Let me just make it clear, I am not one of the persons who would go for such package tour. However, as my brother had left that morning and I had the entire day to myself I said what the hell, such package tours cannot be that bad. However, let me tell you – they are. This 1 days Mekong Delta tour from Ho Chi Minh city was as big of a tourist trap as they come.
Of course for the money you spent it is worth it but I am not sure I would like to do it again. Once it is fine I guess, you see the interior of the country, etc but thats it. I am not sure how traditional and authentic are the businesses here. I think they have manufactured this tour from nothing.
Anyways, now that I had paid for the tour I decided to go ahead with it and enjoy it as much as I could.
I was picked up by a bus in the morning from my hotel. That was a good part as I did not have to look for the starting point. Once on the way, we stopped at a highway guest area. Huge place, with a nice garden, where people can eat breakfast, lunch, etc.
We started our day at the Vinh Trang Pagoda in My Tho. It is a beautiful pagoda with nice gardens to walk around. The temple complex is quite peaceful and I loved that part of the trip.
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From there we were taken by boats to the other side of the Mekong river.
Of course the obligatory tourist photo spots.
At this place we could try some typical Vietnamese fruits and some traditional singing was on offer.
Bees… Where they make and sell honey. I am not sure how much honey making capacity do they have here…but I did not see a lot of honey making activity around.
Next we were punted on small punts to other places to try other things.
Trying the snake wine here…
The lunch was in a huge restaurant – with rice pancakes, friend fish, shrimps, etc. Was quite tasty.
The most interesting part of the trip was to see the landscape passing by, with all the rice paddies. And these in the middle are final resting places for their forefathers. Our guide told us that once people pass away, their offspring bury them on their farms so they are always with them. Isnt that a beautiful concept.
