Plenty of foreign tourists find the traffic in Ho Chi Minh City a tad overwhelming, but a new bus service called City Look aims to provide visitors with a convenient, safe and comfortable way to go sightseeing
If you're trying to get around Ho Chi Minh City for years the main options have been hopping on a xe om, or jumping in a taxi, while for those looking for a leisurely way to see the city, perhaps a xich lo.
Each one has its pros and cons. A xe om is cheap and convenient, though newcomers might not be so keen on racing through the traffic on the pillion and you always have to haggle over the price. A taxi is more comfortable but if you go everywhere by taxi, the money adds up. Then the xich lo might seem slow, rather than leisurely, or old-fashioned rather than quaint, and the fact that the xich lo riders always seem so thin and weak personally makes me feel so damn guilty.
Of course, there are also public buses. But tourists in general can't immediately get to grips with public transport - there are currently only signs or instructions in Vietnamese while bus drivers can't speak English. If tourists figures out how to get from A to B on a bus, all well and good, but buses primary purpose is to serve the tens of thousands of Vietnamese commuters travelling in and out of the city every day.
But now there is a bus system in Ho Chi Minh City that caters for tourists looking to whiz around and see the sights. City Look, the creation of Global Mai Linh Travel, is a service that enables tourists the chance to see the city at their own pace. The bus will operate on a fixed route with a fixed timetable. People just hop on and then hop off. The service will be safe, comfortable and inexpensive.
"It has taken us nearly a year for us to put everything together to launch the bus, but finally, we have been recognised as an official tourist bus system in Ho Chi Minh City by the People's Committee," says Ha Phuong, Managing Director of City Look. The bus operates from 8am to 6pm on a fixed 40km circuit that has 11 stops which are clearly marked with the City Look logo, where passengers can get on or jump off. You can purchase tickets on the bus, through travel agents or at hotels. Convenience is the name of the game.
For a sight-seeing tour City Look has a one-entry ticket, which costs just VND25,000. Once you disembark the bus the ticket is invalid. Passengers will be taken on a two and a half hour trip past Pham Ngu Lao street, Ben Thanh Market, the Reunification Palace, Notre Dame Catheral, General Post Office, Ho Chi Minh City's Opera House, Ho Chi Minh City People‘s Committee's Hall, Ho Chi Minh Statue, Ngoc Hoang Pagoda and the city's Chinatown in District 5 and District 6.
The other option is a multi-entry ticket, which costs VND75,000 and offers 10 hour pass for City Look buses. Tourists can hop on and hop off wherever and whenever they like. That way the tourist can take a look around each tourist site. The gap time between buses is 30 minutes. "I feel really confident using this system. It gives you a great overview of the city for the first-time visitor, like me, and also helps you save a lot of time to get from one place to the other," says Natalie Truong, a young woman from US who has travelled throughout Asia.
City Look is the latest arm of the Mai Linh group, which already includes the Mai Linh taxi company and Mai Linh Travel. With comprehensive experience of urban transport and tourism in Vietnam, you might say that developing the City Look service was an inevitable step for Mai Linh. Each of the buses is air-conditioned and spacious 20 seats with plenty of leg room for passengers. With the city's current traffic problems, the bus is a great way of transporting large numbers of individual tourists in one fell swoop. Without the bus the same group of 20 tourists would be using a bunch of taxis, xe om or private cars.
Of course, tourists are often fascinated by Ho Chi Minh City's chaotic traffic (fodder for stories when they return home) and watching it from a City Look bus is the safer and more comfortable option. You can read a book, write in your journal or listen to your iPod and chat with the conductor and just admire the view. With tourists from all over the world flooding to Ho Chi Minh City these days, the conductors certainly have to listen carefully to each request or question.
"Sometimes I find it very difficult to understand passengers with a strong accent!" admits Do Ngoc Cam Tu, one of the City Look conductors. But everyone at City Look is excited to be part of this new service. "I feel that participating in such a new project like City Look is a big challenge but also a great opportunity for me," says Do Thi Mai Hanh, the company's research and development staff. "Many people might not understand why Mai Linh introduced City Look," says Ha Phuong, Managing Director of City Look project. "We estimate that we can make a return on our investment in three to five years. So profit is not our top priority at this stage."
In the grand scheme of things it's more important to put a sustainable service in place that will offer an international standard service for visitors and encourage people to return to the city. This is not a new concept for many international travelers, but it seems a timely one for Ho Chi Minh City, which suffers from poor infrastructure and chronic traffic problems. This is after all a city where foreigners are afraid to cross the road.
City Look will look to expand to Hanoi and Siem Riep over the next 12 months. You can click on www.citylook.vn for a printable bus schedule.
Contact: Global MaiLinh Travel 32 Nguyen Cu Trinh, Dist.1, Ho Chi Minh City Tel: 84.8. 8370 888 Fax: 84.8. 8370 999 E-mail: info@dulichmailinh.com
