Ho Chi Minh City, still referred to as Saigon by many locals, is a very bustling city of 8 million residents. During our 11 day visit we explored several interesting sites. 

Chia Giac Nguyen Temple– We noticed this Buddhist temple and tower from the front entrance to our apartment building and decided to take a closer look. We did not go inside the temple because of the renovation work being done. But we got a good look at the newly finished exterior sections and the adjacent tall tower. We are not sure why it is called a nine-tier tower since it has 11 levels. 

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Vinh Hoi Catholic Church– As we walked around the block of our apartment we saw this colorful Catholic Church. After dark the church was illuminated, a peaceful sight when we walked across the bridge over the river.

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Reunification Palace – During our tour of the Reunification Palace we saw many artifacts and learned more about Vietnam’s history. The building is now a museum for visitors and occasionally used for government events. The palace, originally designed and built during the French colonial period, was called Norodom Palace from 1868 to the 1950’s. In the early 1960’s the palace became home to the South Vietnamese president. Shortly after, some of the building was destroyed by North Vietnamese bombs. As a result, the palace was completely redesigned by a Vietnamese architect and renamed Independence Palace. The structure was renamed again in 1975 after the fall of Saigon to North Vietnam. The furniture, collections, and paintings of that time have been preserved. As we looked at the chairs, couches, dressers, dishes, and telephones in the many rooms we were reminded of our childhood and grandparents’ homes during the 1970’s. We spent extra time reading explanations when we viewed unique palace features such as the rooftop helipad, bulletproof glass surrounding the dance hall on the upper floor, target practice room, well-equipped commercial kitchen, and underground bomb shelter with a large telecommunications center. The well-manicured palace grounds include several displays of military equipment. The most interesting to us were replicas of the Chinese and Russian tanks used by the North Vietnamese Army to crash through the palace gates on April 30, 1975 signifying the fall of Saigon.

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Central Post Office– This large yellow building, built in the late 1880’s, is one of the oldest in the city. The structure gives the feeling of old European railway stations and was designed by the Frenchman Marie-Alfred Foulhoux, architect-in-chief for Saigon during that time. We admired many interesting interior features, including the beautiful old wood phone booths and the two 1892 maps hanging above them. One map is of Saigon and its surroundings and the other is of the old telegraph lines in southern Vietnam and Cambodia. The building continues to function as a working post office where residents and visitors can mail letters and packages, as well as purchase a wide variety of postage stamps for use or collecting. 

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Saigon Norte Dame Cathedral – After visiting the post office we walked across the street to the large cathedral located in Paris Square and near many government buildings. Constructed from 1863 to 1880 during the French colonial period, this large cathedral was built with materials exclusively imported from France, including the exterior red bricks.  The steeples on top of the two bell towers were added in 1895. Unfortunately we were not able to see inside this tall, beautiful cathedral because of restoration work. 

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Walking Street – Cars, trucks, and motorbikes were relegated to the edges of this wide street in 2015 to make way for a large plaza with beautiful flower beds, benches, fountains spurting out from the concrete tiles, and a perimeter of shady trees. During our walk through the plaza we watched children play in the somewhat unpredictable tall streams of water, an event company set up many lights and extensive sound equipment for a weekend concert, and tour groups photograph city hall which sits at the north end of Walking Street. The French colonial building was originally a hotel, but is now The People’s Committee Hall. Along the plaza we also noticed a large concrete building, commonly called the Apartment Cafe. Once a block of residences with many balconies, the structure is now a commercial building with interesting shops and cafes. Fahasa Book Store, the government run bookstore that can be found throughout Vietnam, is on the main floor. Regrettably we did not check out the bookstore or any of the numerous cafes. 

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Water Taxi – This public transportation service was an easy, inexpensive way for us to get a different view of the city and explore a bit of the Saigon River. Our hour-long “outbound” ride included 5 stops. And then after a brief break we rode the taxi back to our starting point, just down the road from Walking Street. An enjoyable and relaxing way to spend a sunny afternoon. 

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Swensen’s – We discovered a Swensen’s ice cream restaurant about 1/2 mile from our apartment. So of course we supported the local economy by visiting often. The eatery had three very tasty chocolate flavors.

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