SAIGON STREET ART – Page 4 – TOKIDOKI (NOMAD)

SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳 STREET ART: MOTORBIKE CITY

Published on July 4, 2026 by jacquelinemhadelLeave a comment

May 2026

SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳 STREET ART: LUCKY CHARMS

Published on July 3, 2026 by jacquelinemhadelLeave a comment

May 2026

SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳 STREET ART: DIVINE HUMAN CONNECTION

Published on July 2, 2026 by jacquelinemhadel2 Comments

April 2026

SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳: THE MAN BELONGS TO THE PEOPLE

Published on July 1, 2026 by jacquelinemhadel2 Comments

“I have dedicated my whole life to the struggle of my people. That is all I can say.” – Ho Chi Minh

The irony of Uncle Ho is that his words are everywhere in Vietnam, on every wall, in every school, on every piece of currency, quoted by a government that controls everything he said he was fighting against. He wrote about freedom and the party built a surveillance state. He wrote about the people and the party built a one-party system. He asked people to write the truth and the press is ranked 174th out of 180 countries for freedom.

But the Vietnamese love him anyway. Not the ideology. Him. The man who lived simply, wore sandals, never married, and beat both the French and the Americans. The words on the walls belong to the state. The man belongs to the people. They know the difference even if they can’t say it out loud.

April 2026

SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳: PROUD TO BE VIETNAMESE

Published on June 28, 2026 by jacquelinemhadelLeave a comment

“A people who have courageously opposed French domination for more than eighty years, a people who have fought side by side with the Allies against the Fascists during these last years, such a people must be free and independent.” – Ho Chi Minh

Art Deco–style façade at 16–18–20 Thủ Khoa Huân Street.
This façade strongly suggests it was built in the late French colonial period, probably around the 1930s to early 1940s, during the height of Saigon’s Art Deco boom.
This style was heavily influenced by Paris, Shanghai, and American theater architecture of the era.

April 2026

SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳: SLEEP

Published on June 27, 2026 by jacquelinemhadelLeave a comment

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

SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳: RED PLASTIC CHAIRS AND STOOLS – ICONIC

Published on June 25, 2026April 22, 2026 by jacquelinemhadelLeave a comment

Everything in Saigon happens on a red plastic chair or stool.
In Vietnam red means luck and happiness and also “sit here, the pho is ready.” 😊

I’ve eaten the best meals of my life on red plastic chairs. Com tam suon, hunched over broken rice and grilled pork, green onion oil dripping off the spoon, my knees pressed against a table😆.

Ca phe sua da sweating in a glass, sitting so low to the ground, watching motorbikes pass.
Nobody looks comfortable on a red plastic chair. Everybody looks at home.