In Pham Ngu Lao Park
March 2026
SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳 STREET ART: MANEKI NEKO, BECKONING CAT
In Pham Ngu Lao Park
March 2026
SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳: THIS WEEK IN COFFEE
The week started on Đỗ Quang Đẩu, with one of those dark, violent cà phê sữa đá that feels less like a drink and more like a confrontation. In the best way. Slow Sunday morning energy. Motorbikes humming past, metal spoons everywhere tapping against glasses. The kind of coffee that makes you sit still and people watch and read until the sun gets too hot.
Then there was Pages of Passion, tucked into the Nguyễn Văn Tráng building. A bookstore café. Coco Matcha, coconut and matcha somehow balancing each other perfectly – cold, green. Sixth floor cafés in Saigon always feel slightly secret, like you’ve discovered something hidden above the noise.
Bookworm’s Coffee came next. Then another stop on Đỗ Quang Đẩu near Phạm Ngũ Lão. The coffee itself honestly wasn’t great this time. But that almost didn’t matter. Some places thrive on atmosphere alone, shade from the hard morning sun, shelter from sudden rain, the constant theater of street life. Sometimes I stay because the atmosphere feels good around the coffee.
And then the surprise of the week.
I was headed toward an air-conditioned café — when a tiny hẻm café pulled me in, instead. Small. Shaded. Local women sitting and talking like they’re there every day. I stopped for “just one coffee” and ended up reading there instead, realizing the coffee in my hand was far better than the one I’d originally been seeking.
That’s Saigon coffee culture at its best. The city rewards detours.
Even GS25 made the list this week. Self-made iced black coffee in a Korean convenience store on Bùi Thị Xuân, just sitting there and watching the morning happen.
By Friday morning, Hidden Nest on Nguyễn Văn Tráng felt like necessary coconut coffee. The staff weren’t especially cheerful. But the bitterness worked. Not as sweet as Baka Coffee (my favorite one), but maybe that was ok.
This week in coffee was definitely less about finding the “best” cup and more about the feeling surrounding it — heat to shade, tiny alley observations, accidental discoveries, and the strange way Saigon turns coffee into a front-row seat to everyday life.
May 2026
SAIGON, VIETNAM: THIS DOG IS DYED
This is a dyed dog. Someone painted black spots, stripes on the legs and tail, and what look like drawn-on eyebrows onto this dog to make it look like a hyena. Sitting on a red plastic chair against a cracked concrete wall like it owns the place.
This is someone turning their dog into a completely different animal. The eyebrows are the detail that kills me. Somebody sat down and gave their dog a facial expression.
The chair says everything, too. That’s the most Vietnamese chair in the country. Every sidewalk cafe, every street corner, every alley has those red and blue plastic stackable chairs. And this dog is sitting on one like a customer waiting for a ca phe sua da.
March 2026
SAIGON, VIETNAM: THE ICONS
City Hall, 1908. Built as the Hôtel de Ville for the colonial administration. Designed by architect Gardès in French Renaissance style. After 1975 it became the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee headquarters. You can’t go inside. The Vietnamese flag flies where the French tricolor used to. Uncle Ho’s statue sits out front on Nguyen Hue, facing the river he never saw renamed after him.
Hotel Continental, 1880. The oldest hotel in Saigon still operating. Graham Greene wrote most of The Quiet American from a room here. War correspondents filed stories from the terrace bar during both the French and American wars. A glass tower now rises behind it like a different century leaning over its shoulder. A VinFast taxi and a guy on a motorbike pass where horse carriages used to pull up.
Saigon Opera House, 1897. French Third Republic style with caryatids holding up the entrance. Used as the South Vietnamese National Assembly during the war. Now it hosts performances again. And today, a couple in wedding clothes is shooting photos on the steps while a man sits on the far right watching them, completely unbothered. 127 years of history and it’s still just a backdrop for somebody’s love story.
