Saigon is the biggest and busiest city and port of vietnam currently known as Ho chi minh city . History of the city dates back to 11 th century when Champ kingdom ruled that area , later Khymer and french ruled that city . Before 1975 this city was in control of the capitalist US backed government . So culture here are much different than the northern Hanoi and a big chunuk of the people are Catholic christian though Buddhism is the dominant religion in this area . You can see lots of traditional french styled building inside the city .
Space in the city has been a quiet less and there has been heavy traffic in the road in the office hours. Driving a vehicle is a challenge for a foreigner inside the city . This city is also famous for it’s night life in Vietnam . Local Food is a big attraction for Foreigners in the city . You can get best fishes , crabs and shrimps in this area . The city is situated in the delta area of the mekong river .
————-First I stayed in a hostel near to the Bui Vien street , Though the facility were good but it was very congested . One thing also I must say that the hostels in the city were not clean compared to Hanoi . Only few hostels were good so when choosing one , choose higher rating hostels in Ho chi Minh city .———-
Saigon Central post Office :
Saigon central post office is a heritage building build in between 1886 – 1891 by the french colonial power . It is situated just beside the Notre dame Cathedral in the district 1 . It is an operational post office and one of the tourist attraction inside the city . Inside the post office you can see telephone booth on the both sides of the entrance for different countries which were used in the earlier times .
saigon central post office is opened from the 7 am – 7 pm and it’s entry is free .
Notre Dame Cathedral :
Notre dame cathedral is one of the important churches in Saigon and was first build in the year 1863 as a wooden church but later in 1877 the current form of the church was build . At that time , it was called saigon church and later in 1959 it was named as Notre dame church . Most of the materials used to build this church was imported from Europe .
It has different opening time in different days of the week but in week days it is opened from 5:30 am to 5:30 pm and it is free .
Mekong Delta :
Mekong delta is situated in the My tho province of vietnam wihch is situated 90 km from the Ho chi minh city . This is a very popular half day tour among the foreign tourists in the city . This is the place where mekong river meets in the sea and makes delta .
Mekong delta is mostly organized tour where the actual boat ride starts from my tho . In this boat journey you can see the lush green paddy field , coconut trees and the village life of the duelers .
Benh Tanh Market:
Benh Tanh market is the biggest market in the Ho chi minh city . It has all togeather 6000 stalls and it is more than 100 years old . Formally this market was established by the french in the year 1859 but on that spot currently the wholesale market is situated .
In current place this market was transferred in the year 1912 . This market has all togeather 4 gates and different items are sold in those sections .
This market opens from the morning 6 am to 6 pm daily .
Bui Vien Walking street :
Bui vien walking street is the major spot for partying , night clubs and bars and massage parlours . Here in the weekends night clubs are run until the morning 3 am .
Near to this area most of the budget hostels are situated and this is the place for the backpackers . You can see the streets being filled by the youngsters in the night .
———- Bus no 13 and 79 runs from the city toward the Cuci Tunnel Ben Dinh . If you are not in a organished tour then this will be a good option ———-
Cuci Tunnel :
Cuci tunnel is one of the major tourist attraction in the outskirts of the Saigon city . It is 40 km from the saigon city and the bus no 13 reached there from the city by 10000 VND . This tunnels are multilevel tunnel mostly used in the time of the vietnam war to fight against the US soldiers . In this tunnels they eat , sleep , made war tactics , made nursing and sanatory also .
There is mainly two sites in this place Ben Dinh (It is more popular among the tourist) and Ben Duoc . There is all together 250 km of tunnels in this place . There are some places in the tunnel that are really narrow and you have to crawl on that spots .
The tunnel is opened from the morning 8 am to 5 pm and the entry price is 110000 VND per person .
Summary :
Ho chi minh ( old name saigon ) city is the biggest city in vietnam and is the financial capital of the country . Before merged with the north communist government it was the capital of the south vietnam . Some old heritage french colonial buildings , cuci tunnel , mekong delta and the night life of the city are the major attraction for tourists in this city . Roads are very congested and there is space problem in the city .
