"Sundown in Saigon, and the streets are steaming. The air vibrates with the whir of nine million motorbikes and the chatter of eleven million people, all spilling into alleys, balconies, and roadside noodle stalls. Everywhere I look, the doors are flung open. Old-timers chew the fat over ice-cooled beers, aunties in silken pyjamas fan charcoal grills heavy with skewers of lemongrassy chicken and caramelised pork."
"The best way to make sense of it all is to dive straight in, which is why I'm clinging to the backseat of a clattering Vespa driven by my guide, Bui Quan Khanh, a young Saigonese fresh out of tourism school. We swerve through a snaking mass of red and white taillights, past the coffee shops and neon-lit bars of the hip Binh Thanh district and the gleaming new towers of Thu Duc City, which have mushroomed in recent years."
"The excitement in the air is palpable, but so is the fresh cilantro and nước mắm fish sauce that still perfume these streets. We stop to snack on tiny, stir-fried snails we pry out of their shells with toothpicks, and sip tamarind lemonade at a cafe overlooking the Mong Bridge, built by architect Gustave Eiffel (yes, that Eiffel) during Saigon's French-colonial era."
Saigon's evenings teem with motorbikes and people spilling into alleys, balconies and roadside noodle stalls. Old-timers drink ice-cooled beer while aunties in silken pyjamas fan charcoal grills heavy with lemongrass chicken and caramelised pork. Neon-lit districts like Binh Thanh sit alongside new towers in Thu Duc City and a growing metro network as part of a mega-city masterplan to boost regional economic standing. Street aromas of cilantro and nước mắm mingle with bites such as stir-fried snails, tamarind lemonade and bánh xèo folded with Thai basil and wasabi leaf. Immersive Vespa tours trace culinary and architectural highlights, including the Mong Bridge by Gustave Eiffel.
Read at CN Traveller
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]