Ho Chi Minh formerly known as Saigon, is one of the most populous and busiest cities in Vietnam. The city was a bit chaos but had plenty of amazing and interesting places to explore. Ho chi Minh was the last destination in the southern part of Vietnam, where we ended our journey.

It’s a city with a billion things happening at once. The city has a lot to offer, from wonderful shopping market, eccentric nightlife, and delightful street food. Personally we liked the city Hanoi, but Saigon has its own uniqueness in terms of its city life with a wonderful experience of offbeat places that you will surely enjoy.

If you are planning to venture out in a city then you can take a taxi, or minibus, etc, or else walking is the best idea to wander the city around. If you hire a taxi within the city, Grab taxi app is the best for you. The city also offers a cheap cost of living for backpackers and digital nomads.

This travel guide will give you an idea of the best places to visit inside the Ho Chi Minh and outskirts of the city as well.

• Getting around Ho Chi Minh City– once the sun sets, the city looks more beautiful at night. Since there are many attractions to visit Saigon during the daytime but there is something special about exploring the nightlife. Take an evening stroll along Nguyen Hue Walking Street, discover a few amazing architecture and towers, have fascinating street food, spend quality time at church, and go shopping in the city’s main market from where you can pick apparel, handicrafts, and even souvenirs. Alongside, there are many spa centres at every corner of the main market, which invite you to come and relax your body and feet. In a word, you can say that evening will be spent very well in Ho Chi Min city.

• Nightlife in Bui VienStreet– Bui Vien Street is known as the backpacker’s street of Ho Chi Min city. Earlier, people used to live in these streets but now the roads and alleys around Bui Vien have become a traveller’s district, filled with restaurants, cafes, hostels, and pubs. Even you can find here more street food stalls along the street including Indian food as well.

• A journey to explore the mysterious religion in Vietnam – established in 1926 during the French time, the Cao Dai temple is one of the unique places to visit in Ho Chi Minh City. The temple has an absolutely stunning interior architecture with Christian Cathedral and it brings together Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Roman Catholicism under one roof. If you love exploring religious temples in Saigon, must add this temple to your itinerary.

Priests wear brightly colored robes reflecting their spiritual commitment – red (Confucianism& authority), blue (Taoism), yellow (Buddhism), and divine eye embroidered on their headpieces. Most worshippers are in white robes, they are all common followers.Inside the temple, the eye within the triangle symbolizes the third eye that everything he sees, and that triangle is for justice. Both the exterior and interior of the temple are beautifully decorated with symbols, abstract designs, and images of saints.

To avoid the rush in the afternoon, it is better to attain the prayer ceremony in the early morning. Watching Caodaists Prayer should not be missed, when you visit this temple. Visitors are restricted to wear covered dresses like trousers and long skirts to enter the temple.

The only way to reach the destination is by road. It is 90km away from the main city and approx. it takes 2 and half a hr. to arrive. You may purchase tickets from the backpacker’s area of Saigon (Tran Hung Dao & surroundings) for a tourist bus from any of the travel agencies or you can travel from the regular bus line as well.

• Chu chi tunnel –On the same day, The Cao Dai temple can be combined with a visit to the Chu Chi tunnels to make the day trip a worthwhile. Tourists can visit a short stretch of the tunnels, drop to their hands and knees and squeeze underground for an insight into life as a tunnel-dwelling resistance fighter. The 75 mile long complex of tunnels at Chu Chi has been preserved still by the government of Vietnam and turned into a war memorial park.

• MEKONG DELTA (MY THO & BEN TRE TOUR) – experience life in the Mekong Delta on a small group tour from Ho Chi Minh City. Travel down the narrow canals by rowing boat and get the chance to have fresh fruits, local coconut candy, honey tea, learn about local cultures and traditions as you enter to villages and the Ben Tre islands, and tuck into a Vietnamese lunch at a local restaurant.