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Photo: Lam Son Square in Ho Chi Minh City
(Saigon)
Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC),
formerly known as Saigon, lies between the
Mekong Delta and south Vietnam. This famous
tourist city is 1,730 kilometers
from Hanoi and 50 kilometers from the East Sea. It is
the second most important city in Vietnam after
Hanoi. The main ethnic groups found living here
are the Kinh and Hoa. Up till today, nobody
calls the city Ho Chi Minh City as they still
prefer to call it Saigon, as it always has been
and will be but no matter what you call this
city, the tourist attractions here is simply
stunning.
 Ho Chi Minh City
may, at first, seem to be populated with a
million bandana-bedecked women bandits on the
verge of a giant traffic accident. In fact, the
pattern in the streets reflects a generalized,
organized chaos in a city that attracts people
from all over the country hoping to find better
jobs. It is a city on the march, a boomtown
where the rule of the dollar is absolute.
Fuelled by the sweeping changes brought by doi
moi, this effervescent city, now boasts fine
restaurants, immaculate hotels, glitzy bars
among its colonial villas, venerable pagodas and
austere, Soviet-style housing-blocks and the
city is made up mainly of seventeen urban and
five rural districts, known as quan. The city's
Chinatown, located at Cholon, is a popular area
among the foreign and local visitors.
Ho Chi Minh's statue
Central Ho Chi Minh
City is a small, lively universe where French
colonial buildings languish along
motorcycle-choked boulevards. Tall tamarind
trees shade sidewalk stalls where young people
gossip over drinks and old men play chess,
accompanied by a soundtrack of pop ballads and
honking horns. Crazy-making and seductive, it
beats with a palpable energy, day and night and
the activities here never seemed to stop. This
place is known for its pagodas and among the
places of interest
which are worth visiting are the oldest pagoda
in the city, Giac Lam Pagoda, the Giac Vien
Pagoda which has beautiful sculptural
ornamentation, and the Jade Emperor Pagoda. At
Cholon, Chinese temples found here include Quan
Am Pagoda, the Phuoc An Hoi Quan Pagoda which is
the most beautifully ornamented found here, and
the most visited Thien Hau Pagoda.
A sprawl of 17 Urban
Districts i.e. District 1, 2,3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,
9, 10, 11, 12, Tan Binh, Binh Thanh, Phu Nhuan,
Thu Duc and Go Vap and five Rural Districts
i.e. Nha Be, Can Gio, Hoc Mon, Chu Chi and Binh
Chanh make up the vast geography of Ho Chi Minh
City, though most visitors wander only around
the Dong Khoi and Pham Ngu Lao neighborhoods.
For a hassle free travel, a Ho Chi Minh map is
surely a must.
On any Sunday night
Dong Khoi Street and Lam Son Square is jam
packed with young people dressed in their
latest designer label clothes, cruising ten
abreast on motorbikes, out to see and be seen
making this place one of the busiest in the city. This region is
crisscrossed by hundreds of rivers and canals,
the largest being the Saigon River. The
Saigon River flows down the eastern side while
the famous Chinatown, lies southwest of
the centre.
Wherever you go, you
will have to cross the busy street eventually,
so one safe way to cross the street is to step
into the street and walk slowly across so that
drivers can see and drive around you. If you
lack the nerve, follows behind the locals when
they cross the streets. Street designations are
shortened to D for Duong while boulevard becomes
DL for Dai Lo. Other tourists attractions here
include the War Remnants Museum which exhibits
retired artillery pieces, the Museum of Ho Chi
Minh City which consists mostly of artifacts
from the Communist period, the History Museum
and the Fine Arts Museum. The Reunification
Palace and the Zoo and Botanical Gardens are
also the tourists' favorite and to recover from
all of these sight seeing, then visit a local
traditional massage centre for rejuvenation.
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