Mekong Delta & Cu Chi Tunnels: Small Group Day Trip

4.97

(210 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

Hands covered in the cool clay of the tunnel wall, I shuffled behind our guide—Minh kept ducking his head, but I still scraped mine. He told us stories about the Cu Chi Tunnels that didn’t make it into my old textbooks back home. The air was thick and earthy down there, but above ground it was all birds and sunlight and the odd rooster crowing from a neighbor’s yard. Someone in our group tried firing an AK-47 at the range (not me—I flinched at the first shot), and Minh just grinned like he’d seen this a hundred times.

Lunch came later than I expected, but maybe that made it better. We stopped somewhere along the road—plastic chairs, fans whirring overhead—and they brought out plates of caramelized pork and rice. I’m still not sure what half those herbs were, but they tasted green and sharp. After that we drove on to My Tho for the Mekong Delta part of the day trip from Ho Chi Minh City. The river looked wide and brown under the afternoon sun; boats with blue tarps drifted past us as we boarded our own little motorboat.

I didn’t expect to laugh so much at a coconut candy workshop, but watching Li (our host) try to teach us how to twist hot candy without burning our fingers was hilarious—she laughed even harder when I dropped mine straight onto my sandal. The air smelled sweet and smoky inside. Later, we sat in a garden with honey tea (sticky hands again), while local musicians played something soft on stringed instruments. There were kids peeking around trees, waving at us like we were celebrities or maybe just oddities.

The day ended with another boat ride through narrow canals lined with coconut trees—quiet except for paddles dipping into water and someone humming behind me. I thought about how different this felt from the city: slower, softer somehow. Even now, sometimes I catch myself remembering that moment by the riverbank, just listening to everything and nothing.