Ho Chi Minh City Things to Do Tips by chatterley

We booked a full day tour with Sinh Cafe, taking us to Tay Ninh province (to see the Cao Dai Temple) and the Cu Chi Tunnels. The cost was USD5 per person, not including the admission ticket fee of 65000VND for the tunnels. Lunch was also at our own expense.

The advantages of booking such a tour is that you get to meet travellers of different nationalities - our group consisted of local Vietnamese, Americans, Japanese, Korean, Singaporeans, Norwegian, etc...It was great fun.

The highlight of the tunnel tour was probably going through one of the tunnels...but sad to say, I didn't actually make it! I soon beat a hasty retreat as I got a bit claustrophobic...very embarrassing! My husband was more adventurous though, and he conquered the 100m tunnel (but he kept complaining of muscle aches in his thighs after that).

The picture shows the tour group enjoying steamed tapioca and tea in the "kitchen" area of the tunnel. These were what the Viet Cong guerilla fighters survived on, during the war.

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Address: Sinh Cafe: 246-248 De Tham St, District 1
Website: http://www.sinhcafevn.com

This picture shows one of the many entrances to the underground tunnel network. The opening is tiny, barely allowing one slim person to get in.

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During the Cu Chi Tunnel tour, you will get a chance to fire some shots at the shooting range. The price is about USD5-10 for 10 shots, depending on the type of weapon you choose. It sure is popular with tourists - most of the members in my tour group opted for it.

The picture shows the kind of weapons you get to choose from.

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The Cao Dai Temple was a 3-hour ride away from Ho Chi Minh City Centre. We boarded the bus at 0815h outside Sinh Cafe, arrived at around 11 plus, and watched the praying ritual (held at 12 noon).

The devotees were dressed in robes of different colours, each colour a symbol of different religion -

Yellow: Buddhism
Red: Confucianism
Blue: Taoism
White: other religion

Visitors had to remove their shoes before entering the temple. The temple itself was colouful, a blend of different styles of architecture. This is one place where you will find paintings of Chinese unicorns, phoenix and turtle, together with Victor Hugo (one of Cao Daism's saints), etc.

To sum it up, it was a weird sight to behold, but very interesting, nevertheless.

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Directions: Contact Sinh Cafe for tour reservations (See my Cu Chi tunnel tip).

You'll see lots of the "eye" around the perimeter of the temple. The "eye" is surrounded by lotus flowers - a symbol of Buddhism.

Somehow, we just found it kinda creepy...

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The picture shows you the altar in the temple. The huge sphere bears the symbol of Cao Daism - the eye. The altar is where you'll find tablets (written in Chinese characters) of different Gods and Deities - Jesus Christ, Lao Tzu (the founder of Taosim), Confucius, etc being worshipped together.

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This picture here shows the exterior of the building. The architecture, religious rites and customs really are a fusion of vastly different styles. The 2 towers are a nod to the architectural styles of churches (think Notre Dame), and you'll also see dragons and Chinese characters on pillars and windows.

Before you enter the temple, you'll need to remove your shoes (the same rule applies when you enter a mosque). And the clothes the devotees don, well, they really resemble what a Taoist priest would wear. In short, this is totally bizzare!

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This building was situated right beside our hotel. There is a statue of "Uncle Ho" in the park in front of this building.

On Saturday night, the spot lights were all lit, and the building looked really different from daytime. On weekday nights, the lights are also on, but they were a lot dimmer.

According to my guidebook, this is the most photographed building in HCMC. Do not miss it! It would be even better if you could see it at night on weekends, when they switched on all the lights!

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Address: It is just beside the Rex Hotel

The same building, taken in the day. It looks totally different during the night (see my previous tip), when it gets all lit up. Lovely!

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Like what many people have said, this building bears an uncanny resemblance to a train station. It was designed and built by Gustav Eiffel (the same French bloke who built the Eiffel Tower).

There is a huge portrait of Ho Chi Minh inside, and also two huge, old maps (of Saigon and Vietnam-Cambodia). We bought some stamps and postcards there. The benches in the Post Office offer a great place for us exahusted tourists to just sit down and recharge.

It is opened from 6 am to 10 pm daily.

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Address: 2 Cong Xa Paris, District 1