Michael Sieburg

This is a photo of downtown Saigon, looking out across District 1 and what is essentially straight down Nguyen Hue street, even though the street is not visible here. On the left, the tall, pink building is the Sheraton Hotel. To its right is the historic Caravelle hotel, which was popular among journalists during the war and popular among my friends when I used to live here for the all you can eat and drink Sunday brunch. The tall building in the left-middle of the photo is Saigon Center, one of the city’s premiere office buildings. The bulky white building on the right is the newly-opened Hyatt, a beautiful hotel set across from the Opera building, which you cannot see in this photo. The Continental Hotel is blocked from view by the Hyatt. In the foreground is the electricity commission I believe. Construction is ongoing in this neighborhood. You can see the crane on the left. I would guess that many of the buildings in the lower right portion of the photo will not be standing in five years.