Vietnam: Things to do in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

It seemed to me all drivers in Ho Chi Minh City had their hands on the horns most of the time. As I stood in front of Ben Thanh Market in the heart of this Vietnamese city, I could no longer determine who was honking at whom. It was a typical day in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Once called Saigon, I found myself lost in its cosmopolitan hustle and bustle, drowned by the incessant beeping and the noisy motors of the thousands of motorbikes, cars and buses that crowd its streets.



Ben Thanh Market is actually walking distance from Pham Ngu Lao. And to any visitor to HCMC, the street and surrounding areas is synonymous with backpackers, budget accommodation, hole-in-the-wall restaurants, affordable tours and land transportation to other parts of Vietnam and Cambodia. So if you're on a limited budget, Pham Ngu Lao is the place to be and it's the best place to find options for your stay in Saigon.


What's to do in Ho Chi Minh City anyway? Here's a list of things I did over several visits to Ho Chi Minh City. The list of course includes interesting trips close to HCMC:


1. Enjoy a Vietnamese food trip
What I like about Saigon is that food is everywhere from hawker stalls, local fast food to fancy restaurants. Food is good almost anywhere and I'd usually buy bánh mi from the street or find the nearest hole-in-the-wall for a cheap but authentic Vietnamese meal. In the evening, the streets around Ben Thanh are transformed into makeshift restaurants.


During my trip to Ho Chi Minh City this year, Viqui del Rosario sent me an interesting list of places to eat in Saigon. Here are some of her suggestions plus others I also got to try out:
▪ Lemongrass Restaurant, 4 Nguyen Thiep Street - a good place to try authentic Vietnamese food
▪ Brodard Bakery, 11 Nguyen Thiep Street - a small bakeshop just across Lemongrass that sell French pastries but only take out
▪ Ngoc Suong (Le Marina), 19c Le Quy Don - a seafood restaurant, try their deep-fried crabs
▪ Quan Nem, 15e Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street - a good place for spring rools
▪ Wrap and Roll, 62 Hai Ba Trung Street - another good option for spring rolls
▪ Pho 2000, 1-3 D Phan Chu Trinh Street (beside Ben Thanh Market) - while you can get phở almost anywhere, their claim to fame is that Bill Clinton ate here when he was in HCMC for an official visit
▪ Nhu Lan, 50-64-68 Ham Nghi Street - try out their bánh mi or bánh cuốn
▪ Nhà Hàng Ngon, 160 Pasteur Street - bánh hỏi thịt is recommended
▪ Quan An Ngon, 138 Ky Khoi Nghia Street


2. Hire a xe om and explore HCMC like a local
If you're comfortable in the passenger seat for a motorcycle ride through the wild hustle and bustle of HCMC, then this is the best way to absorb the sites of the city. Best to ask your hostel to look for a xe om to take you around. The good thing about a xe om tour is that you decide where to go, what to see and how much time you spend at each attraction.

Make sure you drop by Saigon City Hall, Saigon Opera House, Saigon Post Office, Notre Dame Cathedral and the Reunification Palace among many other attractions.


3. Join an HCMC city tour
If motorcycle rides are not your thing, don't fret since it's easy and cheap to book on an HCMC guided bus tour. It's usually less than US$10 for a day tour. But note that it does not include ticket costs to museums and other attractions. And that lunch is really not included since they'll bring you to a restaurant and tell you that you have a US$1 budget and anything beyond that you pay for. But it's all good. These tours are value for money.



The city tour I took this year included stops at the War Remnants Museum (which tells the Vietnamese version of the atrocities done during the Vietnam War), Thiên Hậu Temple and Bình Tây Market in Chợ Lớn or Chinatown (the market is their version of Divisoria, it's very interesting to Westerners who are amazed with the cheap goods, but maybe not to Filipinos who see this kind of market quite regularly), lunch at Pham Ngu Lao Street, a visit to a lacquer factory (which is staple in almost all tours for you to shop so that they could earn commissions), and the Reunification Palace (the former residence of the president of South Vietnam).




4. Watch a water puppet show
This is one craft that is uniquely Vietnamese. If you like watching cultural stuff, then you might want to reserve a night for a Vietnamese water puppet (múa rối nước) show at the Golden Dragon Water Puppet Theatre, 55B Nguyen Thi Minh Khai (beside the Reunification Palace). Shows are 50 minutes long and show times are 5 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.


