Local Interest
Route: Districts 5 & 10: Chinatown,‘ Herb Street’, Temples, Night Flower Market
Vo Van Kiet continues to weave westward along the channel. The further up this road you ride, the more often you’ ll see the crumbling remains of old warehouses. These were( and, in some cases, still are) used to store produce shipped up the channel from the fertile lands of the Mekong Delta, to be sold in the markets of Saigon. Turn right onto Nguyen Tri Phuong Street and left onto Tran Hung Dao. This is Chinatown, and even at this late hour it’ s still throbbing with activity. However, the later you get here the better, because there are a lot of hidden architectural gems and fascinating minutiae on roads like Tran Hung Dao: the less traffic there is, the more freedom and time you’ ll have to take it all in, without hundreds of vehicles rushing around you. Turn left onto Chau Van Liem Street, which leads down to a busy traffic circle presided over by a statue of Phan Dinh Phung, a Vietnamese hero who led a resistance against French colonialism in Central Vietnam in the 1880s. Veer east of the statue onto Hai Thuong Lan Ong Street. Named after a famous 18th century medical scholar, this street is lined with herbal chemists and, even at night, it’ s filled with the strange and seductive aromas of herbal remedies. The broad boulevard is also home to several impressively ornate, old Chinatown buildings: some are in a state of decay, others are sensitively restored.
Chinatown: there are lots of hidden architectural gems in this part of town: ride slowly & keep looking
A statue of Phan Dinh Phung( top right) presides over this busy Chinatown traffic circle
Loop back around to the statue of Phan Dinh Phung, and start west along the other end of Hai Thuong Lan Ong Street. This bustling dual carriageway is divided by a stretch of grass and trees, where a statue of Confucius stands watch over the street’ s activities. You won’ t go hungry here: there are many street food vendors open late into the night, including ones serving súp óc heo- pig brain soup, which is much-loved by Chinatown’ s student population. Take Phu Huu Street north until it hits Hong Bang. This wide boulevard is lined with old trees and landscaped, in the middle, with tropical flowers, including fragrant, porcelain-white frangipani bushes, which scent the night air. To the left, you can’ t help but notice the three, 33-storey, pink tower blocks of Thuan Kieu Plaza. Impressive as they may seem, you’ ll notice there are no lights emanating from any of its apartments. The entire complex is deserted. This is partly due to financial mismanagement, and partly( much more intriguingly) due to …. ghosts. According to popular local legend, the towers are haunted by the spirits of a murdered girlfriend and labourers who perished during its construction.
Statue of Confucius, whose ideas about society & leadership still profoundly influence much of East Asia
18 The MAG Vung Tau
Haunted: the Thuan Kieu Plaza towers remain mostly uninhabited due to …. ghosts