The Highlights of Saigon

Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City, is the largest city in Vietnam and the country’s chief business centre. It’s populous, frenetically busy and filled with noise (and motorcycles, especially during rush-hour) but it has a curiously enchanting friendliness to it, moreso than Hanoi. The city centre is also classically elegant, with its broad promenades and generous squares. And there are some beautiful old pagodas and fabulous markets, crammed with colour, music and wonderful tastes – local food specialties are routinely proffered in them.

Let’s kick off at Ben Thanh Square, the acknowledged centre of Downtown Saigon. Backpackers and those who are travelling ‘lite’ will head for the bars, restaurants and hotels of the Pham Ngu Lao area; if you’re used to a little more comfort, it’s as well to stay way from this place (although students may have a ball there). You won’t get much in the way of authentic Vietnamese cuisine, but you’ll get plenty of western-style burgers and hot dogs. Not so very far away is the much more impressive, French-influenced downtown Saigon. It’s crammed with far superior restaurants and bars and feels distinctly more family friendly than its poorer neighbour in Pham Ngu Lao.

Make a point of visiting the Ben Thanh Market. Even for those who don’t like noisy markets, this one has a seductive appeal. Okay, it is noisy, but it’s full of verve, vibrancy, colour and humour. Neatly grouped into different product zones, the market is colourful, lively and astonishingly stylish. The range of lady’s shoes alone is enough to take your breath away. And watch how the locals bargain with the traders for a while before you buy anything – if you’re canny enough you can get some truly amazing deals.

For a building constructed in the 20th century, Saigon’s Town Hall really stands out as a jewel of ornate, architectural grandeur (rather than a brutal cube of architectural modernism). You won’t be able to get inside but you will be allowed to walk through the beautiful park surrounding it at the front, which sports an enigmatically poignant statue of Ho Chi Minh himself. And when the building is illuminated at night it is spellbindingly beautiful.

Or try a stroll around the gorgeous Notre Dame Cathedral. Built towards the end of the 19th century, this gracefully splendid building is suffused with French influence. Whilst most native Vietnamese are Buddhists, the next biggest religious following – largely thanks to the French colonisation of so many years ago – comes in the form of Roman Catholicism. And this magnificent church is a beautiful testimony to this faith. The civilised square in front of the church is full of very western-looking bars and restaurants; the financial nerve centre of the country is definitely trying to entice as much western business acumen as it can.

No visit to Saigon would be complete without a glance at the breathtaking Quoc Tu Pagoda. Right next door to a children’s amusement park, this towering Buddhist temple is replete with a classical sculpture of Buddha and countless other ornate carvings and artefacts. Don’t try to enter without respecting Buddhist dress sense, though, or you’ll cause offense (they might have invented martial arts, but Buddhists are essentially gentle people – just don’t needlessly annoy them). Take your baseball cap and your shoes off, or face the consequences. I’m exaggerating a bit; you won’t take a Kung-fu style battering, but you will be politely refused entry.

A more moving symbol, if a more modern one, of Vietnam’s historical ideological strife takes the form of the Xa Loi Pagoda. It was from here that many thousands of young Buddhist monks across the country began a hunger strike against the cruel austerity of the early communist regime. Many of them were imprisoned, tortured and never emerged again, but the pagoda acts as a symbol of remembrance for their sacrifice and bravery.

A rather gruesome, but life-changingly unforgettable, visual experience awaits the traveller at Saigon’s War History Museum. The airplanes, tanks and helicopters on display are moving enough, but they pale in comparison to the dramatic and disturbing images in the museum. The human effects of the weapons of mass destruction which the Americans deployed during the Vietnam War, including the grotesque, body deforming consequences of the infamous Agent Orange, are graphically and movingly on display here. Not for the faint hearted.

An ancient Vietnamese hero stands, carved immortally in stone, in a Square close to the Saigon River. Meet Tran Hung Dao, a fearless general who lived between 1213 and 1300 and defeated Mongol invasion twice. To this day, Vietnamese people see him as a symbol of brave resistance to unwanted incursion.

It would be negligent to visit Saigon and miss at least a look at the glorious Saigon Opera House. Constructed in the era of Napoleon III of France according to a design by Charles Garnier, you can take a tour of the sumptuous interior. Presently, it hosts traditional music shows and Vietnamese theatre productions, and local young people sit amiably and peacefully in its generous square in the warmth of the early evening.

This city bears the understated wounds of a terrible and violent war; yet its people seem to be vibrant, energetic and welcoming, despite the unspeakable oppressions they have been subject to in recent decades. There is something deeply civilised emerging, perhaps simply regenerating, in the midst of all this pain and suffering, and the good-hearted humour of the people suggests a deep well-spring of human resilience. At the very least, you are guaranteed a colourful, intriguing and strangely beguiling experience when you visit this wonderful city.