5. Hop on a Mekong Delta day-tour
There are actually a lot of options for Mekong Delta tours. There are day-trips to My Tho and Ben Tre, and other areas on the Mekong River. During my tour of My Tho and Ben Tre, we visited a coconut candy factory, a bee-keeping farm, got to bike around rural Vietnam, were given a shot of snake liquor, and ate local fruits while being serenaded with Vietnamese folk songs. You'd realize that this is very much like rural Philippines and ask yourself why we aren't bringing foreigners to the countryside since many Westerners like these countryside tours that they don't experience everyday.

You can actually opt for overnight or multi-day tours which will bring you to other attractions including some of the Mekong Delta's famous floating markets. The Cai Be Floating Market seems to be one of the most famous. And most of the activity happens between 6 to 8 a.m. So it's best to be in the area the night before.



6. Visit the Củ Chi Tunnels and Cao Đài Holy See in Tây Ninh
The Củ Chi Tunnels in HCMC (the Viet Cong's base of operations for the Tết Offensive in 1968) and the Cao Đài Holy See in Tây Ninh are two popular attractions. There are half-day tours to Củ Chi Tunnels (but note that they get you back in HCMC at about 4 p.m.) and whole day tours that include witnessing the noon ceremonies at the Cao Đài Temple.



For the Củ Chi Tunnels tour, you actually have a land or river option (the river option is thrice more expensive) to get there. But the travel time is just the same. For the river option, you take a boat on the Saigon River going there and take a van going back. I spent US$18 for that trip. While the land trip was just US$6 (price varies depending on agent). Note that there is a VND80,000 entrance fees to the tunnels that are not included in the tour price.

If you hate tour groups, there is a public bus option. Take Bus 13 to Cu Chi (VND5,000) from District 1; and Bus 79 from Cu Chi to the tunnels (VND4,000).



7. Shop at Ben Thanh Market
If you're looking for that souvenir or want to take home an export overrun or an expert fake, then shopping Ben Thanh Market is for you. Make sure you keep your valuables out of sight though if you don't want them to go missing. The market also has some interesting food stalls you might want to try out if adventurous.


8. Walk around Saigon's historic center at night
If you've seen many of Saigon's iconic buildings during the day time, you must see them at night! They are elegantly lit early in the evening. So walking around HCMC's historic center at night is worth your time.


9. Beach bum at Mui Ne
Mui Ne is a popular beach resort town of Vietnam, four hours from HCMC. It's best to stay there for a night or two to enjoy not only the beaches, but the town's famous sand dunes, with colors that range from pure white to gold in Bau Trang (White Lake), to a fiery red in other areas. If you don't have that much time, there are sunrise day-tours to Mui Ne which leave early in the morning and give you time to enjoy the beach before returning to HCMC.

Transportation to/from Tan Son Nhat International Airport
Tan Son Nhat is the airport of Ho Chi Minh City. It's about seven kilometers from Pham Ngu Lao and the city center of HCMC. There are regular buses during the day time (Bus152). But in the evening, you will have to take a taxi to get into town. Note that there are safety and honesty issues with taxis (beware of the flying meters that charge low flag down rates but fly while the taxis move). To be safe, limit yourself to the SASCO Taxi inside the airport, or the regular Mai Linh, Vina or Vina Sun Taxis (between US$5 to 10 depending on your haggling skills). Make sure to agree on the price before hopping in. You can also as your hostel to pick you up (this will cost more but it's safer and you won't have problems with directions).

Vietnam: Water puppet show (múa rối nước) in Ho Chi Minh City

If you can spare a night while in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam you might want to watch a Vietnamese water puppet show (múa rối nước). It's a craft that is uniquely Vietnamese. And if you have kids with you, they'll surely enjoy this wonderful element of Vietnamese culture.




I got to watch the water puppet show at Golden Dragon Water Puppet Theatre twice on two separate trips. The shows are about fifty minutes long with no intermissions. It could get a little bit boring for some, but this something you have to watch if you're interested in local culture.

