Visiting Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta

I wanted a spot with great weather, interesting culture, implausible food and friendly people — and with plenty to see in per week.

So I picked Vietnam, traveling from Ho Chi Minh City through the Mekong Delta area and on to Phu Quoc, an island within the Gulf of Thailand.

The following day, I headed out for an 8 a.m. walking tour organized via GuruWalk, which matches local guides with visitors. A gaggle of about 12 met our guide, Thanh, by a statue of former Vietnam president Ho Chi Minh on the north end of Nguyen Hue, a striking boulevard within the central district of Ben Nghe.

Thanh pointed toward an indication on the highest of the nearby Rex Hotel that read: “Five o’clock follies,” referring to the U.S. military briefings given to journalists on the hotel in the course of the Vietnam War, which were notoriously unreliable. Its rooftop is now home to a garden bar, which I later found nice for a night drink with a view.

France began its colonization of Vietnam in 1858 and a block or so away from the Rex Hotel our tour stopped opposite the late Nineteenth-century Saigon Opera House, designed by French architect Eugene Ferret. It is also a backdrop that proved popular for photographs — I saw two bridal couples swiftly dodge between moving traffic to pose by its steps.

Further along the road Thanh showed us the charming Central Post Office, which can be French-designed and largely unchanged because the Eighties. From there, I sent a postcard back home to the U.K. Close by is the twin-spired Notre Dame Cathedral, a red brick constructing sitting at one end of a square where a statue of the Virgin Mary stands.

Reminders of the 1955-1975 Vietnam War — known by many Vietnamese because the American War — are throughout town, including a military tank on the grounds of the Independence Palace that marked the tip of the conflict.

North of the palace is the War Remnants Museum, where visitors can see “The Terror of War,” the photograph that became referred to as “Napalm Girl,” a picture of Phan Thi Kim Phuc running naked down the road after a 1972 attack by the South Vietnamese air force.

For upscale accommodations, residents I spoke to advisable the five-star Caravelle Hotel, opened within the Nineteen Fifties by French entrepreneurs Antonin Emery and Marius Mallein, a favourite of American journalists in the course of the Vietnam War. Its rooftop bar, Saigon Saigon, has live bands most nights and guests can select from three restaurants.

I stayed on the mid-range Silverland Jolie, which is inside walking distance from Nguyen Hue. It has a small plunge pool and cocktail bar on its rooftop, plus attentive service.

Although I only stayed a short while, I fell in love with Ho Chi Minh City’s grand architecture, history and general buzz. Town is undoubtedly hectic, but I discovered the people super friendly — one time, a restaurant worker went out of his method to help me cross the road. The traffic could also be eased by town’s recent metro system, set to open later this 12 months.

Southwest of Ho Chi Minh City lies the Mekong Delta, a region of rice paddies, rivers and floating markets. There are various ways to see the world, from homestays to firms that organize more luxurious trips there.

I joined a two-night sightseeing bus and boat trip with Vietnam Adventure Tours, which was well organized and offers quite a few excursions and overnight stays in the world. Our first stop was the town of My Tho to see the Vinh Trang Pagoda inbuilt 1849. After seeing monks at prayer, several schoolchildren approached me, asking to practice their English.

Then we took to the river itself, where guides rowed our group in small wood boats down a narrow channel lined with palms, before stopping at Con Quy island to see how coconut candy is produced.

Though they may be crowded with tourists, the floating markets were a highlight of the Mekong Delta for me, with cone-hatted merchants selling every little thing from fruit to haircuts from their boats — an experience best seen early within the morning.

Our tour visited Cai Be market, just outside town of Can Tho, where we tasted freshly cut pineapple with chili salt (surprisingly good) and powerful Vietnamese coffee from a seller who moored her boat next to ours.

Tour operators within the Mekong Delta are plentiful, but some trips only run if there is a minimum variety of participants, which may be tricky for a solo traveler. Mekong Eyes is a well-reviewed operator that runs small river cruises on traditional rice barges in southern Vietnam and on to Phnom Penh in Cambodia.

After a busy few days of traveling, I booked myself into Cassia Cottage, a beachside resort set in pretty gardens on tropical Phu Quoc Island, which is a brief flight from Can Tho or Ho Chi Minh City. There, I lazed on beaches lined with palm trees, wandering into the ocean when it became too hot or relaxing by one in every of three pools with a cucumber martini.

The resort is owned by Mark Barnett, a U.S. expat who spent greater than 20 years as a significant exporter of cassia — or cinnamon — from Vietnam before selling his company to a Japanese firm. I often saw him talking to guests at mealtimes.

The Spice House, the resort’s excellent restaurant, serves Italian food, alongside Vietnamese dishes like seafood spring rolls and pho.

Staying on a tropical island alone won’t appeal to everyone, but I loved with the ability to select exactly what I desired to do and when — whether it was having a massage at Cassia’s small seaside pavilion or heading out to sea on a ship trip to explore more of the island.