Vietnam at its dizzying best, Ho Chi Minh City is a flurry of light and noise. Be at the heart of the buzz with our recommendations. Formerly known as Saigon, fittingly for a city with two names, it does exhibit Gemini-like qualities. Amid the hubub of the Saigonese living life at break-neck speed, you can snatch moments of bliss; whether that be tucking into Vietnamese street food or collecting your thoughts in the incense-perfumed air of a temple.
Here are our seven top recommendations for a visit to Ho Chi Minh City. For some peace and serenity, head to one of the many ornate pagodas and temples around the city. A site of Buddhist worship, An Quang Pagoda, with its tall tiered tower, is one of the more striking while the Jade Emperor Pagoda is one of the most atmospheric with rooms filled with plumes of incense smoke, woodcarvings and statues of divinities.
While recognised as being a bit on the touristy side, it is still worth experiencing. Not only that, it is a great introduction to the wonderful world of Vietnamese street food, some of the best in southeast Asia. That also goes for learning how to make your favourite dishes when you return home from the ones in the know โ the great street cooks of Ho Chi Minh City. Today, what remains of the networks of warren-like tunnels used by the Viet Cong outside of the city are open to the public, with guides dressed in khakis taking you down underground through short sections.
The alternative is 15km away at Ben Duoc. This museum is one of the most important places to visit in order to understand the psyche of modern Vietnam. Originally called the Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes, its bias is evident, but it uses American sources, photographs, army equipment and so on, while Vietnamese victims give voice to the horrors themselves.
Harking back to the days of the French colonial presence in Indochina, this still-functioning post office was built in the late s, the neo-classical French architecture of the building fits with other European-style buildings in downtown Ho Chi Minh City, including the nearby Notre Dame Basilica. Inside, the cavernous hall displays two specially painted maps dating from ; one demarking all the telegraph lines of southern Vietnam and Cambodia, the other a city map from the same period.
