TOP 5: Things To Do in Saigon Date: Friday, 15/8/2014 Alley Walks, Saigon Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) is a fascinating, vibrant and youthful city, but it’s not one that’s full of must-see tourist sights. To experience the best of Saigon, focus on its minutiae; the little details of this big city. There’s no better place to do this than in the tangled network of narrow alleyways that fill in the ‘gaps’ between the city’s major roads. Saigon’s thousands of alleyways – sometimes no more than a few feet wide – are where the majority of Vietnamese live, and it’s here that you’ll find the ‘real’ Saigon. What’s more, the alleyways offer far more charm and interest than the central area of District 1, where most travellers spend their time. Getting lost on foot in the web of alleyways brings you into contact with friendly local people, great street food, intriguing architecture, and, best of all, local life. And this particular ‘attraction’ is free! Alley life is a completely different – and much more pleasant – world to what you experience on the main streets of Saigon. Walk a few metres down any alleyway and all city noises disappear, as does all traffic. The rhythm of life is slower, calmer, and on a more human scale. It’s cool and quiet, but there’s no shortage of things to see and do: colourful fruit markets, pagodas, hidden cafes, street food vendors, shrines and even tombs. Smells are a big part of the alleyways: all sorts of cooking scents the air, especially during early mornings and late afternoons, as does the perfume of washing detergent from laundry hanging out in the sun. People live in such close proximity that there’s an intimacy to alley life: you get the feeling that life is shared; children play, do homework together; families cook, eat and drink together. All this happens either in the open air or in ground-floor rooms with the doors wide open, so that you really get to see life happening. ALLEY WALKS, SAIGON Below are three of my favourite areas for alley walks in Saigon. I’ve given a brief description of each one followed by a map. However, because most alleyways are too small to show up on Google Maps, I’ve shaded the general area instead. I haven’t plotted any particular route as this would defeat the point: the best way to experience Saigon’s alleyways is to wander aimlessly, eating and drinking anything that looks good, stopping to look at little bits and pieces of architecture – old or new – that catch your eye, until you’re either completely lost or reach a dead end. But don’t worry, you can never really get lost because, eventually, every alleyway ends up at a busy main road, where you can hail a taxi back to your place. Just make sure you bring the name and address of your hotel or house with you so that you can show it to the taxi driver. 1: Alleys around Phan Xích Long Street, Phú Nhuận District This collection of alleyways and small streets is hemmed in on three sides by some of Saigon’s busiest main roads, which makes the quiet refuge of the shady alleys all the more appealing. Phan Đăng Lưu street to the north, Phan Xích Long street to the east, and Phan Đình Phùng street to the west enclose this network of affluent-looking alleyways. A good place to enter the alleys is on Đoàn Thị Điểm street, which is to the left if you’re looking at Fortis Mỹ Hospital on Phan Xích Long street. Weave your way past markets and food vendors until the alleys get smaller. Particularly narrow and atmospheric are the routes between Cô Bắc and Cô Giang streets. Don’t forget to look up so that you can see the myriad ways that Vietnam’s middle class choose to decorate their new homes: no two houses are the same. Try ‘Coffee Corner’ on Đoàn Thị Điểm street for an iced drink after some walking: I’m Yours Café (29/27 Đoàn Thị Điểm) has a few shady wooden seats under a tree. 2: Alleys around Lê Văn Sỹ Street, Phú Nhuận District These alleyways are in the same district as the previous ones but in a very different area. Here there’s a more suburban, village-like atmosphere: it feels as though these alleyways are a self-contained world; an autonomous quarter within the city limits. Bounded by the railway to the east, the Thị Nghè Channel to the south, and Huỳnh Văn Bánh street to the north and west, you’ll find cool cafes, stylish but informal eateries, Buddhist pagodas, Catholic shrines, and small local markets. Many of the alleys have recently been repaved leading to the construction of some large, chateau-like houses which loom over the poorer, concrete-box dwellings of less fortunate residents. I have a sentimental attachment to this area because my old house was on alleyway 137 Lê Văn Sỹ street, and this is a good place to enter the alleyways. On the right-hand side, An Mộc Quán (137/6 Lê Văn Sỹ|facebook/AnMocQuan) is a nice, cool place to have a snack – they specialize in popular dishes from the coastal city of Nha Trang. 3: Alleys around the Night Flower Market, District 10 The alleyways around Hồ Thị Kỷ street in Distirct 10 feel much poorer than the previous two areas, but they are alive with food, people and, thanks to a night flower market, colour. Trapped in a triangle between three main roads – Lê Hồng Phong to the west, Hùng Vương to the south, and Lý Thái Tổ to the north – these alleys are best visited at night, when street food, families, fluorescent lights and flowers are everywhere. The grid of alleyways is easy to navigate: the main focus is Hồ Thị Kỷ street and two smaller lanes running parallel either side of it. One of these, Trần Bình Trọng street, is where thousands of colourful flowers arrive on small trucks from the mountain town of Dalat at around 11pm. This is a great time to visit as roses and lilies scent the air and you can buy flowers cheaply straight off the trucks. There’s a large Cambodian community here so many of the street food dishes are not Vietnamese. ‘Beef Hotpot Alley’ is a bustling corner where locals gather to eat, drink and talk around big pots of beef stew: try Lẩu Bò Hoàng Thu at 84/1 Hồ Thị Kỷ street. There are also plenty of shellfish eateries, especially towards Hùng Vương street.
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 07:56:33 +0000
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