Daily life as main attraction
I explained in an earlier post that Saigon is not a city of gobsmacking sights or museums. So why visit Ho Chi Minh then?, you may wonder.
In my opinion, Saigon is best enjoyed by simply strolling around town or by cruising it’s streets on a Vespa, being amazed and entertained by local daily life.
There is a lot of activity going on on the streets. Street vendors, people sipping a coffee on a mini plastic stool on the sidewalk, others transporting the weirdest, most unbelievable cargo on their motorbikes… Enjoy the couleur locale, especially in the many narrow alleyways.
THAT, to me, is Ho Chi Minh’s biggest attraction.
Best districts to explore
Saigon’s more known neighbourhoods (for explorations) are District 1 (=the centre, the most expensive, nightlife), 3 (where our hotel was, attractions, museums), 5 (=ChoLon or Chinatown), and district 7 (expats, expensive, remote).
Today I’m taking you to Cholon, Saigon’s Chinatown in District 5.
What to see in ChoLon Saigon
We loved our walk through Saigon’s Chinatown, named ChoLon. We were caught by the rain, otherwise we would have walked longer.
Temples galore
We visited three gorgeous temples, but ChoLon has many, many more temples.
“OK, lets check out this one.”
We went to:
The temples we visited were all very colourful, abundant and there were a lot of praying people in all of them at the time we were there.
Row of people offering incense and praying.
People kneeling and praying.
Trying to fit in.
I love it when the deities are dressed up. Over the years I have seen this a lot during my travels, but it remains a beautiful sight.
More deities. It’s interesting to see their different facial expressions.
Even the dolled-up horses have different expressions. The one on the left seems particularly cheerful!
These kind of temples usually have at least one tiger on site.
Figurines in a pond belonging to one of the temples. Apparently the turtles love them.
The smell of incense was everywhere.
When I visited Hong Kong for the first time, around 25 years ago, I bought temple incense and decorated temple candles to bring home. I still have it all, although by now I should throw out some of them, I guess.
There was incense everywhere. Many of the people in the temples buy incense to burn on the spot and give power to their prayers.
Over the years I have seen many fine examples of the cut-and-glue (jian nian) dioramas and decorations on temples and houses and I absolutely adore this style and technique.
In Cholon’s temples not all decorations were preserved as well (understatement), but the ones that were, are quite interesting and different.
Jian nian decorations on temples in Cholon. Bottom right: almost total decay, but are those the remains of a pram that I see???
There are complete stories depicted in these kind of mosaics and dioramas. The four ones directly above are not jian nian cut and glue, by the way. These are glazed ceramic figurines. Aren’t the devilish, horned figurines awesome?
“That’s enough temples for one day. Let’s go. ” I’m passing by a big oven/burner where people can burn their joss-paper.
“Hm, in which direction do we go from here???”. Finding our orientation on Google Maps was often quite the struggle, hence my difficult look.
Festive temple merchandise
All around were streets with vendors selling temple items which were colourful and fascinating.
These capes!!!!
Look for the woman and her grandson in here. Found them?
Now look for the woman in this other store.
It’s a demonstration of enormous restraint that I came home with just one fat doll Chinese New Year mask;-)
Frits wears the fat doll mask for a second.
Accessories galore
By accident we stumbled upon an accessory market (Dai Quang Minh Market and Duong Tong Duy Tan alley), although we only walked through the narrow alley on the outside of the market.
On the main road around the corner of the alley that we walked through, was this way more organised and spacious store.
A-MA-ZING! So much stuff that’s totally up my alley! (pun intended).
This was the long, narrow and chaotic alley that we walked through. It even does not look that narrow in this pic, but believe me, with scooters driving through and people browsing and bargaining you got stuck regularly, here and there.
But hey -take note please…. drumroll….- I DID NOT BUY A THING! Not even one tiny bead. NO-THING! So proud of myself.
Can you imagine how hard it was for me not to buy??? And I have to confess that if I would have walked there alone, then I don’t know what I would have done (=bought), hahaha.
I have to control myself, folks.
Victory! I made it to the end of the alley without purchasing anything. Kudos for me!!!
Because back home, in Haarlem, I have a (very small, but still) room that I call my studio. It is literally stuffed to the ceiling with beading materials and other art stocks. Enough is enough, right?! At least that’s what I tell myself.
Specialty streets
The neighbourhood is full of specialty streets. There is the street of chinese medicines, spices and herbs, the street of paper wares, the one with hardwares, and so on and so forth.
Herbs, spices and chinese meds.
Really fun to explore.
Street life
Lots of people in Cholon seem to have dogs, since they roam around everywhere.
There were chickens in wire cages and song-birds in bamboo cages.
We saw several people sitting on the pavement, delicing each other. (No pictures, sorry. You cannot just photograph everything and everybody.)
All in all a colourful neighbourhood, messy, rowdy and gaudy; loved it!
Would you enjoy a neighbourhood like this?
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