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Virgin Saigon Original Coffee
Tiếng Việt

The journal

Travel & café stories.

What is worth walking to from the door, what goes in the cup, and how this corner of District 1 came to look the way it does.

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The coffee, explained

  • The coffee

    Cà phê muối, and why salt works

    Salt coffee came out of Huế a decade ago and is now across Saigon. What the salt does, and how to tell a made one from a poured one.

  • The coffee

    Cà phê sữa, and where the milk goes

    The two drinks people confuse, and the one thing separating them. Condensed milk is not a shortcut here — it is why the drink tastes as it does.

  • The coffee

    What is bạc xỉu?

    The name is Cantonese and means roughly a cup of white milk with a little coffee. It came out of Chợ Lớn in the 1950s. The drink, told straight.

The ward, on foot

  • The ward

    Why the Fine Arts Museum suits a morning

    Indoors while the ward is at its hottest, on a street most visitors never turn down, and about 102 metres from our door — two minutes on foot.

  • The ward

    Somewhere to work in Bến Thành Ward

    Air conditioning, free Wi-Fi and a room that stays quiet. What we can promise in Bến Thành Ward, and what we cannot promise yet.

  • The ward

    The banking ward, and its old name

    On 1 July 2025 Vietnam abolished the district level. Old Nguyễn Thái Bình ward was split, not merged, and local addresses have not caught up.

  • The ward

    A first day, in walking order

    Six places worth walking to from the door fall into two groups with a gap between. Which to take before the heat, and which to save for the afternoon.

  • The ward

    Up the stairs at Bến Thành

    Line 1 ends underneath Quách Thị Trang Square. What to do in the first ten minutes above ground, and how to cross the square without waiting for a gap.