Ho Chi Minh City Things to Do Tips by iwys

Formerly known as the War Crimes Museum, this is the number one tourist attraction in Saigon. Since it opened in 1975, it has received 7 million visitors. Ironically, The compound it is in used to house the US Information Service.

There is a collection of American military hardware, including tanks, planes and helicopters, replica POW cells, as well as rooms full of photographs, with a whole section devoted to the long-term affects of Agent Orange. Needless to say, the Americans are not depicted in a very good light. Neither are the French. There is also a guillotine from the colonial era and pictures of torture methods that were used at that time.

I found some of the exhibits over-politicised. A lot of visitors semed to get bored with reading the anti-American propaganda inside and spent more time posing in front of the tanks, aircraft and artillery in the courtyard.

Admission: 10,000 VND

Opening hours: 07.70-11.45, 13.30-16.45

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Phone: 9306325
Address: 28 Vo Van Tan Street, District 3

I suppose this should come under accommodation, but I never actually stayed there. I slept at cheap places in De Tham. I spoke to a couple who were staying at the Rex and they said it was great. It's certainly got a good location, in the best part of downtown Saigon, opposite the Opera House.

The Rex Hotel has featured in several books and films as it was the American bachelor officers' quarters during the Vietnam War. The rooftop bar and dance hall they used to frequent are still open to the general public.

An executive suite at the Rex costs US$450 per night.

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Phone: 8922185
Address: 141 Nguyen Hue

One of the great landmark buildings from the French colonial era is the 4-story Hotel Continental. It was built in 1885 by the Societe des Grands Hotels Indochinois and its terrace was the meeting place for the French high society in Saigon. It features in both Graham Greene's 'The Quiet American' and Somerset Maugham's 'The Gentleman in the Parlour'.

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Address: 132-134 Dong Khoi Street
Directions: Opposite the Municipal Theatre

Most of the old US embassy was demolished in the 1990s, so you can no longer see the famous rooftop from which the final American helicopter departed in 1975:

"At the embassy gates marines were struggling to bring in a handful of Vietnamese who were eligible for evacuation, without letting in more crowds. Inside the compound the air was thick with ash from incinerated classified material and from US banknotes - more than $4 million went up in smoke that day - and the swimming pool was full of confiscated weapons from the fleeing South Vietnamese...On the top floor of the building the last marines made a makeshift barricade with fire extinguishers and metal lockers. From the compound below they could hear the commisary being looted, and the embassy's fleet of white sedans. By the time the rescue party arrived the North Vietnamese were thrusting deep into the capital. About an hour after the last marines were airlifted from the embassy roof, a North Vietnamese tank crashed through the gates of the presidential palace. Saigon had fallen." Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian.

The angry South Vietnamese left behind, trashed and looted the embassy.

The perimeter wall and a few smaller buildings still survive.

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Built by the French at the end of the nineteenth century and renovated in the 1940s, this fine example of colonial architecture is a landmark in the centre of Saigon. It is no longer used for European opera, but there are occasional performances of Vietnamese music.

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Directions: Opposite the Rex Hotel

This temple was built in the early nineteenth century to honour, Thien Hau, the goddess of the sea and protector of sailors and fishermen. It is one of the largest and most popular temples in Saigon and is bustling with worshippers from the local Chinese community, placing burning joss sticks in the giant incense urns. There are also huge incense coils suspended from the ceiling.

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Address: 710 Nguyen Trai
Directions: On Nguyen Trai, near the Phoenix Hotel, in Cholon

An Duong Market in Cholon sees far fewer foreign visitors than Ben Thanh Market, and so you are something of a novelty there. People offer you free samples, want you to eat at their stalls, take their photographs etc. And you pay the same prices that the locals do. I had a good meal there for less than a dollar and bought some great beef and pork jerky.

Those orange things in the picture are bags of dried shrimps. They are everywhere.

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Directions: In Cholon, near the intersection of An Duong Vuong Boulevard and Su VVan Hanh Street.