The next series of images are from Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam.

View of the city hall in downtown Ho Chi Min City.  Out in front is a statue of Mr Ho Chi Min himself!

Vietnam :: August 2010

This is outside the Ben Thanh Market in Ho Chi Min City – bikes and all.

It’s a great market for buying clothes, local items and to get a cheap good meal.

The Catholic Cathedral in the centre of Ho Chi Min is quite a landmark!

Next door from the Cathedral is the General Post Office.

The building was constructed when Vietnam was part of French Indochina in the early 20th century. It has a Gothic architectural style. It was designed and constructed by the famous architect Gustave Eiffel in harmony with the surrounding area.

Once inside the building , you see two historical maps, one is “Saigon and its environments” created in 1892 and “Telegraphic network in South Vietnam and Combidia” created in 1936.   There are some polished wood phone booths of old, beautiful!

To the South West of the reunification palace is a big garden where quite pleasant to forget the traffic noise for a while.  You can also walk under huge trees and discover small temples in the green surroundings and some “interesting” modern statues.

In the middle of the park is this little Hindu style temple: Tháp Chãm trong công viên Tao Ðàn

The last of my general scenes – this is the Calvin Klein shop near the Ben Thanh Market.  I was a little bit fascinated by the black on black going on with this shop sign and then all the electric and telegraph cables just added to the strangeness of it all.

Motorbikes are everywhere and so are electric and telegraph cables.  The city really does seem to be growing this stuff!

Nothing underground here yet – that takes a bit more planning!

More cables seen in Ho Chi Min City – are the telegraph poles strong enough I wonder!!