Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam – Day Three

10 September, 2019

A trip to the Mekong Delta

Have you been on a trip to the Mekong Delta? Ho Chi Minh City is one of the cities near the Mekong Delta. In 2013, I had the chance to take a boat along the mighty Mekong River to get to Chau Doc, Vietnam from Phnom Penh, Vietnam. During our third day in Ho Chi Minh city, we had a tour along the Mekong Delta. In this post, we will share things to do during our third day in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam.

Temple Visit at My Tho during our trip to the Mekong Delta

After breakfast at our hotel, we waited in front of the hotel for the bus to pick us up to bring us on our trip to the Mekong Delta. We paid USD 10 each at a local tour desk for this trip. The first stop was a Buddhist temple, built in the 1800s. The main attractions at the temple are the sleeping Buddha and the fat happy Buddha.

before our trip to the mekong delta — Magnificent architecture

I was having a conversation with Amira when a teacher leading school kids approached us and told me “You look like him. Fat and happy!“. How dare him! Lol. There were women selling Vietnamese traditional hat. Amira bought one for USD 1.

Eating coconut candy

After the temple tour, we went to My Tho tourist boat pier. We rode on a huge boat which brought us to Unicorn Island. Upon arriving at Unicorn Island, we were served with a glass of refreshing honey lime drink and peanuts. All of a sudden, heavy rain dropped and drenched us all.

sampans on a trip to the mekong delta — Unicorn Island, here we come!

We waited until the rain had subsided and went onto the boat again. This time, we visited a small factory making coconut candies. The smell of coconuts engulfed us and honestly, it was quite overwhelming. The candies were made by using the coconut’s flesh while the husks were fired up as charcoal replacement.

Eating local fruits

Since Vietnam is a tropical Southeast Asian country like Malaysia, the fruits are the same. Like, exactly the same. An English guy asked me about longan and I told him in Malay, it is translated as “cat’s eye”. “You are eating cat’s eye, dude!“. He laughed at my lame jokes.

Touring the Mekong Delta on sampan

It was still raining when we decided to proceed with the sampan tour. We bought a raincoat for 10,000 Dong. It was an amazing experience taking the sampan while maneuvering the mekong river. At the same time, it was a nerve-wrenching experience too since I saw a huge snake slithering on the river. The guide who followed us told us that the river is 3 metres deep.

on a trip to the mekong delta — Us, Malaysian couple travel bloggers

The trip to the Mekong Delta ended with a lunch. We opted for a Halal packed lunch by informing the tour desk beforehand when we made the booking. This is because, the official lunch was rice and pork.

End the day at Ben Thanh Market

We ended our third day by doing more shopping at Ben Thanh Market. The influx of Malaysian visitors were evidenced by the ability of the sellers to speak Malay with us. “Abang, tengok. Murah. Abang cari apa“, said one of the sellers.

Approaching HCM city after a tour to the Mekong delta — Approaching Ho Chi Minh city

Nothing excite us at the Market. So, we went to the night market at the Malaysia Street. The scene at the night market looked exactly like Jalan TAR in Kuala Lumpur on the eve of Eid. For a while, we thought we were back home. But yes, we were still in Vietnam.

Trust me, most if not all are Malaysians

Then, we had our dinner at Halal Amin (again) before returning to our hotel. The end of our third day? Yes, supposedly. But Amira insisted on doing another shopping trip. So, out we went and after almost two hour, we returned to our hotel, totally exhausted.