Michael Powell's Blog, page 34
June 26, 2017
Saigon at Night
Once the sun sets, taking the suffocating heat with it, Saigon turns on the lights and lets down its hair. Students meet to play cards at coffee shops, the bars fill up with both locals and tourists, and the city’s innumerable old lady brigades claim their habitual seats on the corners. Whether we were getting drunk at hotpot joints with brand new best-friends-ever, strolling along the canal with dozens of dog-walkers, or zipping around on scooters while the city lights blaze by, some of our...
June 24, 2017
BonBon Residences: Our Home in Saigon
For our 91-day trips around the world, there is no decision so critical as the apartment in which we’ll be based. And I imagine that’s especially the case in Saigon, where neighborhoods can be too loud, too touristy, and either too far or too close to the center. Happily, we couldn’t have found a better home than BonBon Residences.
Everything about BonBon was perfect, starting with its location. The apartment is located at the edge of the Bình Thạnh district, within easy walking distance of...
June 23, 2017
Run For Your Visa
We had planned on staying in Vietnam for just three months, but when the time came to choose our next destination, we weren’t quite ready to leave. After spending so much time in the south of the country, how could we neglect the north? Just one problem: our visas were set to expire. I’ve heard Cambodia is nice this time of year. How about we visit for a couple minutes?
It would have been better to take a leisurely weekend trip to Thailand, or spend a few days exploring Taipei, but we were s...
Saigon’s Street Cats and Dogs
Prowler We judge a city based on a few critical factors: cuisine, transportation, museums, nightlife… and the cuteness of its street cats and dogs. And that last one is a category in which Saigon scores high. Check out some of the creatures we’ve met during our 91 days in the city. Which would you take home? You can only choose one!
Today’s Catch 
Prancer 
Speedy 
Squarebutt 
Dragon 
Sweety 
The Philosopher 
Radar 
Felicity 
Snoozy 
Destructotron Destroyer of Souls 
Lady T...
June 21, 2017
A Boat Trip on the Saigon River
During our visit to District 2’s undeveloped Thú Thiêm neighborhood, we noticed a pier to which a few fishing boats were anchored. Interesting. A week later, we returned to try our luck. A fisherman met us on the pier, evidently clued in to what we might be proposing. And he was game.
That’s the story of how we hired a local fishing boat to take us on a private sunset tour of the Saigon River. He suggested $20 for an hour-long ride. That was exactly what we had earlier decided would be fair,...
June 20, 2017
The Tomb of Lê Văn Duyệt
One of Vietnam’s most cherished military heroes, Lê Văn Duyệt, is buried alongside his wife at a temple in Saigon’s Bình Thạnh district. Constructed after the marshal’s death in 1830, this religious complex provides an attractive place of quiet, in the middle of an otherwise chaotic neighborhood.
Born in 1763, Lê Văn Duyệt was from a Mekong Delta peasant family, but he rose to prominence during the military campaigns of the future emperor Gia Long. Duyệt became the emperor’s most important m...
June 18, 2017
A Walk Along the Thị Nghè Canal
Running along a curvy, eight-kilometer course which defines the northern border of central Saigon, the Thị Nghè Canal is an attractive waterway lined with sidewalks and exercise equipment. A walk along either side of the canal is one of the most pleasant and popular ways to spend an evening in Saigon.
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Until fairly recently, the Thị Nghè wasn’t in very good shape. The small river suffered greatly during Saigon’s 20th-century population boom, attracting many families who built stilt-houses alo...
The AO Show at the Saigon Opera House
Built in 1897 by French architect Eugène Ferret, the Saigon Opera House is one of the most spectacular pieces of colonial architecture in the city. It’s worth visiting even if you’re not going to catch a performance, but we can recommend the AO Show, put on by the Luna Production Company.
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Now officially known as the Municipal Theater, the Opera House is found between two of Saigon’s most historic hotels, the Intercontinental and the Caravelle, and was designed to resemble the Petit Palais in...
June 16, 2017
The Patchwork World of Thảo Điền
What do you get when you cross foreign hipsters, the newly-wealthy, and regular Vietnamese folks? Probably something that resembles the neighborhood of Thảo Điền, in District 2. We spent a day walking around this weird section of town, constantly finding ourselves surprised by the abrupt shifts in style, around every other corner.
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We started our day at Dolphy Cafe, which is perhaps the nexus of Saigon’s hipsterdom. As if on cue, minutes after we had sat down at the bar, this… thing with mess...
June 14, 2017
The Daily Rhythm of Saigon
Waking up at 5am is usually a surefire sign that you’re still suffering from jetlag… except in Vietnam, where it means that your body has properly adjusted. This country gets going earlier than any other place we’ve visited. It took some time, but once we accepted and embraced the early lifestyle, our experience in Saigon improved immeasurably.
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People in Saigon get moving at an ungodly hour. If you go outside at five in the morning, you’ll find the streets already humming with activity; peop...
