Morning Walking In HCMC ~ Saigon

If you really are wanting to run into college students wanting to speak English, I would think you might try the park just past Ben Thanh Market.  I think it is officially called Công viên 23 tháng 9 but has Le Loi on one side and Pham Ngu Lao on the other.  Every time I was ever there, we were approached by students, particularly those attending hospitality schools.   The only drawback may be that it is about a full Km from your hotel, but I have the impression that you are a hiker.

THIGV wrote:

I have the impression that you are a hiker.

Sadly, mostly on flat surfaces these days. I'm 11 years out on a knee replacement, and it starts to cry out for a do over whenever I climb or descend much of any incline.

Thanks for the great suggestion!

2 km round trip and once or twice around the park may be perfect for me.

THIGV wrote:

...you might try the park just past Ben Thanh Market.  I think it is officially called Công viên 23 tháng 9 but has Le Loi on one side and Pham Ngu Lao on the other...

That's the exact name. Found it on G-Maps along with the English name "September 23rd Park".

Great collection of photos viewable:

September 23rd Park Phường Phạm Ngũ Lão, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City

The only times that I have been there have been evenings with my wife when there were special festivals being held.  I have never been there other times but I have read that on more ordinary evenings, there may be some ladies there who want to meet unaccompanied western males.   

THIGV wrote:

...you might try the park just past Ben Thanh Market.  I think it is officially called Công viên 23 tháng 9

A great many people still call it the old Central Station (Nhà Ga Xe Lửa cũ) because the station was there for 95 years and the park didn't happen until 1978.  Beside, who would remember streets and parks by a date instead of a real name anyway?

Ciambella wrote:

THIGV wrote:

...you might try the park just past Ben Thanh Market.  I think it is officially called Công viên 23 tháng 9

A great many people still call it the Old Central Station (Nhà Ga Xe Lửa cũ) because the station was there for 95 years and the park didn't happen until 1978.  Beside, who would remember streets and parks by a date instead of a real name anyway?

I have heard friends from Hawaii complain about the street names as they still remember the old names.  Of course many streets were renamed after 1975 to honor Communist leaders.  Another park with an interesting and slightly macabre history is the one on Hai Ba Trung Street.  It is named for a Le Van Tam now but what makes it interesting is that it used to be an exclusive largely Catholic cemetery named Mạc Đĩnh Chi, where deposed and assassinated president Ngô Đình Diệm and his brother Ngô Đình Nhu were buried.  When the post '75 government announced plans for the park, they gave relatives two months to retrieve their ancestors remains for re-internment elsewhere.   Many may have done so but of course no members of the Ngô family dared to make a claim so the former politicians are  presumably still under the ground there.   

THIGV wrote:

Another park with an interesting and slightly macabre history is the one on Hai Ba Trung Street.  It is named for a Le Van Tam now but what makes it interesting is that it used to be an exclusive largely Catholic cemetery named Mạc Đĩnh Chi, where deposed and assassinated president Ngô Đình Diệm and his brother Ngô Đình Nhu were buried.  When the post '75 government announced plans for the park, they gave relatives two months to retrieve their ancestors remains for re-internment elsewhere.   Many may have done so but of course no members of the Ngô family dared to make a claim so the former politicians are  presumably still under the ground there.   

Nghĩa Trang Mạc Đỉnh Chi was built by the French in 1859 for their military, similar to Aisne-Marne in France and Ardennes in Belgium for US military who lost their lives in WWI and II.

Because it was exclusively French in the beginning, it was called locally as Đất Thánh Tây (Western Holy Land).  The name stuck even decades after the French were gone and members of Vietnamese power elite moved in. 

It was an incredibly beautiful place with probably more marble in one place than anywhere outside of the Carrara quarries.  I went there every day for the two summers of 11th and 12th grade to study for the national exams; I considered it my personal retreat.   It may sound morbid, but to me, it was just a vast garden -- in fact, 10 years after it was built, the name was changed from Cimetière des Massiges to Jardin du Père d'Ormoy; the name Nghĩa Trang Mạc Đỉnh Chi didn't happen until my first year of school.  As it was part of Parks and Gardens Department, the maintenance for Mạc Đỉnh Chi was the responsibility of Thảo Cầm Viên (Saigon Zoo and Botanical Garden).

There were hundreds of trees, marble statues, marble benches, marble niches and coves, very well-tended gardens, hedges, flowered trellis and arches. 

In my first return visit to VN in 2006, I cried and mourned the destruction of many historical landmarks, but Đất Thánh Tây was among the top of what I thought of as my personal losses.

THIGV wrote:

The only times that I have been there have been evenings with my wife when there were special festivals being held.  I have never been there other times but I have read that on more ordinary evenings, there may be some ladies there who want to meet unaccompanied western males.   

I will tell them you sent me... 😁