Notre Dame Cathedral

Built as the Hôtel de Ville, it's a striking cream and yellow French colonial building beautifully floodlit at night. No entry, but the statue of Uncle Ho in front is a very popular place for photos.

The museum, housed in a French colonial-era building, narrates the history of Ho Chi Minh City from pre-history to the present and also has exhibits on local culture and traditions. Outside, on the museum grounds, you will find cars and military vehicles of historical significance. The museum also relates the life of the modern-day father of Vietnam. The exhibits include various personal possessions of Ho Chi Minh but are mainly photographs. You may find it a little jingoistic.

This is a restored 4-floor time warp to the 1960s left largely untouched from the day Saigon fell to the North; construction started in 1962 and finished in 1966. It was South Vietnam's presidential palace. The war ended on 30 Apr 1975 when Tank 843 crashed through the gate. A replica of that tank is now parked on the lawn outside. Be sure to check out the aggressively 1960s recreation room on the third floor, featuring a circular sofa, and the eerie basement, full of vintage 1960s phones, radios and office equipment, supposedly left exactly as it was found when the North took over. There is also a photo gallery and a propaganda film recounting how the South Vietnamese supporters and American imperialists succumbed to Ho Chi Minh's indomitable revolutionary forces, at which point the South Vietnamese supporters were forgiven and everyone lived happily ever after. Free guided tours and an audio guide are available (90,000 dong). The audio guide is extremely informative, but not necessary. There is a nice outdoor café on the grounds outside the palace.

An opera house built by the French during the colonial period, and without a doubt one of the finest performance venues in Southeast Asia. In modern times it is home to the critically acclaimed AO show, an acrobatic show that fuses Vietnamese traditions with modern Cirque Nouveau performances. Occasionally hosts classical music performances when the AO show is not being performed.

One of 12 mosques in Ho Chi Minh City, the Central Mosque was built in 1935. It was constructed for worshipers from southern India then resident in Saigon, but now Muslims from as far as Pakistan and Indonesia come to pray. Friday has the biggest congregations. The shaded veranda and cool stone floors make it an ideal place to sit, read, or even nap in the heat of the day. As with most mosques, remember to take your shoes off before entering and dress conservatively if you wish to enter.

The museum was opened in a hurry, less than five months after the fall of the South Vietnamese regime. It has moved to new premises with 3 storeys of exhibits and various US military hardware (tanks, jets, helicopters, howitzers) on display outside the building. This disturbing display of man's cruelty during the Vietnam (American) War includes halls full of gruesome photographs, a simulated "tiger cage" prison and jars of deformed foetuses attributed to contamination by Agent Orange. An exhibit on the 3rd floor tells the story of the war journalists from all over the world who documented, and often disappeared or died in the war. Watch out for the amputees who will try to sell you their wares on the museum grounds, though largely their wares take the form of only somewhat overpriced books on historical topics relevant to the museum, and are less of a scam than more of an informal gift shop. The museum is a short walk from Reunification Palace — see the museum pamphlet for a map.