Saigon Central Post Office. 2 Cong Xa Paris, District 1. Right across from Notre Dame.
Designed by Auguste Henri Vildieu (not Gustave Eiffel, despite what every tour guide says, though Eiffel’s influence on the iron and steel interior is widely cited). Built between 1886 and 1891. French colonial architecture with arched ceilings, iron framework, and a grand hall that feels more like a European train station than a place to buy stamps.
Inside, two huge hand-painted maps flank the entrance. One shows the telegraph lines of southern Vietnam and Cambodia from 1892. The other shows Saigon and its surroundings from the same year. Uncle Ho’s portrait hangs at the far end of the barrel-vaulted hall, watching everyone write their postcards.
The building is still a fully working post office. You can send letters, buy stamps, exchange currency. The old wooden phone booths are still there. The original tile floors are still there. The green wrought iron is still there. It has been in continuous operation for 135 years.
Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception / Commonly known as the Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica of Saigon
The restoration started in 2017, was originally supposed to finish in 2020, got pushed to 2023 when they discovered more damage than expected, then COVID shut everything down and disrupted material shipments from Europe. The current expected completion date is 2027, with total costs now estimated at about $6 million, up from the original $4.4 million budget. (Saigoneer)
The big recent news: just last week, on March 19, they installed two new gold-plated crosses on top of the twin towers. Each cross is 3.73 meters tall, weighs over 400 kilograms, and was manufactured by Belgium’s Monument Group using solid steel finished with Italian gold leaf. The Vatican’s representative in Vietnam attended the ceremony. That’s a major milestone because it means the tower work is essentially done. (Vietnam Plus)
The remaining work includes roof repairs, stone replacement on the towers, new ventilation systems, and a future pipe organ. (Airial Travel)
It’s not open for sightseeing during renovations, but Mass still takes place, including a 9:30 AM English service on Sundays. You can still visit the grounds and the square out front with the Our Lady of Peace statue, but the building itself is behind barriers and scaffolding. (Viator)
SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳 STREET ART: FOUR EYES by ALEX PAWSON
March 2026
SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳 STREET ART: SMILING PEZ PAID A VISIT
March2026
SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳: Chùa Linh Sơn Temple
Chùa Linh Sơn is a Buddhist pagoda in District 1, built over 200 years ago, making it one of the oldest temples in the district. It also has a significant role in modern Vietnamese Buddhist history. The Southern Association of Buddhist Research, founded in 1931, had its office at Linh Son Temple , which made it a center of the Buddhist reform movement in colonial-era Saigon. So this wasn’t just a prayer hall. It was where Vietnamese Buddhists organized intellectually under French rule.
Though small and relatively simple in its architecture, the main hall is adorned with statues of Buddha, Bodhisattvas, and other deities. Outside, lush gardens and quiet courtyards provide a peaceful environment to meditate. Despite being in the heart of District 1, it retains its timeless charm.
SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳: Chùa Lâm Tế Temple
Chùa Lâm Tế. 212A Nguyen Trai Street, Nguyen Cu Trinh Ward, District 1.
Named after the Lâm Tế (Linji) school of Zen Buddhism, the dominant Buddhist lineage in southern Vietnam. The Linji school originated in 9th century Tang Dynasty China and came to Vietnam through Chinese monks. It teaches sudden enlightenment over gradual study, direct experience over scripture.
The location matters. Nguyen Trai is the main road running through Cholon, Saigon’s Chinatown. The Lam Te lineage arrived in the south largely through the Chinese community. The oldest temple in Saigon, Giac Lam Pagoda from 1744, became a Lam Te temple when Zen Master Vien Quang of the Lam Te lineage became its abbot in 1772. So this isn’t just a neighborhood pagoda. It carries the name of the root lineage that shaped how Buddhism spread across southern Vietnam.
24march26
SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳 STREET ART: MISS SAIGON by AREK
March 2026
SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳 STREET ART: SAVE RHINOS
March 2026