Things to Do and Eat in My Tho, Vietnam

My Tho is just a short distance from HCMC (less than 40 miles) but it feels like another world. It takes the bus - Hung Hieu from District 5 - about 1.5-2 hours to make the trip (mostly because of the traffic, but also because they make several stops along the way). Fortunately, once you get there, there's enough to make for a relaxing but eventful weekend out of the city.

There's enough here to make for a pretty neat trip, including snakes, temples, statues, food, and plenty of pretty countryside on relatively nice roads - rent a motorbike and get exploring!

Follow me for some highlights...

Hủ Tiếu Sa Tế Mỹ Tho

My Tho's specialty dish is a noodle bowl where the noodles are cooked in sate sauce, which makes them a bit spicier than normal. I don't care for soup with my noodles (I know, heresy, take your protests somewhere else) so I opted for 'kho' (dry) and they were fantastic!

Vinh Trang Pagoda

My Tho's largest tourist attraction is definitely the massive buddhist site on the city's northeastern edge, and attracts huge amounts of buddhist tourists, and the occasional foreigner such as myself.

The site features three enormous statues: a reclining buddha, a laughing buddha, and a standard-issue standing buddha, as well as a large, ornate pagoda and some gardens and ponds.

Notably, the pagoda itself was designed to incorporate western and eastern influences, and is unique. It's unlike any other pagoda I've seen (and honestly, thank goodness - visiting temples as an atheist can leave them looking preeeeeeetty same-samey pagoda after pagoda) and is stunningly beautiful.

Trại Rắn Đồng Tâm

I've got a few reservations about recommending this place, but the snakes push it over the edge into 'do'. This was originally a snake farm built for milking our venomous buddies for their sweet toxin, but today is host to an (apparently) child-friendly mini-zoo. Ultimately we went because Sieu wanted to touch a snake, since (like a LOT of Vietnamese) he's terrified of them.

He was successful. They had these older big snakes out and he got to pet them and get his picture taken.

Be aware that it's clearly a zoo for entertainment and profit, and decidedly NOT focused on conservation or animal care, because these enclosures are B L E A K, to say the least. Literally the only animals I didn't feel intense empathy and pity for were the snakes, many of which had pretty nice pits with water and trees for them to curl up in, and the guinea pigs (!), which, well... they looked like they were having a pretty good time. Tough to say.

These ostriches were SO. ANGRY. at the world. I saw one try to bite a child. It was awesome.

Chùa Sắc Tứ Linh Thứu (Long Tuyền Tự)

This pagoda site was on our way to the snake farm so we stopped by for some quick pics, a prayer, and a donation for the monks. They needed it - the house across the street has one of those accursed mobile karaoke set-ups and it was pretty awful. I pity the monks!

This pagoda has an interesting story. In Vietnam's past, there was a military General fighting a war (given the location, maybe against the Cham people?) and was fleeing his enemies, who were hot on his trail. He sought refuge in this temple and the monks hid him under a giant bell, where he would surely have been discovered except for ~magical spiders~. The spiders quickly covered the bell in cobwebs, making it look undisturbed, and the General was overlooked by the searching enemies. He later became a King of Vietnam.

The grounds are not large, but they are well-kept, the gardens are quite beautiful, and everything is very neat and clean. Except screw that karaoke guy. That guy sucks.

Kimmy's Chocolatier

We didn't get a chance to visit this, but it was recommended to us multiple times, so I'll add it here for those curious.

This is a gourmet chocolate shop started by a retired Canadian engineer that now produces some very fine chocolates from Vietnamese cacao beans, which you can buy in any of the major cities in the country. They give tours of the facilities and have all their products for sale. Our homestay host said they sell chocolate lotion, which... I don't know, sounds a bit kinky for Vietnamese couples, but who am I to judge? ;D

And this concludes my tiny list of things to do and eat in My Tho, Vietnam! If you're in the area and see something special that I didn't get a chance to see, please leave it in the comments and next time I'm passing through to parts unknown of the Mekong, I'll check them out!

Thank you for reading! Let me know your favorite My Tho hangouts. :)