Puppets are carved from wood and then lacquered. The puppeteers control the puppets from behind a screen. Water is waist deep and they use rods to move the puppets around. The water thus creates the effect of a lake, river or rice paddies in various scenes. I actually bought myself miniature versions of these water puppets at Ben Thanh Market.






There's a live Vietnamese ensemble which plays music and narrates, with everyone in traditional Vietnamese costumes. Everything is in Vietnamese so you'd have to refer to the English guide at times to understand what is happening. It's definitely something you'd want to watch even just once.

Golden Dragon Water Puppet Theatre
55B Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, District 1
Ho Chi Minh City
Showtimes: 5 p.m. & 6:30 p.m.

Bohol: Rare Pride Campaign launched for Inabanga's Hambongan Island Marine Sanctuary

Lasting change must be community led. That is the rationale behind the environmental conservation programs of Rare, a US-based conservation organization that works globally to equip people in the world's most threatened areas with the tools and motivation they need to care for their natural resources.

Last week, we were invited to join the team from Rare on Hambongan Island as they launched the Inabanga Rare Pride Campaign together with the people of Inabanga, Bohol.


What is a Pride Campaign?
At the cornerstone of Rare's work is a unique tool called the Pride Campaign. Its mix of capacity building and social marketing equips Conservation Fellows in their development of a community led conservation plan.

The goal is to create long-term change in local behavior by inspiring pride in the threatened species and habitats that make their community unique. This begins the transformative process that has led to the growth of marine protected areas and the effective protection of threatened species all over the Philippines.

Rare currently has twelve campaign sites in the Philippines where they have launched programs for sustainable fishing.


Inabanga Rare Pride Campaign
From Tagbilaran City, we motored to Inabanga which was about an hour and 45 minutes away. The first order of business was a parade around town with Meloy, the campaign mascot. He represents a Panther Grouper, a vulnerable species that is sold for food or in the aquarium trade. All Pride Campaigns have their own mascots.



After unveiling the campaign billboard, a program was held to launch the Inabanga Rare Pride Campaign led by Mayor Jose Jono Jumamoy and Rare President and CEO Brett Jenks. Do watch the video about the Inabanga Rare Pride Campaign and the issues they are trying to resolve.



Before noon, participants took two large boats to Hambongan Island for the second part of the launch, this time with the target community of the Rare Pride Campaign. Hambongan Island was really pretty. After a sumptuous lunch, we went around the island to explore.




We were taken to one side of the island where the Hambongan Elementary School is located. The buildings of the school have large cracks due to the strong explosions from dynamite fishing that was rampant before.




To address this, the local government created the Hambongan Island Fish Sanctuary in 2000 out of 14.1 hectares of waters between Hambongan and Bugatusan Islands. A community education campaign was initiated while locals were introduced to other sources of livelihood such as seaweed harvesting and processing, and the sustainable collection of marine wildlife for the aquarium trade. We actually got to tour their small processing facility for aquarium fish.



While dynamite fishing is now less of a threat, the campaign also created a hotline for people to report illegal activities direct to the local government so violators are immediately apprehended.


What makes Rare different from many other international conservation organizations is that their approach is to work directly with the community, preparing them to care for their natural resources on their own. Once the program is completed, locals will be equipped with the necessary knowledge, skill and drive to protect the resources of their community.

If conservation does not happen now, there will be nothing left to be proud of.

Cambodia: Traveling to Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat is the largest religious monument in the world and the pinnacle of classical Khmer architecture. The temple is actually one of several in the temple complex of Angkor, situated several kilometers from Siem Reap, the gateway to Angkor.


My first major Southeast Asian trip in 2006 was a two-week journey that took me to five countries: Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos. There were just a few travel blogs then. And mine was amusingly casual and conversational. Little did I know that my wanderlust for travel would bring me places. One of my stops during that trip was Angkor.


Getting to Siem Reap
There are several ways to get to Siem Reap. The most convenient of course is by air. There are direct flights from major Southeast Asian cities including Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Singapore and Ho Chi Minh City. Unfortunately for the Philippines, there are no direct flights to Cambodia.

I took the land route from Phnom Penh which is a six-hour bus ride. You can also access Siem Reap by land from Bangkok via the Aranyaprathet-Poipet border crossing. I remember my bus trip lasted about nine hours. Or you can also hop on a bus from Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh which is about six-hours. Then take the six-hour bus to Siem Reap.



