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15m
Your day starts at Phu My (Thi Vai) Port, where your ship docks about two hours from Saigon. Your guide and driver are waiting at the terminal gate with a sign showing your name, from the moment the gangway opens. There is no queue to join and no coach to wait for - you walk out, meet us, and go.
The port sits on the Thi Vai river among the container terminals of Ba Ria-Vung Tau, so there is nothing to see here. That is the point: the road to Cu Chi is long and your time ashore is short, so we leave straight away and bring you back to this same spot in good time for all-aboard.
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30m · Admission ticket included
Handicap handicrafts factory: The high quality of resin from Vietnamese lacquer trees, notably those of the north, was a crucial factor in the rapid development of this art form.
Decorated lacquer statues, panels, boxes and trays may still be seen at many temples and pagodas.
In centuries the use of lacquerware was extended to larger items such as wooden chairs and tables, decorated with engraved, painted, inlaid mother-of-pearl designs.
By the 18th century important central for lacquerware production in the north and in the south.
As part of their strategy to open up Vietnamese handicrafts to new foreign markets, the French introduced formal training programmed in lacquerware at the School of Indigenous Arts near Saigon from 1901 and in Hanoi from 1930
Since that time lacquerware has continued to develop into one of the mainstays of the Vietnamese handicraft industry, both at home and abroad. Today's most popular items include vases, jewel cases, desk sets, trays and vertical blinds.
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Cu Chi Tunnels
1h 30m · Admission ticket included
Your local guide will take you on a fascinating tour of the Cu Chi tunnels tour, where 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, sample some of the simple cuisine that local fighters would have survived on, and have an opportunity to venture into the tunnels and explore the complex.
You will also have a chance to visit one of lacquer factory which is running by the government to support handicaps who make lacquer handicrafts products to help those who are victim of Vietnam war.
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40m · Admission ticket included
After the tunnels you drive a few minutes to Ben Nay, a garden restaurant on the bank of the Saigon River, out beyond the city and away from the big tour-bus stops. It is open-sided and shaded, with the water moving past below you.
Lunch is a Vietnamese meal brought to the table and shared: grilled and clay-pot dishes, rice, soup, fresh vegetables and herbs, and seasonal fruit. Tell us when you book if anyone is vegetarian or has an allergy and the kitchen will cook around it.
This is the point in the day to sit down properly. The tunnels are hot, dusty and often crowded, and you will want the shade and a cold drink before the drive back.
Your guide watches the clock so you do not have to. We time the return to Phu My around your ship's all-aboard time, and you are back on board with time to spare.
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30m · Admission ticket included
Silk is a natural protein fiber produced from the silkworm’s cocoon, and some forms can be woven into textiles. It takes around 3,000 silkworms consuming 104 kilograms of mulberry leaves to produce two pounds (one kilogram) of silk; the process lasts over three days. The result is a material that is light weight, soft and very absorbent, making it an ideal fabric for warmer countries.
Silk was once considered extremely luxurious and thus available only to noble families. Now the fabric is widely used, and beautiful silk products are affordably to anyone. Be weary of buying silk for prices lower than that since they can be of questionable quality.
A professional silk manufacturing enterprise that supplies silk not only to customers but also to designers in the Vietnam fashion market and also overseas. It exports fabric to Korea, Japan, Thailand, Denmark, France, England and the U.S., so you are guaranteed the real thing here.
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15m
Your day starts at Phu My (Thi Vai) Port, where your ship docks about two hours from Saigon. Your guide and driver are waiting at the terminal gate with a sign showing your name, from the moment the gangway opens. There is no queue to join and no coach to wait for - you walk out, meet us, and go.
The port sits on the Thi Vai river among the container terminals of Ba Ria-Vung Tau, so there is nothing to see here. That is the point: the road to Cu Chi is long and your time ashore is short, so we leave straight away and bring you back to this same spot in good time for all-aboard.
