Roaming the streets of Saigon
I spent 2 weeks in Vietnam’s economic capital Saigon, also known as Ho Chi Min City.
My first week there coincided with TET, the lunar new year festival. Read more about this at: A tete-a-tete with Vietnam during T.E.T
For my second week in Saigon, I moved closer to downtown Saigon so that could conveniently explore the city center.
Saigon is super-busy, noisy and smelly, but lively and a feast for the eyes (and for the camera). The city has lots of heritage architecture.
Some beautiful French colonial buildings among them.
The city center is also quite green with some nice tree-lined boulevards.
Vietnam has probably one of Asia’s most exciting cuisine. But for this aspect, there are lots of blogs out there which explore Vietnam’s rich food culture.
Two of the main landmarks in Saigon: Old Post Station and Saigon Town Hall
Heritage building & Temple scene
Isn’t she a beauty ?
The busiest motorcycle place I have ever seen…
Modern Vietnam’s founding father: Ho Chi Min
In pursuit of worship
Coffee houses everywhere…
Business in Vietnam has still some space to grow…
No rush… Business the Vietnamese way…
Chinatown here I come…
First I explored VietNam’s largest traditional market: Bin Tay . However, overly busy, dark allayed markets with smelly stalls with goods for which I have absolutely no use I have seen more than enough in 30 years in South East Asia. So I left this place rather quickly and rather wandered about the streets.
Here are some impressions of Saigon’s Chinatown:
as Chinese as it can get…
Grains, grains and more grains
Bin Tay market, the largest in Vietnam
Or a how about a new helmet ?
Binh Than District – traditional Saigon
My apartment was in Binh Than, a district bordering the first. There is pretty much no particular place in Binh Than district which a visitor to Saigon would want to see.
However, Binh Than is a rather old and very typical district of Saigon. So I was able to indulge in my favorite pastime when I am in a foreign city. Wandering about and see how the locals go about their activities. And immerse me in peoples’ daily life.
For this Binh Than was perfect and I enjoyed my extended strolls very much. In the following, I would like to present you with some sights and impressions of a typical inner-city neighborhood of Saigon.
Oh, yet more flowers… but that is Vietnam… I can’t help it…
a quick bite before the next sale…
Business on the streets of Binh Than
Flowers, fish and more…
Mostly woman who are in business here…
Some flowers if I may
And although I already showed you lots of flower photos in my first Viet Nam post here are some more. Those are all Orchids, a flower very common and coveted in Vietnam.
Vietnamese Orchids
More Orchids
and even more Orchids
To the great country of Viet Nam and all the wonderful people I met there: Thank you so much for the wonderful time… I’ll be back soon.
If you want to see more of Viet Nam, you can see the photographs my wife took during her first visit to Viet Nam, back in 2007.
Truly’ DOMINIK
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