Mentioning HCMC, people immediately think of well-known sightseeing spots in the city center such as Ben Thanh Market, Notre Dame Cathedral, the HCMC Post Office or Reunification Palace. These are fine places to visit but why not escape the city’s boisterous atmosphere for a while to enjoy a boat trip on the Saigon River to see the city from a different perspective.
Boat tours on the Saigon River have existed for a long time. But taking a junk tour, tourists experience all the spirit of Saigon from the river to the sky. A junk tour on the river is a completely fresh feeling. Just a few steps down into the junk offers another version of the city but without so much noise and less crowded. The water and wind and boundless sky are peaceful.
It’s easy enough to take a junk tour and tourists may even ask the junk owner to go to their favorite spots. Going around on the river, the tourists see Nha Rong Wharf where Ho Chi Minh left to save the country and the Thu Thiem Ferry where people are on their way to or from work. Sitting on the junk, wind off the river blows a cool gust through their hair like it wants to play with them.
The price for a junk tour is not expensive, just VND80,000 for an hour. If the tourists go in a group the price is cheaper because each junk holds ten persons.