I realized when I reactivated my blog and reflected on my years of entries that I have never written about Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City as the rest of the world knows it. Most people who live in Saigon don’t call it Ho Chi Minh City, mainly because it’s a mouthful, and secondly it was a name given to them by the North after the war. It’s like when National Airport in DC was renamed Ronald Reagan International Airport after Ronald Reagan fired all the air traffic controllers! National Airport will always be National Airport to me, and Saigon will always be Saigon to those born and raised there.
I first visited Saigon in January 2016. It was the last stop of my Vietnamese tour that I had taken with my nephew and friends. We actually spent New Year’s Eve up on a rooftop deck and watched the fireworks that are launched every year.
Our hotel was located in District 1. Saigon, similar to Paris, is divided into twenty four districts. Half of those districts are just numbered from 1-12, the other half are named districts. The majority of tourists only experience District 1 since this is the city’s business hub and houses most of the historic sites tourists want to visit such as Ben Thanh market, the post office, the Reunification Palace, and the Vietnam War Museum. It’s also a place for banks, five star hotel chains, consulates and global restaurants. District 1 feels like any modern city with the exception that the streets are crammed with motorbikes rather than cars. Unlike cramped Hanoi, District 1 has wide boulevards, large traffic circles, and walkable sidewalks.
But District 1 is deceiving, and if you only visit that area of the city, you’ll walk away with the wrong impression of Saigon. Unfortunately, the city doesn’t make it easy to visit other parts since there isn’t a very good public transportation system in place. They just opened one subway line this past January, but it is very limited (fortunately more are scheduled). There is a bus system, but I couldn’t even begin to navigate it and given the traffic, it is incredibly slow. If you want to see the city, you need a motorbike, and the courage to drive it.
Since my initial visit in 2016, I have returned to Saigon multiple times, and now call it my second home. My husband was raised there, and we purchased an apartment in 2022 in District 6. District 6 is mostly ignored amongst the other districts. So much so that when I tell friends whom I meet in Saigon that I live in District 6 their response is usually the same, “There’s a District 6?”
I felt the same way when I first visited my husband’s home. District 6 is located next to the much larger District 5, home to Saigon’s Chintatown and its Chinese-Vietnamese population. The original area of District 5 was called Cho Lon and it’s where the second largest market in the city, Binh Tay, is located. As that area expanded, it spread and became District 6, which at the time of my husband’s birth was still rice paddies and farms. Today, both areas are heavily built up, but District 6 is becoming more popular given its proximity to Vo Van Kiet, the major highway that takes you directly into District 1. Since the districts surrounding District 1 have gotten more and more expensive, District 6 has become a more affordable option that still allows its residents to be downtown in 20 minutes. New apartment buildings are being built throughout District 6 and with those new buildings come new restaurants, coffee shops, and stores.
I could write a book about the different districts in Saigon, and I’m sure someone has, but for the purpose of this blog, I’ll just highlight a few that I have visited and enjoyed.
District 2 used to be one of the poorest areas in the city because the Saigon River cuts it off from the rest of the city and much of the land was swampy and filled with small waterways. But after the Thu Thiem tunnel opened in 2011, that area grew exponentially. It’s more spread out with larger sidewalks, roadways, and expensive high rise apartments. It is also home to several large international schools, so consequently the area has an international population. As a result, restaurants and shops cater to western tastes, and this section of Saigon feels very different than other areas of the city. It also floods on a regular basis since it is below sea level, and drainage is a problem given it was mostly swamp land before being developed.
District 3 has the most beautiful examples of colonial architecture in the city, with a good combination of the old and new. It’s home to some of the palatial houses in Saigon since many of the rich government workers live there. I’ve always like this district because it close to the center of the city and feels most like what Saigon used to be, narrow alleyways filled with street vendors selling delicious food.
District 4 has changed dramatically, even since I first started coming to the city. It’s a popular place to live and is now filled with many places to eat and drink. It’s frequented by a younger crowed as evidenced by the co-worker spaces that have cropped up. It also has small, hip clothing stores, and many young people now go here to drink and party.
