Saigon Cyclo Tour: Flower Market, Chinatown & Binh Tay

4.86

(192 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

The first thing I noticed was the way the city moved beneath me—sitting in that old cyclo seat, knees tucked up, I felt like a kid again. Our driver grinned back at us as we wove into the Saigon traffic, which is somehow both chaos and choreography. The air smelled like exhaust and something sweet (maybe jackfruit?) from a street cart. I kept thinking: this is what a day trip in Saigon should feel like—close to everything, but just far enough to watch it all swirl past.

We stopped at Ho Thi Ky Flower Market, and our guide Linh led us through tight lanes packed with buckets of lilies and marigolds. She pointed out a woman arranging lotus blossoms for an altar—her hands moved so fast. I tried to ask her name (failed miserably), but she just smiled and handed me a tiny jasmine garland. The smell stuck to my fingers for hours. After that, we hopped back on our cyclos for Chinatown—District 5—and the ride felt slower here, or maybe I was just getting used to the rhythm.

Thien Hau Temple was smoky and cool inside, with coils of incense hanging overhead like lazy spirals. Linh explained how people come here to pray for safe journeys; she showed us how to light incense (I got ash everywhere). There were old men playing chess outside under faded red lanterns. We wandered through Binh Tay Market next—rows of dried fruit, spices piled high, vendors shouting prices in Vietnamese and Cantonese. I bought some candied ginger without knowing what it cost; didn’t matter. The market’s clock tower loomed over everything but nobody seemed to notice except us tourists craning our necks.

I still think about that cyclo ride back towards District 1—the sun slipping behind tangled power lines, my legs sore from sitting funny but not wanting it to end yet. There’s something about seeing Saigon at street level that sticks with you longer than any photo could capture.