Cu Chi Tunnels & Mekong Delta Private Day Tour with Lunch

Standing magnificently at the heart of Saigon is the Saigon Opera House, which is also known as the Municipal Theater. The building stands as one of the impressive sight in Saigon – both night and day. Saigon Opera House was built in 1898 by the French architect – Eugene Ferret, following the “flamboyant” style of the French Third Republic. It was set to be two meters higher than the street surface with two door layers, in order to prevent traffic noise. Located on the city’s center axis, connecting the metro station and roundabout in front of Ben Thanh market. From a distance, the Opera House looks like a beautiful gigantic city gate. The architecture boasts stone-carved ornaments and statues at the entrance, crystal chandeliers, and shiny granite floor at the lobby area – all built with materials imported from France. The graceful oval auditorium offers 468 seats, designed to magnify performances in both audio and visual, echo-free, and also soundproof from the outside city buzz.

Vietnam's forests built a woodworking tradition, and the monsoon climate gave it a problem: wood splits and insects get in. The answer was the resin of the son tree, brushed over temple doors and statues to seal them. In the 18th century settlers moving south carried the craft down the Saigon River to Thu Dau Mot, just north of Saigon, where the lacquer village of Tuong Binh Hiep still works. In the 1930s Vietnamese painters turned the same material into a medium for pictures, and son mai painting was born. A board takes ten to twenty layers. Crushed eggshell is set in for white. Then it is sanded back with water and stone, and the picture appears out of what is removed rather than what is added. One painting takes months. Lang Viet is part of that line. Here the work is done by artisans living with disabilities, and you can watch every stage. After a morning underground at Cu Chi, it is worth seeing what is still made by hand. There is a shop at the end, but no obligation to buy.

Explore one of the relics from one of the most significant local historical events in recent memory. Initial construction started in 1948 when the Viet Minh required somewhere to hide from French air attacks, and by 1965, the tunnel complex was estimated to consist of 200 km of tunnels. It included, hospitals, schools, meeting rooms, kitchens, and sleeping quarters. Life was difficult for the inhabitants, and to protect against outside intruders, booby traps were laid throughout the complex. You will learn more about the conditions the people lived in, the hardships they faced, and the amazing ingenuity employed to maintain life in the tunnels. We walk past huge bomb craters - evidence of the heavy bombing campaigns in the region during the Indochina conflict, discover hidden entrances right beneath your feet, wander past tiny little chimneys in the ground that dispersed smoke from the underground kitchens, fighters would have survived on, and have an exploration the complex.

An incredibly fertile region, the Mekong Delta's prime industry is food production, producing approximately half of Vietnam's total agricultural output. Local life for villages in the area revolves around the rivers and canals that make up the delta, so much so that people are more likely to transport by river than road. You will see what life is like beyond the city centre of the south. Our first stop is at a farm where local people make local products, to gain an insight into one of the cottage industries in the region. We will visit an island with lush tropical gardens where we have a chance to sample tropical fruit. Continuously, we will learn more about another cottage industry, coconut candy, local villages in the area and learn more about the traditional lifestyles, culture We will discover local life in incredible alleys hidden insight covered tropical fruit orchards , from where we will transfer to a smaller rowing boat to help us get deeper into the smaller canals.

After we finish the visiting in Mekong Delta, you will be transfer back to hotels in Ho Chi Minh City. Tour end.