District 7 is home to the flashy Phu My Hung district with its tall apartment buildings, wide streets, and walkable sideways. It’s also a district that has banned much of the street food vendors and feels more like a city in Korea than Vietnam. But, it’s also quieter, filled with more green space, and one of the few districts in which I would feel comfortable driving a car. It’s a bit far away from the action of downtown, and like District 2, it floods biblically. The school I worked at was located in Phu My Hung, and during the rainy season, the streets became rivers. Since I commuted by motorbike some of my commutes home were horrific. The water in the streets came halfway up the motorbike, and you’re in constant fear that the engine will stall. Traffic comes to a standstill, and a 30 minute commute can turned into two hours. Many expats enjoy District 7, but for me it lacks personality.
Another fast growing district is Binh Thanh. Bin Thanh is located next to District 2 and its popularity among expats is growing. It has new developments like Pearl Plaza that attract young people for the shopping and modern conveniences. The problem for me is Bin Thanh is a long haul even from District 1. From where we live, it takes almost 90 minutes to get there, and once you’re there it can feel a little remote being so far outside the city. In the coming years, though, I can see this district becoming the next big thing.
So what makes Saigon special? It’s a difficult question to answer because it’s not just one thing, but a series of small things. Saigon is a night city. During the day, it’s too hot to be outside, but once the sun drops, the city comes to life. Outdoor restaurants line the streets with their ubiquitous plastic red chairs and metal tables. Each of these restaurants are filled with people enjoying their favorite foods, and unlike western-style restaurants, most places only sell one or two things. If you want com tam (broken rice with grilled pork chops), you go to your favorite vendor to eat it. Down the street is banh xeo (crepes with shrimp and pork belly) or bun bo hue (a spicier pho like soup) .
In addition to the food vendors, Saigon is filled with coffee houses. In almost every district you can’t walk more than one block without finding a coffee shop. The Saigonese have embraced the coffee culture, mostly due to the French Colonial influence. Ironically, most people don’t drink coffee, but order different types of bubble tea or overly sweet fruit drinks. I usually prefer a cafe sua da or Vietnamese iced coffee. Vietnamese coffee is super-charged - thick and highly caffeinated. In order to make it less bitter, coffee is usually served with sweetened condensed milk. The mixture of the strong coffee with the sweetened milk makes for a delicious combination. I usually drink one a day when in Vietnam.
To truly experience Saigon, though, one must ride a motorbike through downtown at night. The influx of high rise buildings, many of which provide beautiful light shows with their built in LED lighting, make for a magical landscape of architecture and color. The area around Landmark 1, a newly developed community with the world’s tallest hotel, is beautiful at night with its many buildings hugging the Saigon River. The bridges are lit up as well, and all the colors reflect off the water and the city looks like a neon garden of glass and metal. Even if you can’t drive your own motorbike, just riding behind a driver one can experience the excitement and beauty of Saigon. There are several companies that offer motorbike tours of Saigon at night and I would highly recommend them to anyone visiting the city.
With all these skyscrapers comes multiple roof top bars. These bars are filled with the rich and glamorous since they are not cheap, even by western standards. A bottle of wine can run you almost $100 dollars, and this isn’t even for a quality brand. Yet despite the cost, the pomp and circumstance of these bars makes them worth a visit. Plus, the views are spectacular. Unfortunately they can be loud which can make socializing a bit more challenging.
What is Saigon? It is a thousand things. It is the heat of the day and the breath of night. It is the clatter of metal chairs on cracked pavement, the sizzle of pork fat on the grill, the thick, sweet weight of condensed milk in strong coffee. It is the hum of a million motorbikes, the glow of neon, the laughter spilling into the streets. It is a place where no one hides. Doors stay open, voices carry, life is lived out loud.
Ride a motorbike through the city at night. Let the lights blur past, let the river catch their colors and send them shimmering back. The skyline rises, all glass and steel, the bridges pulse with light, and the city swells and sighs beneath it all. If you do not know Saigon, come. If you think you know it, look again. The city is changing. It always has been. It always will be.