The View From Above: Saigon Skydeck

The tallest and most distinctive building in Ho Chi Minh City is the 68-floor Bitexco Financial Tower. On floor #49 is the Saigon Skydeck, with a 360-degree birds-eye view of the city. Admission is about $10 US, which is pretty good compared to comparable attractions in other cities.

Yesterday I took the Kiddo to have a look at the city from this vantage point. We took the bus in to District 1 and walked from the Ben Thanh bus station.

It's pretty easy to figure out where to go, as the Bitexco Tower is a rather distinctive landmark.

The tower's first four floors house an upscale mall, a movie theater, and a food court where we stopped for lunch, figuring the food at the cafe on the 50th floor would probably be overpriced. Food court proved to be quite good.

The Skydeck has its own entrance, so we headed back out to the street, taking a moment to look up.

From there, it was up the "fastest elevator in Southeast Asia" and up to check out the view.

It was pretty spectacular.

We got a different view of some familiar places.

Ben Thanh Market.

And the Ben Thanh Bus Station.

The world-famous Majestic Hotel.

Which does not actually look all that majestic from this angle.

(We've been inside it, though, and it is quite lovely).

Here's another of Saigon's famous hotels, the Rex (foreground left), along with Saigon City Hall.

Boats on the Saigon River.

And some views of the city, stretching to the horizon.

 This cluster of buildings includes the Lan Lan 2 Hotel, where we stayed when we first arrived in Vietnam.

The foot-bridge over a branch of the river.

Another view of City Hall.

After making our way down the elevator, we visited some of the sites we had seen from above to check them out at street level.

The Kiddo had a great time checking out the sites through the telescopes (which were free to use, as opposed to the pay versions you find in a lot of attractions).

The foot bridge.

 The Thuong Xa Tax department store.

The Rex Hotel.

 City Hall.

 And here are a couple more views of the Bitexco Tower from the streets.

This was a nice day trip, not too costly, and a good way to experience the city from a different perspective. More photos from the Saigon Skydeck can be found in this Flickr Album, and this album contains pictures from all over Ho Chi Minh City taken this month.