Second Capital of Vietnam Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon? And also the story of the cheap iPhone

Ho Chi Minh is the real Vietnamese anthill. The city is proudly listed as the economic capital of Vietnam, so it does not happen quietly and serenely. And the question of what to see in Ho Chi Minh is a little lower in the article.

Ho Chi Minh or Saigon?

The main waterway of the city is the Saigon River.

The city began its history as one of the largest ports in Cambodia, but the enterprising Vietnamese seized such promising territories. The new owners renamed the city from the Cambodian Prei Nokor to the Vietnamese Saigon, and the name was given by the river, but which the city was located. In 1975, the city received its third name, this time in honor of the first President of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh (Vietnamese geographic names are written together). But the previous name of the city is firmly ingrained in the lives of ordinary Vietnamese, so the city will be unofficially called Saigon for a long time to come. The population of Ho Chi Minh City is about 8 million inhabitants, and let's add a couple of million tourists (namely millions) and here it is a real Vietnamese anthill. Ho Chi Minh City can also boast of the titles of the capital: under the name Saigon from 1887 to 1901 was the main city of French Indochina, and from 1955 to 1975. - South Vietnam, and under its modern name is listed as the economic capital of Vietnam.

Top attractions in Ho Chi Minh City

In Ho Chi Minh City, basically all the sights are not older than the 19th century. Most of the interesting places are located close to each other, which allows you to arrange a pleasant walk. But the sights located outside the city are better to visit as part of an excursion, it is more convenient and economical. More about several Ho Chi Minh attractions:

After the main attractions, we ended up at one of the main art workshops of Ho Chi Minh City. Here we admired the manual and painstaking work of local craftsmen, just imagine how much effort the painting requires, the drawing on which is made from crushed eggshells!

Handmade drawing, made from small pieces of eggshell. All the painstaking work is reflected in the price - such things are expensive

The work is very hard, long and requires great care, but the result is worth all the effort.

There are two more popular and interesting attractions that are located outside the city. There are separate articles about them, read about (S?ng C?u Long) and about on our website.

Cheap iPhone and Samsung in Ho Chi Minh City

This story was our little adventure. No matter how much they warn, but until you step on the rake yourself, you won’t understand. In Vietnam, there is a factory for assembling Samsung phones, and they also make new, but cheaper iPhones from used iPhones. We decided that perhaps this fact will have a positive effect on the price of the Samsung Galaxy S6. With free time and a bike, we went to local shops in search of a phone. We used Vova's phone as a navigator in Ho Chi Minh City.

Let's be honest: all ears were already buzzing about theft in Vietnam during the three months of our stay, but in Nha Trang we never even indirectly encountered this, which relaxed us a little. At one of the intersections, a Vietnamese also overtook us on a bike and explained with gestures: “hide the phone, you won’t drive with it for a long time!”. The thing is that I was sitting in the back and sometimes stretched out my hand with the phone forward so that Vova could visually see the readings of the navigator. Saying thank you, I began to hold the phone firmly, exactly behind my husband, thereby covering him. But it didn't help. At one point, the phone was still snatched from my hands, I only remember the green T-shirt of the thief, who very quickly disappeared from view on his bike. Apparently we were tracked down, and even the moment that the phone was between me and my husband's back did not prevent the clever thief from running his hand at speed and snatching it out.

The phone is not a pity, but the fact that it contained a flash drive with a video from the second day was offensive. And so many beautiful things were filmed there ... We decided that the phone was a “coin”, and the Vietnamese thief was a “fountain”, which means we will be back. And when we get back, we'll shoot even better.

Ho Chi Minh city is huge and interesting. There are no beaches and the sea, but it still attracts millions of tourists. But there are very few Russians here, the majority are Americans, French, Germans, and so on. For us, a huge minus of the city was its stuffiness and gas contamination. Sometimes tears flowed, as if cutting an onion. Here is such a "pleasant" air.