SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳: SLEEP

Published on by jacquelinemhadel
These men work brutal hours in brutal heat for money that would make a Westerner cry. But the sleep itself is not sad. The sleep is the one moment in the day that belongs to them. Nobody is paying for it. Nobody is timing it. Nobody is asking them to deliver something or drive somewhere or fix something. For ten minutes or an hour, the man and the motorbike are still, and the city flows around them.
Built: ~1955–1965 (most likely around early 1960s)
📍 Lý Tự Trọng Street, was heavily developed during the 1950s–60s as Saigon expanded into a modern capital.
After reunification in 1975, this building was eventually used by the hát bội troupe (established 1977).
Hát bội is Vietnam’s traditional opera:
painted faces, symbolic acting, historical drama, and big moral storytelling.

April 2026

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