Saigon has earned an enviable status for nice avenue meals, electrical nightlife and pleasant folks, but it surely hasn’t all the time been this manner.
Saigon has a status for a few of the greatest avenue meals in Vietnam, pleasant folks and fairly superior nightlife.
It’s loads of enjoyable to be in and maybe explains why I’ve continued to reside right here since 2010.
However Saigon hasn’t all the time been a enjoyable place to be.
It has a really darkish aspect to its historical past, so on this characteristic, I’m going to share with you seven places – numerous them off-the-beaten-tourist-trail – that folks into historical past and a little bit of darkish tourism ought to get a buzz out of.
Initially, this record contained 10 places in a 24-minute video meant for my YouTube channel, however after the edit and a rethink because of the delicate nature of a few of the places, I’ve determined to maintain it to seven.
LISTEN to the podcast that includes these places
Who is aware of, perhaps sooner or later I’ll reveal the opposite three places after I’m sure that doing so gained’t trigger anguish to others or an excessive amount of controversy.
Within the meantime, I hope you get pleasure from this record and use it as a information whether or not you’re a neighborhood, traveller or somebody residing right here with an curiosity in historical past and an urge for food for getting misplaced down Saigon’s historic rabbit gap.
And for those who like what you learn and see, please take into account subscribing to my YouTube channel – it’s simple and doesn’t value a factor!
Okay, on with the record.
Tran Phu Memorial Museum
Maybe Saigon’s most genuine and darkest French colonial-era websites, the Tran Phu Memorial Museum is positioned contained in the grounds of town’s oldest hospital, the Hospital for Tropical Ailments in District 5.
The constructing began out within the 1800s as a remedy centre for infectious ailments after which specialised in psychological sickness.
However as opposition to French rule intensified after the flip of the century, it grew to become a jail the place political prisoners like Tran Phu – the Indochina Communist Social gathering’s first Secretary Common – had been incarcerated and died.
Throughout the battle, a bit of the advanced continued for use to carry and interrogate political prisoners, then within the Eighties, it was recognised as a nationwide historic monument and have become open to the general public.
The museum can solely be visited by appointment. Let me know within the feedback on YouTube for those who’d like to go to.
The place: 766 Vo Van Kiet Road, District 5 (open by appointment)
Thich Quang Duc Monument
Within the early Nineteen Sixties, president of the then-Republic of Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem, discovered himself presiding over a deeply divided nation introduced on by what had been seen as unfair insurance policies that excluded the Buddhist group.
On June 11, 1963, Buddhists in Saigon joined a procession by means of the streets of town to protest towards the Diem administration.
On at the present time, a high-ranking monk by the identify of Quang Duc self-immolated in protest in the midst of the intersection in what’s current day District 3.
To mark the occasion that despatched shockwaves world wide, a particularly transferring monument stands on one of many corners overlooking the intersection and is a must-visit on a visit to Saigon.
The place: 185 Cach Mang Thang 8 Road, District 3 (open day by day)
Common Sciences Library of HCMC
Again in 1968, Saigon’s metropolis jail the Maison Centrale de Saigon was demolished, its prisoners moved to Chi Hoa Jail in District 10 and the Common Sciences Library constructed on the positioning.
Whereas the constructing and its environment right now are full of gentle and are uplifting, the jail earlier than it stood in full distinction.
1000’s of individuals had been incarcerated and died right here in overcrowded and insanitary situations.
As was widespread within the early 1900s, prisons just like the Maison Centrale had been full of anti-colonial activists, a lot of them well-known and remembered right now, like Ly Tu Trong, after whom the road exterior the library is called.
The place: 69 Ly Tu Trong Road, District 1 (closed Fridays)
Outdated French Police Station
This advanced was established round 100 years in the past in what’s right now District 9 roughly 15 km from the centre of Saigon.
It began out as a French radio communications station, nonetheless, it was transformed right into a police station that got here beneath the command of an evil French lieutenant and an equally psychopathic deputy who earned the nickname Evil Beard.
Between 1946 and 1947, it’s believed 700 Vietnamese political prisoners had been tortured and killed right here.
On the higher flooring gadgets used for torturing prisoners are on show, whereas on the bottom flooring there are cellars which had been used through the interrogation course of.
Lately, Bot Day Thep is used for schooling functions with college teams recurrently visiting to achieve an understanding of the brutality of French colonial-era Vietnam.
The place: RQVV+Q9G, Le Van Viet Road, District 9 (closed weekends)
The Xom Cai Mummy
Saigon isn’t precisely the type of vacation spot that you simply’d count on to return head to head with mummy, however now we have one.
Again in 1994, building employees digging up a plot of land within the Xom Cai neighbourhood of District 5, an previous a part of Chinatown, unearthed a tomb 60 sqm in measurement.
Inside was the coffin of a Vietnamese girl. She was shrouded in fabric soaked in a pink embalming answer and surrounded by numerous artefacts that implies she was from an aristocratic class.
The place: The Museum of Historical past, 2 Nguyen Binh Khiem Road, District 1 (closed Mondays)
Thuan Kieu Plaza
Simply earlier than the flip of the century, the longer term regarded vivid for the newly-constructed Thuan Kieu Plaza in District 5.
It was one of many first residence towers in Saigon on the time and housed Chinatown’s first procuring centre.
However as residents started to maneuver in, they realised how cramped and uncomfortable residing situations had been and shortly after, they reported feeling sick.
Not less than two fires broke out on the restaurant degree after which rumours started to swirl concerning the three towers being haunted.
1 / 4 of a century after the plaza’s building, all three residence towers stay empty.
The place: 190 Hong Bang Road, District 5
Gangland Execution Web site
You’d by no means know this unassuming deal with would result in the downfall of Saigon underworld kingpin Nam Cam, but it surely did.
Nam Cam was referred to as the Godfather of Saigon who reigned all through the ‘90s and into the early 2000s and his destiny was sealed when he ordered successful on feminine rival Dung Ha who’d lately relocated to Saigon from Hai Phong trying to develop her “enterprise” empire.
After some double-crossing and mixed-messaging enraged Vietnam’s most infamous mob boss, Dung Ha was executed one night on the pavement out the entrance of a karaoke joint that was as soon as right here.
Her killers sped off into the night time, however their freedom was short-lived after the path led to their and Nam Cam’s seize and eventual execution by firing squad.
The place: 17 Bui Thi Xuan Road, District 1
