Urban Decay Chic in Saigon

There is a multi-story house in disrepair at 14, Ton That Dam Street in central Saigon. A rather ordinary exterior but an interesting filling: the house is taken by all kinds of creative bars and cafes along with regular residents, both humans and cats. Sharing what I discovered there with a 24mm lens on June 11, 2024.

One of the dark archways leads to the entrance with the list of establishments.

Young people come and go there, mostly Vietnamese but foreigners are usual too. But no crowds there, happily, so the vibes of dereliction are safe.

An intriguing narrow spiral staircase with graffiti leads to the first floor.

The place is a popular location to photograph for social media, and no surprise:

Light and darkness, and charm of dereliction.

I didn't visit a bar but took a look at the exteriors and interiors:

Lau Ba bar:

Haru Cafe:

Here, they do not imitate dereliction as it often happens.

Someone turned on the light at the section so I could photograph more details:

True textures, true dirt collected during many years :D Love it!

There are many cute creative details there.

As a dessert, I met someone there:

On the web, I found the cat belongs to Haru cafe.

He was probably having a break after a long day among visitors of the cafe.

I found a pathway away from the main staircase and I met this tiny creature there:

He was scared of me and even the stream of the cutesy words didn't help to change his mood.

Home of stray cats:

There is another staircase used by residents of the house and Instagram-lovers too.

I left the place soaked with sweat, there was a regular +34-feeling-like-44 weather, but I was happy with the finding.

This one, on the left.

I wanted to keep shooting the decay on my way, there are many archways with the certain charm in old Saigon:

But I was running out time if I wanted to take a bus back to the district where my hostel was, so I put the photo camera into my backpack and quickened the pace.

More stories from Southeast Asia are ahead! Check out my previous posts on my personal Travelfeed or Worldmappin map.

I took these images with a Nikkor 24mm on a full-frame DSLR Nikon D750 on June 11, 2024, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.