Discover Vietnam with Indochina Lands

My travelogue: a trip to Vietnam, from south to north. From Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi, via My Tho with its stilt houses along the river, Vinh Long where boats loaded with rice sail on the Mekong, Sadec with its beautiful pagodas, the strawberry and coffee plantations of Dalat, Buon Ma Thuot where the population keeps elephants, Hoi An with its atmospheric town center, the Cham temples in My Son and the ancient emperor's city Hue. In this article, I describe few parts of my journey, organized by Indochina Lands, a travel agency in Vietnam .rnSaigon:rnOn my first full day here I went to some of the famous sights of Saigon: Notre Dame Cathedral, built by the French in the late 1800’s, aesthetically pleasing, the nearby Continental and Caravelle hotels, and the lovely City Hall, a magnificent French building. It is situated at the top of Dong Khai Boulevard, full with leafy trees and designer shops, known as Rue Catinat during the French colonial era, and labeled the Champs Elysee of the east. Fine gentlemen and ladies use to promenade and gather for late afternoon aperitifs and catch up on the latest gossip. I also visited the Ho Chi Minh City Museum, devoted to Vietnamese culture and the independence of the country, and the so-called Reunification Palace, with its architecture quite contrasting with the French Colonial former governor’s residence.rnThe Mekong Delta, My Tho:rnFrom my hotel in the town of My Tho (this town is the gateway to the Mekong Delta), I bicycle to the Vinh Trang pagoda, 2 km from the town. At the entrance fruit, peanuts and many other things are sold. The pagoda is colorful and supposedly was built with French, Khmer and Chinese influences. Inside are little altars everywhere with incense and there is a large golden Buddha statue.rnI also took a tour to the Mekong Delta, Vietnam’s rich agricultural and inland fishing area, where I visited by boat a floating market, rice wine, rice paper and honey making facilities, and had a tasty lunch at a tranquil eco-lodge on an island in the delta, that had beautiful gardens and featured a traditional music performance.rnDalat:rnDalat is a town at 1450m, developed by the French in the 19th century as a hill station, to get them out of the sultry weather of Saigon. The town is charming and is surrounded by so many interesting things like I never saw before. The sites I saw were stupendous, Valley of Gold, a beautiful lake and forest that is the reservoir for the city, an embroidery historic/traditional village built by a doctor and artist.rnMy Son:rnMyson was the religious center of the Champas, the population that occupied this central area of Vietnam between 2nd and the 15th century. They built impressive monuments, tombs for their kings and MySon is their center, which lasted for 9 centuries. far longer than any of the other centers in SE Asia.