still find quite a number of items here. Again, be prepared to bargain.

Balloons for sale