 | Ho Chi Minh City Tourist Traps | Tips 1 - 10 of 54 |  |
 | |  |  | Saigon River Cruise: Smelly Saigon River Cruise from Dist 1 to Cholon | Tip Rating:   |  |  | |  |
From your hotel, you look out of the window, and if you're lucky, you'll see Saigon River and small chugging boats going upstream and downstream. Sometimes you'll see small, floating families of green water hyacinths, moving downstream. Hm, sounds like a good idea to take a river cruise and see Vietnam at the same time right? Not!!! You'll have to put up with the strong smell of rotting fish, ammonia, sight of clogged up rubbish on the riverbanks, etc. I was fortunate enough to skip this ordeal, all because I had an early flight to catch! Not so for my hubby's ....french colleague. Now if you're wondering why I keep mentioning him, I have to tell you that this french chappie had the worst case of traveller's luck. Every one or two things that he recommended out of his French Lonely Planet seemed to suck big time. And yes, if you have to know, yes, his french jaw dropped again, when he saw rats by the river bank, dead and floating merrily on the water... It dropped even further later when the boatman extorted USD10 from him for the river cruise... To read more on this unfortunate French chappie, click on b'packer's hcmc page to find out more
For goodness sake, you don't have to take a cruise from District one to Cholon, you can take a nice smelling cab.
If you're really dying for a cruise, skip Saigon River and go for a paddle boat experience in Mekong Delta. Not only are the waters there cleaner, the atmosphere is very, very rustic. Best of all, the whole day trip, with lunch, would cost only a paltry $12 or less. Make your booking with Mekong Delta Adventures or Sinh Cafe. Leave a Comment
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| | | | Over-pricing: Conned by Cabbie | Tip Rating:  | | | | |
We got into a cab after we left the airport, and started haggling with the cabbie about the cab fare. In the end, we agreed to pay USD7 (we had not changed our money into the Vietnamese Dong yet, we only had USD with us then). Just before we reached our hotel, the cabbie stopped and insisted that we pay him the fare. We sensed that something was amiss, but paid up anyway. Satisfied, he then drove us to the hotel. We soon realised that we were over-charged...the amount is no big deal, really, but it really sucks to have been cheated on the first day..just after arrival...If we had paid the original amount he wanted, we would feel worse! Always insist on travelling in a metered taxi, and get the cabbie to switch on the meter! Most cabbies in HCMC are ok, but some of them would try to over-charge tourists at the airport. Leave a Comment
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