Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

By Angeline - February 26, 2011

Fasten your seatbelts as Ho Chi Minh City is a metropolis on the move, I'm not just talking about the motorbikes that throng the streets. Saigon, as it’s known to all but city officials, is Vietnam at its most dizzying: a high-octane city of commerce and culture that has driven the whole country forward with its limitless energy. It is a living organism that breathes life and vitality into all who settle here, and visitors cannot help but be hauled along for the ride.

Contributed by Gladys

Saigon is a name so evocative that it conjures up a thousand jumbled images. Wander through timeless alleys to ancient pagodas or teeming markets, past ramshackle wooden shops selling silk, spices and baskets, before fast-forwarding into the future beneath sleek skyscrapers or at designer malls, gourmet restaurants and minimalist bars. The ghosts of the past live on in the churches, temples, former GI hotels and government buildings that one generation ago witnessed a city in turmoil, but the real beauty of Saigon’s urban collage is that these two worlds blend so seamlessly into one.

Saigon has it all, whether you want the finest hotels or the cheapest guesthouses, the classiest restaurants or the most humble street stalls, the designer boutiques or the scrum of the markets. At Saigon you can experience so many things, memorable conversations, tantalising tastes and moments of frustration. Stick around this conundrum of a city long enough and you may just unravel its mysteries.

(Resource from http://www.lonelyplanet.com/vietnam/ho-chi-minh-city)

Ho Chi Minh Muzeum

Opera House

Bun Goi Da

Vietnamese Milk Coffee

Ben Thanh Market

Ho Chi Minh Street

City of Motorbikes

Cyclo

Saigon Central Post Office

Telephone Booth @ Central Post Office

Notre Dame Cathedral

Wall Decor Art

Handicrafts

Cao Dai is a sect that mixes all sort of religions and famous people as their prophets. A bit kitsch and outdated but interesting to see in a country that is in majority buddhist and where the government has been cracking down on all sort of religious beliefs in the last 30 years.

Nem Ran (Spring Rolls)

Cheap Beer, 2 bottle for only US$1

Banh Mi Thit

The Vietnamese equivalent of a “submarine” – a Vietnamese baguette stuffed with any of a wide variety of fillings including ham, cheese, canned sardines, Vietnamese bologna and pickled carrot

3 differrent Type of Coffee

Window's Coffee

Cozy Vietnamese Restaurant

Goi Cuon

The famous Vietnamese “summer rolls”: shrimp or pork (sometimes both) with herbs, rolled up in rice paper and served cold with a peanut dipping sauce.