A Walk in Non-Tourist Saigon 🇻🇳 People and Streets

My hostel is in District 1, the most prestigious area in the city, and the most expensive. To be more reasonable about expenses, I often cross Bến Nghé Channel, a littered stagnant river, to enter District 4. Not far but prices may be noticeably lower. People are not used to travelers with a photo camera there so it's more fun to photograph them.

A century or so ago, that area wasn't even considered part of the city so, no surprise, there are no beautiful colonial buildings there, only generic four-or-so-floor townhouses and newly-built high-rise buildings. (I will show some more houses below, don't want to overfill the beginning of the post with architecture.)

Beef pho ($2) is amazing, I regularly visit them (Phở Trang Lê Quốc Hưng on the map). And then a coffee ($1) with a glass of iced green tea for free at Cafe MUỐI SaiGon:

That's not ZARA for $200, just regular gardening rubber boots for everyday use like shopping or running over foreigners.

Full of energy (or better to say high on coffee?), I headed for the search of interesting scenes and people. And soon, someone told me: "My name is Win". I looked at her and her bizarre vehicle and commented: "Great name for a lottery seller". She nodded satisfied with the fact I caught the word game.

I asked her for a photo, and we parted smiling at each other.

I loved how these guys were sitting and I was amazed when one of them asked me to photographed them as if he could see them with my eyes.

I couldn't help playing a paparazzi there and rushed to that cart like a vulture (saying one "sorry" though):

Hardships of being the captain. Another form of hardship:

Shopping with the family.

When you're the only person in the world who knows that the best sleep is one with a finger in your nose and a dog under the lounger. Best cosmic energy can be achieved in this way.

Stern-looking lady but she smiled at me afterwards.

The Vietnamese are amazing as street models. No matter whether you ask for their consent or not.

Time for drinks and friends phones.

When you are a smol and silly thing but joyful.

Safe specialist under the yellow umbrella.

Vietnamese pancakes.

Wandering lottery seller.

Soup pho with beef / chicken for $2.

Dwellings for the poor with trees growing right from the building:

And another type of residential building behind the disrepair house:

That was District 4, the area I visit because they have cheap (and delicious) soup there. 😀

More stories from Southeast Asia are ahead! Check out my previous posts on my personal Pinmapple map

I took these images with a Nikkor 50mm on a full-frame DSLR Nikon D750 on May 21 (+May 28 a bit) 2024, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.