VIETNAM – Ho-Chi-Minh-City // Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
Former Saigon is up and coming as one of Southern Asia’s new mega cities. Time for a Bond insight!
Why Bond was here
Media megalomaniac Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce) wants to orchestrate a new World War – triggered from the South China Sea. To prevent the crisis, James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) travels to Vietnam. He gets help from Chinese agent Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh) – but both get captured.
They are brought to Carvers media center for South East Asia, a skyscraper in Ho-Chi-Minh-City with a gigantic poster of Carvers likeness outside the facade.
Bond and Wai Lin hanging out in Ho-Chi-Minh-City
How you gonna get there
You travel to Thailand – because the whole scene hadn’t been filmed in Vietnam at all. Though the plot is set in former Saigon, the crew never was allowed to film in Ho-Chi-Minh-City. Instead the team moved to Bangkok and found their skyscraper there.
Here you can read all about our visit to the Elliot Carver Skyscraper in Bangkok!
But should you pay Ho-Chi-Minh-City a visit as well? Yes, you should!
Good to know
Ho-Chi-Minh-City, or HCMC, is up and coming. The former Saigon was the capital of Southern Vietnam, but renamed by the victorious North after communist leader Ho Chi Minh. The people in HCMC don’t care at all – the train station still has Saigon written in capital letters across the roof and the rest of the city breathes the air of resistance as well. May the north be the ruler, the south is the motor of modern Vietnam.
You will find coffee joints and pop-up-stores around every corner, new offices and highrises blooming everywhere and a crazy young crowd ready to reshape its Saigon. We highly recommend “Cong Caphe” at Dong Khoi and “Poke Saigon” in Ly Tu Trong. For afterhours check out the notorious Ben Nghe quarter.
And what for sight seeing? Don’t miss buzzling Ben Thanh Market in the heart of the city and the Reunification Palace a bit north. This building was the seat of the Southern government and the US headquarter – after the North took over the palace was frozen in time and is now a museum. In the cellar, the war rooms are still at display.
As we were traveling with our daughter, we opted for the Saigon Zoo as well. The park itself can be quite a lush experience on a hot day in the city – but many cages and compounds are not in a good shape. The caretakers do their best, but it is to be questioned, if the animals are that healthy.
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