Walk in Central Saigon. Landmarks, People, Thoughts

Famous Bui Vien:

My lucky street, by the way. Images I took here in the 2010s keep selling and has been published in so many places, including numerous Lonely Planet guides in many languages.

They have a street shrine on a corner on Bui Vien Street; when I am standing there in 2024 to take another photograph, I have a mood, like, if someone approaches to say: "Why are you trampling around the shrine for so long?", I would reply not without arrogance: "We have known each other with this shrine since 2015, are you sure you have been longer on this street?" But that's Bui Vien, nobody will say anything like that to me, why they should. 😄 And that's a pity, a sort of, since my weird fantasy will stay fantasy. 😀

Meanwhile, it's time to leave Saigon, I have been for 2 months here, and everything feels mundane. To break this feeling, during this walk on July 9, 2024, I was having a 70-300mm, instead of the usual 50mm. To scoop some images unavailable for the fifty-nifty. I also chose District 1 as the least annoying from the point of the traffic chaos since, yeah, I need to leave the city and recover from the urban stresses in some forest or, at least, a small seaside town...

Walking towards the main boulevard of the city, Nguyen Hue:

Children, carelessly cycling at Ben Thanh Square.

Another colorful landmark - the Cafe Apartment. A generic residential multi-story house turned into a flamboyant hub for cafes and restaurants.

Vincom Center, a shopping mall. Looks large but it is rather humble compared to Bangkok malls. Better than nothing especially when you only need a free bathroom. 😀

An exceptional young man shooting the Saigon Central Post Office:

Most popular location among tourists. There are flocks of them there; good to peep at how people spend their vacations.

Click-click. When I noticed him, I thought about Switzerland not sure why, however, statistically, he might be an American - there are herds of young American travelers in Saigon.

Let's take a look at this piece:

Saigon Opera; 124-year-old!

An opera in a remote colony sounds strange even for the French. Did they have their own singers living in Saigon? Opera singers convicted of treason and sent away from the country?? Lol. Or did they invite them to travel on a steamship from Paris? Like, seven weeks in the open sea? Lol one more time.

Wiki reveals that Saigon Opera never was an easy enterprise. Even at the peak of colonialism:

Despite the fact that the theatre was planned as an entertainment venue for the growing middle class, its audience declined as more and more night clubs and dance halls boomed in the city... ...decorations, engravings and statues were removed from the theatre façade in 1943 to make the theatre look more youthful

Fun, isn't it? 😐

Let's keep walking and watching Saigonese life in the 2020s.

I witnessed this group of ladies in saffron near Saigon Post Office. They were approached by tourists from time to time wanting to get a picture with them.

I mean, when you have 2.5 days or so in Vietnam, these ladies, standing next to the top attraction in downtown, are the best opportunity to get a proof you actually visited a Buddhist country.

Although, I can't guarantee these women have a connection to religion. At the same time, who cares? People need pretty girls in orange and they get them.

Keep walking, not forgetting sneaking pics of strangers!

I've shown you masterpieces of the colonial time, now let me show ones of the socialistic time:

That bronze man is another place where tourists flock around, taking selfies, a clumsy statue with the elegant colonial City Hall in the background.

The interior of the Saigon Central Post Office:

No way, the same goatee man!

The same goatee man! Considering that most Vietnamese men can't grow more than 10 hairs on the face, that's not a surprise this goatee recordsman is everywhere. Why else?

Meanwhile, the time goes by, and things slowly change... The young generation grows in the virtual garden of social media losing the ability to write, watch videos longer than 30 seconds, and even talk.

While older people also enjoy the new times when goatee Vietnam is open to the most beautiful things of the world.

Amazing, amazing Saigon, amazing time we live, absolutely love this planet. Do you, dear reader?

More stories from Southeast Asia are ahead! Check out my previous posts on my personal Travelfeed or Worldmappin map.

I took these images with a Nikkor 70-300mm on a full-frame DSLR Nikon D750 on July 9, 2024, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.