TOKIDOKI (NOMAD)

SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳 STREET ART: TRINH CONG SON

Published on October 9, 2026 by jacquelinemhadelLeave a comment

The writing is a famous verse by Trịnh Công Sơn, one of Vietnam’s most beloved songwriters.

Vietnamese:
Hạt bụi nào hóa kiếp thân tôi
Để một mai vươn hình hài lớn dậy
Ôi cát bụi tuyệt vời
Mặt trời soi một kiếp rong chơi

English translation:
Which speck of dust became my body,
So that one day it could grow into this human form.
Oh, wondrous dust,
The sun shines upon a lifetime of wandering.

This is a poetic meditation on life, mortality, and our return to dust. The verse reflects the idea that humans come from dust, live a brief, beautiful life, and eventually return to the earth. It is one of Trịnh Công Sơn’s most well-known philosophical themes.

July 2026

SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳: IF YOU HAVEN’T FOUND IT YET, KEEP LOOKING

Published on October 8, 2026 by jacquelinemhadel1 Comment

Hot cupping, also called fire cupping, is an ancient healing practice used for thousands of years across Chinese, Middle Eastern, and Central Asian medicine. A practitioner briefly heats the air inside a glass cup with a flame, then places the cup on the skin. As the air cools, it creates suction that pulls the skin upward into the cup.

It relieves muscle tension, boosts circulation, and promotes relaxation. It’s popular with athletes; you may have seen the telltale circular marks on Olympic swimmers. The dark circles left behind aren’t bruises from injury but marks from the suction drawing blood to the surface, and they typically fade within a week or two.

If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking

Snacks are available on the streets 24/7

July 2026

SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳 STREET ART: PROPAGANDA

Published on October 7, 2026 by jacquelinemhadelLeave a comment

July 2026

SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳 STREET ART: 🌳 🦋

Published on October 6, 2026 by jacquelinemhadelLeave a comment

July 2026

SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳 STREET ART: 🪏 🌳 🚦

Published on October 5, 2026 by jacquelinemhadelLeave a comment

23july26

SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳 STREET ART: BLACK CREDIT

Published on October 4, 2026 by jacquelinemhadelLeave a comment

tín dụng đen = black credit, the Vietnamese term for loan sharking or illegal informal lending.
Propaganda Art on a utility box.

23july26

SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳: STREET HAPPENINGS

Published on October 3, 2026 by jacquelinemhadel1 Comment

This small shrine across from the main park is still an active place of worship, not just a historical marker.
Locals stop there to light incense, leave flowers, fruit, and other offerings, and pray to Thích Quảng Đức, who is venerated as a Bodhisattva (Bồ tát) in Vietnamese Buddhism. Many people consider the actual ground where he sat to be sacred, so this older shrine carries deep spiritual weight.
(Thích Quảng Đức was a Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk who burned himself to death in protest on June 11, 1963.)

Everyone, all ages, all genders, all walks of life, sit on colorful plastic stools and eat their meals together

July 2026

SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳: JAMIUL ISLAMIYAH MOSQUE

Published on October 2, 2026 by jacquelinemhadelLeave a comment

Jamiul Islamiyah Mosque (also called the Nancy Mosque), located at 459B Trần Hưng Đạo, Cầu Kho Ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City.

Originally built around 1950 to serve the growing Muslim population in this part of Saigon. Unlike some of the city’s older mosques, which were founded by Indian Muslim merchants during the French colonial era, Jamiul Islamiyah became closely associated with the ethnic Cham Muslims, whose ancestors once ruled the ancient Kingdom of Champa in central and southern Vietnam.