Pay respects at the memorial to the Buddhist monk whose 1963 self-immolation became one of the defining images of 20th-century Vietnam.

Start the morning at this leafy District 1 park where local bird-keepers gather at dawn to hang their caged songbirds in the trees and share tea - a rarely-visited Saigon ritual.

Walk through narrow lanes packed with fresh-cut flowers, where Saigon's florists buy their blooms before sunrise - a riot of color and scent most tourists never see.

Step inside the Gustave Eiffel-designed hall to see the original hand-painted maps and one of the city's last public letter-writers - a postcard-perfect colonial landmark.

A French colonial cathedral built 1877-1880 from bricks shipped in from Marseille - currently under restoration, so we photo-stop for the exterior view.

Weave through the apothecary alleys of Saigon's Chinatown around Binh Tay Market, where stalls are stacked with dried herbs, seahorses, and roots still used in Vietnamese-Chinese traditional medicine.

Drive past the gates where a North Vietnamese tank crashed through on April 30, 1975, ending the Vietnam War. Also known as Reunification Palace.