Travel Highlights from Saigon & Mekong Delta

No 20-day tour of Vietnam would be complete without a visit to the capital city of Saigon, by far the most chaotic and populated city in all of Vietnam. We flew from Hoi An to Saigon in about 1.5 hours and were fortunate enough to stay at the ultra-modern and contemporary hotel Nikko Saigon. On a side note: Mike had the most amazing Japanese Wagyu steak of his life at the sushi restaurant in the hotel.  So, if you’re a sushi or steak fan, definitely check out Fuji restaurant inside the Nikko Saigon hotel.    

Unfortunately, we were in Saigon on our 1st anniversary and didn’t really enjoy our day tour of the city because it was a very WAR focused day.  We visited the Cu Chi Tunnels which are still guarded heavily by the guerilla communist soldiers.  We were forced to watch a communist propaganda video which was highly anti-American and overall, it was a very sad day, learning how the North Army made traps to injure and kill the American soldiers in the Vietnam war. Obviously, learning about war is going to be sad and horrific; but, unfortunately, it’s the main memory we have of Saigon so it didn’t leave the best lasting impression.  If you happen to be a war buff or are fascinated by the Vietnam War, the Cu Chi tunnels will be a memorable and educational experience for you.  You will learn about how the guerilla soldiers used the huge network of underground tunnels to their advantage and how traps were created to torture and kill the American soldiers. It's gruesome to say the least.

As you could probably guess, we opted to skip the War Remnants museum and just visited the Colonial area of the downtown as well as the Presidential Palace.  To be honest, there was nothing very special or memorable about this tour as compared to what we got to see in the rest of Vietnam.

Although rather far from downtown Saigon, we enjoyed our 2-day excursion to Can Tho and the Mekong Delta.  We took numerous boat rides down the Mekong river to see how the locals live.  We stopped at a Bee farm where we were able to try and buy Royal Jelly. We also stopped at 2 fruit farms where we listened to local music and ate exotic fruits such as Dragon Fruit, Papaya, Jack Fruit and Mango.  

We were again sadly aware of how polluted the river is which made us weary of eating the seafood from the local restaurants.  The villagers still, to this day, dump all of their garbage and waste into the river and yet, the river is their lifeline.  It’s very sad to see the sheer amount of garbage floating by in the exact location where fisherman are busy catching fish to sell in the local markets and to feed their families with.

During our stay in Mekong Delta, we experienced a lovely canoe ride along a channel in the jungle and stayed at the Victoria Can Tho Resort, which is perfectly located, just a 10 minute walk to town and to the local markets.  The Cai Rang Floating market was a huge disappointment based on what we thought it would be like.  It mostly consists of run-down house boats selling fruits and vegetables and there really isn’t much hustle and bustle to be seen.  Maybe if you could go in the early morning around 6am, you may witness a lot more trading amongst the locals but honestly, we thought it would provide a lot better “kodak-moments” than we saw.

The drive to the Mekong Delta from Saigon is about 4 hours each way. So, if you’re very interested in witnessing the real lifestyle of fishermen and families along the river, this is your best opportunity to do so. However, we felt it was A LOT of driving for very few interesting sights and attractions.  If we had to do it over again, we would look into a river cruise for 2 nights with village stops along the way instead of a road trip with only 1 overnight stay.