FOUR HOURS IN HO CHI MINH CITY

Thomas Smith explores the frenetic Vietnamese city by foot, packing in a range of cultural and gourmet delights

A half-day’s fun around the sultry southern Vietnamese city

1 DONG KHOI STREET Start with a stroll down the wide boulevards of the city’s main commercial thoroughfare and admire the heady mix of old and new. At the beginning of the street stands the 130-year-old Notre Dame Cathedral, featuring classic neo-Romanesque architecture with its red brick façade and stained-glass windows. Opposite the ancient basilica is the Saigon Post Office; though it functions as a modern post office, the magnificent colonial French architecture inside and out will transport you back to French Indochina. Continue walking down the street and you’ll pass the Saigon Opera House on your left, another example of flamboyant French architecture and home to a number of cultural performances. Interspersed with these historic marvels are plenty of high-end shopping malls, boutique outlets, kitsch book stores and, of course, numerous cafés brewing aromatic coffee and food stalls offering up the lauded Vietnamese baguettes and steaming bowls of pho.