Another option is to take the river ferry between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap which is also six hours, But this will take you through the scenic Tonle Sap River and Lake.


Visiting Angkor
The temple complex of Angkor is massive. The different temples are actually several kilometers apart. And unless you have a lot of time to spare and are used to walking great distances, it's best to hire a motodup (motorcycle taxi), tuktuk or moto-romauk (motorcycle trailer), or van to take you around. You can also opt to rent a bike.

Note that foreigners are required to purchase passes to be able to visit Angkor. There's a one-day (US$20), three-day (US$40) and seven-day (US$60) pass. With the tuktuk, I was able to cover a lot of ground with the one-day pass. But others visitors would get longer passes to be able to explore the archaeological park more thoroughly or walk between temples. The main park entrance is three kilometers from Siem Reap.


There are two popular routes you can follow. The Petit Circuit, aside from Angkor Wat, Bakheng and Angkor Thom, includes Thommanon, Chaosay Tevoda, Spean Thma, Hospital Chapel, Ta Keo, Ta Nei, Ta Prohm, Kutisvara, Banteay Kdei, Srah Srang and Prasat Kravan. The Grand Circuit, in addition to those mentioned includes Pre Rup, East Mebon, Ta Som, Krol Ko, Neak Pean and Preah Khan. With the motodup, I was able to do the Grand Circuit in a day. Read the entry of my 2006 visit to the temples of Angkor.

Related entry
Cambodia: Day tour to Preah Vihear Temple from Siem Reap

Cambodia: Sihanoukville and its beaches

Cambodia is more than Angkor Wat. Beyond the fabled temples of Angkor is a sunny getaway called Sihanoukville, Cambodia's most popular beach resort town, south of the capital Phnom Penh. There are a lot of beaches in Sihanoukville and a wide range of accommodation choices for everyone.

Victory Beach is the backpackers' area. That's where you'll find many of the budget accommodation. Sokha Beach is said to be the best beach in Sihanoukville. It used to be a public beach but is now exclusive to the Sokha Beach Resort where we stayed during our visit to Sihanoukville. The other good beach after Sokha is Ochheuteal Beach which is conveniently located near the accommodation at Serendipity Beach. If those beaches are crowded, you can also try Independence Beach. Five kilometers from Ochheuteal is Otres Beach where there would be even less people.

We had traveled a great distance to get to Cambodia from Vietnam. It turned out, everyone was on their way back to Phnom Penh after celebrating the Khmer New Year holidays in the provinces or in Saigon. So we found ourselves joining the mad rush back and found ourselves over four hours delayed with a six hour trip extended to ten!


After staying a night in Phnom Penh, we got on the first bus to Sihanoukville. The ride was a little over four hours. And it took us through the vast Cambodian countryside. At the Sihanoukville bus station, finding a ride to the Sokha Beach was not a problem since tuktuks and motorcycles were readily available.

The impressive Khmer façade of the luxurious main lobby greeted us as our tuktuk entered the vast grounds of the Sokha Beach Resort. As soon as we settled down in our beach view rooms, we proceeded to the Champa Lounge for lunch.


The highlight of the resort is its 1.5 kilometer private white sand beach. The rest of the afternoon was spent taking a nap at the beach.


Later in the evening, we were off to Lemongrass, the resort’s beach side restaurant, for dinner. The Lemongrass was a perfect place to cap the day. As it slowly got dark, the enchanting lights of the restaurant took center stage with the sea breeze relaxing our senses even more. They had both outdoor and indoor dining areas. And nothing beats a night under the stars for a candle-lit dinner by the beach.

The next day, I could have spent the morning island-hopping since the beaches in the nearby islands are fantastic! You can easily arrange boat trips through your guesthouses or hotels. But I was not really feeling well because of some street food I must have eaten.

We were back on the road by lunch since we had to catch a 6 p.m. flight in Phnom Penh back to Ho Chi Minh City. Our fingers were crossed the whole time hoping that we would arrive at the airport just in time for the flight. And it was a good thing the bus from Sihanoukville conveniently passes by the airport. And we got there with a lot of time to spare.