Tag: World Travel

SAIGON, VIETNAM đŸ‡»đŸ‡ł: THIS WEEK IN COFFEE

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The week started on Đỗ Quang Đáș©u, with one of those dark, violent cĂ  phĂȘ 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.

One of my favorite buildings with cafés hidden on every floor: 35 Nguyen Van Trang.
Pages of Passion , 6F

Then there was Pages of Passion, tucked into the Nguyễn Văn TrĂĄng building. A bookstore cafĂ©. Coco Matcha, coconut and matcha somehow balancing each other perfectly – cold, green. Sixth floor cafĂ©s in Saigon always feel slightly secret, like you’ve discovered something hidden above the noise.

Coconut đŸ„„ Matcha

Bookworm’s Coffee came next. Then another stop on Đỗ Quang Đáș©u near PháșĄm NgĆ© LĂŁo. 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.

The least tasty coffee of the week, but the all-around vibe wins every time.

And then the surprise of the week.

I was headed toward an air-conditioned cafĂ© — when a tiny háș»m cafĂ© 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.

The best coffee of the week. Where you can see the espresso sitting on top (because the condensed milk is so thick) and you know when you mix it, it’s going to HIT hard! 😀 (And, it did.)

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 BĂči Thị XuĂąn, just sitting there and watching the morning happen.

By Friday morning, Hidden Nest on Nguyễn Văn TrĂĄng 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.

Coconut Coffee at Hidden Nest, 3F

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.

The heat can be so extreme, especially after long walks of aimless exploration.
So, one day I had to stop for a Sting, just to save my life. 😆
The Vietnamese Sting. If you know, you know. 😉
Hot đŸ„”.

May 2026

SAIGON, VIETNAM: THE ICONS

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City Hall, 1908. Built as the HĂŽtel de Ville for the colonial administration. Designed by architect GardĂšs 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 đŸ‡»đŸ‡ł STREET ART: FOUR EYES by ALEX PAWSON

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March 2026

SAIGON, VIETNAM đŸ‡»đŸ‡ł STREET ART: SMILING PEZ PAID A VISIT

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On the front of TNR Saigon Bar
Smiling Pez from Colombia is on the wall!

March2026

SAIGON, VIETNAM đŸ‡»đŸ‡ł: ChĂča Linh SÆĄn Temple

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ChĂča Linh SÆĄn 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 đŸ‡»đŸ‡ł: ChĂča LĂąm Táșż Temple

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ChĂča LĂąm Táșż. 212A Nguyen Trai Street, Nguyen Cu Trinh Ward, District 1.

Named after the LĂąm Táșż (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 đŸ‡»đŸ‡ł STREET ART: MISS SAIGON by AREK

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Bui Vien Street

March 2026

SAIGON, VIETNAM đŸ‡»đŸ‡ł: THIS WEEK IN COFFEE

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This week in coffee felt less like hunting for caffeine and more like wandering into tiny human moments scattered around Saigon before the city fully wakes up.

Before 6am one morning, I found a coffee lady tucked into a little hem off LĂȘ Thị RiĂȘng. She was the only one operating for blocks.

A nice dark iced milk coffee. I love that first violent hit of iced milk coffee. 😆 But after days of it, I started craving the cleaner intensity of cĂ  phĂȘ đen đá — straight black Vietnamese coffee over ice. There’s a focused kind of energy in it that feels almost medicinal. Sharp. Motivated. Slightly concerning. Probably unhealthy in quantities I’m currently exploring.

A new café, BROWNWAVE, opened up in my neighborhood and Sundays are for indoor cafés and blog posting. A complimentary jar of cordyceps came with a coffee. I remember cordyceps from Bhutan.

One morning I walked out with no destination at all. Just the intention of letting coffee find me. After wandering through streets I’m fairly certain I was never meant to be on, under brutal heat, I ended up at another completely unassuming stand on BĂči Viện.

I ordered in Vietnamese and her entire expression changed. Suddenly there was smiling, correcting my pronunciation of “BĂči Viện” while I filmed, asking if I wanted the coffee in a glass mug instead of takeaway plastic. Yes. Absolutely yes. That tiny gesture somehow said everything. Respect given, respect returned. I love a glass mug!

What struck me this week was how quickly attitudes soften when people realize you are trying — even badly — to meet their culture where it lives instead of demanding it come to you.

I never see any foreigners sitting at these tiny sidewalk coffee stands. They stay inside cafes with air conditioning and playlists curated in Stockholm or Melbourne. Meanwhile, the real pulse of Saigon is sitting six inches above the pavement on a blue plastic chair while scooters scream past your knees.

And honestly? That is the only way I want to experience this city.

On LĂȘ Thi Rieng, I had one iced black coffee at the stand and got another one to go. 😊

Straight Black Coffee

Le Thanh Ton street level – Black with sugar and I asked for Black with no sugar, no milk, and with ice.

One stand gave me the exact opposite of what I ordered — black coffee arrived sweetened with sugar and no ice. Did I complain? Of course not. I know I’m lucky to even be sitting on a sidewalk in Saigon drinking coffee in the first place.

LĂȘ Gia – where people come to drink coffee with their iconic banh mis they’re getting across the street at Huynh Ha, LĂȘ Thi Rieng
Salt Coffee at Phin Phin Coffee, a really special café hidden in a hem off of Do Quang Dau. And the food is awesome there as well.

May 2026

SAIGON, VIETNAM đŸ‡»đŸ‡ł STREET ART: 🩄 INSTAGLOENN

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21march26

HO CHI MINH CITY / SAIGON, VIETNAM đŸ‡»đŸ‡ł: HUYEN SY CHURCH

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NhĂ  Thờ Huyện Sá»č (Huyen Sy Church), on Ton That Tung Street in District 1. Built between 1902 and 1905, it was funded entirely by LĂȘ PhĂĄt ĐáșĄt, one of the wealthiest landowners in colonial Cochinchina and one of the first Vietnamese to be granted the French noble title “Huyện Sá»č.”

He and his wife are buried inside the church.

“Pigeon Gate”

The architecture is Gothic Revival, built with granite brought from BiĂȘn HĂČa, and the steeple rises about 57 meters. It’s one of the oldest Catholic churches in Saigon still holding active Mass. The pigeons on the gate angels are a permanent fixture.

21march26