Once a military drill ground where only bananas could be planted, the market was officially named in 1955
Located around 428 Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street, Ban Co, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. According to Thanh Nien newspaper, this area once lay within a military drill ground, so residents could only plant banana trees instead of putting up solid buildings, which is where the name "Vuon Chuoi" (Banana Garden) comes from. The Saigon authorities officially gave that name to both the market and the street in 1955. The area was also home to large horse stables around 1954-1955 before it became a crowded residential and commercial quarter. Before 1975, it was notorious as a place for illicit gold dealing. After sweeping crackdowns by the authorities, most of that activity came to an end. Today, the Vuon Chuoi quarter is a maze of narrow alleys packed with snack eateries, from bun bo Hue beef noodle soup to central-Vietnamese noodle dishes, gathered around a centuries-old banyan tree where local people still burn incense to pray for peace.
English text: machine translation from the Localis platform — proper names kept in Vietnamese.Good to know
Best time to visitYear-round; liveliest from late afternoon into the evening
Services
- Try bun bo Hue, bun dau mam tom and bun moc
- Snack inside the market
- Buy daily essentials
- Visit the old tree with an altar at the corner of the market
Localis