Saigon has earned an enviable popularity for nice road meals, electrical nightlife and pleasant individuals, however it hasn’t all the time been this manner.
Saigon has a popularity for a few of the greatest road meals in Vietnam, pleasant individuals and fairly superior nightlife.
It’s plenty 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 – a variety of them off-the-beaten-tourist-trail – that individuals into historical past and a little bit of darkish tourism ought to get a buzz out of.
Initially, this checklist contained 10 places in a 24-minute video supposed for my YouTube channel, however after the edit and a rethink as a result of 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, possibly sooner or later I’ll reveal the opposite three places once I’m sure that doing so received’t trigger anguish to others or an excessive amount of controversy.
Within the meantime, I hope you get pleasure from this checklist and use it as a information whether or not you’re an area, traveller or somebody dwelling right here with an curiosity in historical past and an urge for food for getting misplaced down Saigon’s historic rabbit gap.
And in the event you like what you learn and see, please think about subscribing to my YouTube channel – it’s simple and doesn’t value a factor!
Okay, on with the checklist.
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 Illnesses 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 Occasion’s first Secretary Common – have been incarcerated and died.
Through the battle, a bit of the complicated continued for use to carry and interrogate political prisoners, then within the Nineteen 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 in the event you’d like to go to.
The place: 766 Vo Van Kiet Road, District 5 (open by appointment)
Thich Quang Duc Monument
Within the early Sixties, president of the then-Republic of Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem, discovered himself presiding over a deeply divided nation introduced on by what have been seen as unfair insurance policies that excluded the Buddhist group.
On June 11, 1963, Buddhists in Saigon joined a procession via the streets of town to protest towards the Diem administration.
On today, a high-ranking monk by the title 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 around the globe, an especially shifting 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 location.
Whereas the constructing and its environment at present are stuffed with gentle and are uplifting, the jail earlier than it stood in full distinction.
1000’s of individuals have been incarcerated and died right here in overcrowded and insanitary circumstances.
As was frequent within the early 1900s, prisons just like the Maison Centrale have been stuffed with anti-colonial activists, lots of them well-known and remembered at present, 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 complicated was established round 100 years in the past in what’s at present 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 have been tortured and killed right here.
On the higher ground objects used for torturing prisoners are on show, whereas on the bottom ground there are cellars which have been used through the interrogation course of.
Nowadays, Bot Day Thep is used for training functions with faculty teams often 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 form of vacation spot that you simply’d anticipate to return head to head with a mummy, however we’ve got one.
Again in 1994, development 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 crimson embalming resolution 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 long run seemed brilliant for the newly-constructed Thuan Kieu Plaza in District 5.
It was one of many first condominium towers in Saigon on the time and housed Chinatown’s first purchasing centre.
However as residents started to maneuver in, they realised how cramped and uncomfortable dwelling circumstances have been and shortly after, they reported feeling sick.
At the very least two fires broke out on the restaurant stage after which rumours started to swirl concerning the three towers being haunted.
1 / 4 of a century after the plaza’s development, all three condominium 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, however it 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 just lately relocated to Saigon from Hai Phong seeking to broaden 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 evening, 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
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