What's not to ride in Ho Chi Minh City?

One blog recommended as a must try in HCMC is the Cyclo (pronounced as seek-low) ride.  Our Day 1 is highly remembered by this ride. I don’t know if everyone who tried riding Cyclo has the same experience as mine.

Since we still have time before the Cu Chi Tunnel tour, we decided to walk around the city. While walking, we were followed by a cyclo driver and offered a city tour. We refused to ride and started to walk again but then another driver blocked our way and recommended the Hongkong Mall, as they offer cheaper items compared to Ben Than Market. He told us to only pay 5,000 VND for the city tour while showing us a laminated paper with the list of attractions to visit. To make it more convincing, he presented a notebook with a positive comment. Guess what? It’s written in Filipino. We hopped in the Cyclo by his price of 5,000 VND per person.

On our way to Hongkong Mall, the driver will entertain you even he’s having hard time in speaking English. We were advised to go shopping first upon arrival. We left the  mall with nothing to buy since I don’t feel like buying there, it looks like some tiangge stores here in the Philippines.

Heading to War Remnants museum, I saw Jollibee and feel proud of it.  In War Remnants museum, you need to pay for an entrance fee amounting to 15,000 VND. I was thrilled by what were showcased there.

Our tour ends in Saigon River and asked the driver if they can bring us to Ben Than Market instead. They refused and asked us to pay for the service. Giving them the 5,000, the driver shouted at us that they need 1,500,00 VND each and not 5,000. Insisting  the earlier agreement, they put out the laminated paper with a 1,500,000 VND printed on it. I am not sure if that was the same paper as he hid it immediately under the chair of his cyclo. They keep on saying that our payment cannot buy a cigarette. We told them that we only have few money left. But he grabbed 500,000 VND from our money and leave us with the other driver. The other driver grabbed 100,000 VND left shown in our hands and asking us to pay for 400,000 VND. He told us to withdraw our money so we decided to go to a police officer to report them. We told him that we will come back after we withdraw our money. But he left us with no word and looked so pissed. Here is the thing, they'll bring you to Saigon River since only few people are walking there, they've planned it already.

Never ride a cyclo unless you booked it in a city tour or get fooled. Again. Never ride a Cyclo as I don’t want this to happen to you once you visited HCMC.