Interior of the Ho Chi Minh City postal office.

One of the most iconic buildings in Saigon is the Central Post Office, on what I call the “Cathedral Square”. Many of the tour guides attribute the building design to Gustave Eiffel which must have really pissed off the actual real designer, Alfred Foulhoux. Eiffel had all the prestige and his company had indeed designed some of the bridges in Saigon but Foulhoux oversaw the overall construction and design mixing gothic and renaissance details in vogue at the time of construction between 1886-1891. I really like the building and only wished the souvenir shops would be removed at the entrance, the usual crap sold there takes away from the amazing interior. The building still works as a post office under the watch full eye of Uncle Ho’s painting at the far end. I like to take travelers around the building, looking at the high ceiling and arched doorways. Until a few years ago, I would also go and shake hands with Monsieur Duong, the 87 year-old translator who would come in every day and translate letters from Vietnamese to English/French for local customers. He would sit at a small table, equipped with his battered dictionaries and a magnifying glass and an old blue pencil case, working from 08:00 till 15:00 each day. He would charge 50 cents a page and when I would see him, I would give him an envelope with $US 10 that made him so happy…

But the funniest thing is the color of the building. A few years ago, the city decided that the building needed a fresh coat of paint and a clean-up. The local contractor decided to pick a more “vibrant” yellow and just went ahead with it. Little did he know the major headache he would bring on the local authorities when the locals complained bitterly that it was the wrong yellow and it needed to be redone to be back to what it used to. So up the scaffolds went and it took two more coats of the original yellow to mask the serious offence.

LITTLE KNOWN FACT:

An estimated 1.5million motorcycles are on Saigon’s roads every day.

BEST MONTH TO VISIT:

Between December and March

Longitude 80 already operates a North Vietnam itinerary that focuses on hill tribes and Ha Long bay. We also offer a Grand Vietnam” Dream Journey that looks over the whole country. Please contact us if you would like to start planning a Vietnam amazing itinerary in 2022/2023.