July 2026
SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳: IF YOU HAVEN’T FOUND IT YET, KEEP LOOKING
SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳 STREET ART: PROPAGANDA
July 2026
SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳 STREET ART: 🌳 🦋
July 2026
SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳 STREET ART: 🌳 🚦
23july26
SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳 STREET ART: BLACK CREDIT
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
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.)
July 2026
SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳: JAMIUL ISLAMIYAH MOSQUE
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.
23july26
SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳 STREET ART: UTILITY BOX ART 👮♀️
23july26
SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳 STREET ART: KHU PHÔ’ 16 PROPAGANDA
Hẻm 258 Xuân Hồng Đào – Alley 258, Xuân Hồng Đào Street
Khu phố 16 – Neighborhood (Residential Block) 16
Tartnow – Xuống Vẽ – This appears to be the name/signature of the mural project or artist. “Xuống vẽ” literally means “go paint” or “come paint.”
Phân loại rác – Sort your waste
Hành động nhỏ, thay đổi lớn – Small actions, big changes.
The three bins represent:
🟤 Brown bin – General/non-recyclable waste
🟢 Green bin – Organic/food waste
🔵 Blue bin – Recyclable waste
Khu phố 19 – Neighborhood (Residential Block) 19
The mural’s message is environmental:
Protect the oceans.
Recycle.
Keep neighborhoods clean.
Care for nature for future generations.
The large artistic script reads:
Mừng Xuân Ất Tỵ – Happy Lunar New Year of the Year of the Wood Snake (2025).
The painting depicts a traditional Vietnamese market scene with a bicycle carrying bánh tét (traditional sticky rice cakes) and flowers, symbols of the Lunar New Year.
23july26
SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳: MIND BLOWN ON LINE 1 ~ BEN THANH TO THAO DIEN
I finally rode the Saigon Metro this morning, and I have to be honest, my mind was a little bit blown. Not because a metro is some miracle of engineering in 2026, but because I kept thinking back to 2006-2010. If you knew this city back then, you know what I mean. The idea of gliding under Saigon in a clean, air-conditioned train would have sounded like science fiction. And yet here we are.
I walked into Ben Thanh station, which is Station 1 on the line, and it looks like any other modern city’s underground station. Bright, clean, well organized. Well done, Saigon. Genuinely.
The ticket machine was easy to navigate. A one-way ticket to Thao Dien, Station 6, cost me 22,000 VND. I put my cash in and out came a plastic card, not a paper ticket. Tapped the card at the gate, headed down to Platform 1, and caught the 7:36am train.
About ten minutes later I was in Thao Dien. Ten minutes. I remember when that trip meant a sweaty, honking crawl through traffic that could eat an hour of your life.
Here is what surprised me at the exit: they did not keep my plastic card like they do in Bangkok, where the machine swallows your token as you leave. Instead, I just tapped it again and walked out with the card still in my hand.
I turned right, purely by luck. There were no signs for Xuan Thuy street, which was my destination, so I was flying blind. But the metro gods were kind this morning. I had picked the correct exit, and within minutes I was standing on Xuan Thuy.
Now, about this plastic card. I would love to keep it as a souvenir. A little piece of the new Saigon in my pocket. But let’s see what happens on the return trip. My guess is I do not have to top it up and can just buy a new card to go back, which means this one might get to stay with me after all.
Fingers crossed. Some souvenirs cost 22,000 VND and ten minutes underground, and honestly, those are the best kind.
Found out:
The deposit on the single-journey card is 15,000 VND, and the card is valid for one journey on the day it’s issued. You can return it at a Fare Adjustment Machine (or ticket vending machine) at the end of your trip to get the deposit back. You insert the card into the “Card Inlet,” the screen shows the refund amount, and the cash comes out of the Bill Outlet tray with a receipt.
This actually explains your 22,000 VND ticket: roughly 7,000 for the fare plus the 15,000 deposit. They let you walk out with the card because it’s your deposit on the line, not theirs.
Which means keeping it as a souvenir costs you 15,000 VND, about 60 US cents. Honestly, not a bad price for a keepsake from Saigon’s first metro line.
22july26