Saigon. Swarms of motor­bikes flow­ing through a city like nev­er-end­ing schools of fish in an oppres­sive­ly hot and humid mess, I tried to avoid at all costs. I bought a motor­cy­cle and was in the midst of it. Heat, humid­i­ty, lit­tle for­ward move­ment. Stifling.

I searched for some redeem­ing facet, some­thing to appre­ci­ate. The traf­fic was con­tin­u­ous, oppres­sive. But the sun goes down, the dis­tricts start to emp­ty out and the heat dis­si­pates. I began to ride at night and dis­cov­er a side to Saigon I could slow­ly start to love. The crazy con­ges­tion in Dis­trict 1 gives way and soon I’m cruis­ing down long emp­ty boule­vards over bridges and along rivers. I could final­ly drift through the city in 4th gear with­out curs­ing in my hel­met or wor­ry­ing about pass­ing out from heat exhaustion.

A pho­to essay explor­ing Saigon after dark. Ho Chi Minh City. A city whose mod­ern his­to­ry is close­ly entwined with my country.

(Click on a pic­ture to enlarge it and use the arrow keys to browse the rest of the gallery.)

Goodnight Saigon

 

Dri­ving through Dis­trict 1 I came across this con­vent, so eerie almost threat­en­ing, light by the sodi­um vapor street lamps. Visu­al­ly strik­ing, beau­ti­ful.  Rats scur­ried back and forth in front.  I set my tri­pod up across the 5–6 lane Đức Thắng street and run across in time for the 10-sec­ond timer.

 

Young Viet­namese sit on the steps of the French Colo­nial style Saigon Opera House (built in 1897). It’s a com­mon theme around Saigon to see cou­ples and friends gath­ered on bridges and oth­er pub­lic places sit­ting on the ground eat­ing and drink­ing. Some­thing I saw every night around the city.

 

 

 

 

On my first night ride I drove to Dis­trict 7 away from the heart of Saigon. The Ong Lon Bridge cap­tured my eye and thus began my jour­ney of shoot­ing the city after dark.

The morn­ing of 30 April 1975. One of the final con­fronta­tions on the last morn­ing of the Vietnam/American War. PAVN (North Viet­namese Army) on the East side of the Saigon Bridge and the ARVN (South Viet­namese Mil­i­tary) on its West­ern end, the last line of land defense pro­tect­ing the city. The bridge is rigged with 4,000 pounds of explo­sives. 10:24 am, the order is giv­en to capit­u­late. 10:30 am, the PAVN tanks cross the Saigon Bridge enter­ing Saigon. The bridge I stand on now. The war is final­ly over.

 

A New Saigon — Ho Chi Minh City

 

Ho Chi Minh stands proud­ly in front of the Ho Chi Minh City Hall (1908).

 

 

The new Ho Chi Minh City, a thriv­ing, ever-expand­ing metropolis.

 

The new Thu Thiem Bridge is some­times also called “Lover’s Bridge. Cou­ples come here and hang out at night with great views of the new, ever-expand­ing Ho Chi Minh City skyline.

Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City

“Why does every­one call it ‘Saigon’ and not its prop­er name ‘Ho Chi Minh City’?” I ask my friend, Mai, a local here. “Because for most peo­ple it was a bet­ter city back then.” Saigon was renamed “Ho Chi Minh City” in 1976 after the Vietnam/American War.

Good­night Saigon.