CURRY TREES IN VIETNAM

This curry variety is native to the tropics of the Americas, is a tropical tree, can live up to 50 years, small tree, 4-10m high, many branches.

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Unlike the common Indian curry variety, the trees have pink flowers and bright red thorny fruits, containing red seeds. The fruit dries and hardens into a brown capsule.

The fruit is not edible, but the seeds have many uses. The curry seeds are used to color foods, such as butter, fish and cooking oils. 

Not only the field of food but also cosmetics and pharmaceuticals in some countries such as the United States, Brazil also extracted Bixin pigment in the curry seeds to create a safe color for products. 

In addition to taking seeds to color foods, plant parts have many therapeutic effects such as seeds as dewormers. 

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Folk experience in Colombia, people pound curry seeds to treat snakebites and eliminate phlegm. Leaves are used to treat dysentery, fever, malaria, and some other parts of the plant as medicine against heatstroke, tonsillitis, burns, pleurisy, diarrhea, and dysentery. 

In Vietnam, the curry seeds are reduced by housewives in hot peanut oil, coconut oil or lard, filtered to get a mixture of colors to cook foods such as curry, rice noodles, stir-fry.

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HISTORY OF "BOT CATINAT" - SAIGON

Catinat Street seen from Notre Dame. Photo taken at the end of the 19th century, a small fountain in the position that later erected statues of Bishop Ba Da Loc and Prince Canh. The two buildings on both sides of Catinat Street have similar architecture, symmetrically through Catinat Street. 

View from the church bell tower. At this time, on the park of Notre Dame Cathedral, there was a statue of Bishop Ba Da Loc (the statue was inaugurated on March 10, 1902, under Governor General Paul Doumer).

Photo in the same collection of F.H., Schneider. Catinat Street seen from the church bell tower. The house on the left of the photo has a veranda protruding from the fence on Taberd Street (present-day Nguyen Du).

The house on the left in the previous photo, address 164 Catinat, is the Tax Department. Research in the yearbook of Dr. Nguyen Duc Hiep shows that this address is recorded as Recette locale in the years 1905-1906, and Receveur spécial from 1907-1911, from 1912 onwards is “Trésor public” (Treasury).

Across the street, 225 Catinat, is the tresorier payeur residence. Thus, the two buildings at the end of Catinat Street can both be called Tresor Public because one is to receive money and the other to manage the treasury. 

Catinat Street with two symmetrical buildings. The electric pole is changed, the foot of the pole is casted with reinforced cement.

In 1917, when the new treasury was built on Charner Avenue, the French colonial government arranged for the Cochinchina Secret Service and the Central Police Department to use this work. Because they are located on Catinat Street, people often call these two agencies "Bot Catinat" - Police Station. 

Bot Catinat had a cellar deep underground, large and small cells where French secret police kept many political prisoners. Bot Catinat is notorious for being evil, the Viet Minh or the suspect, when arrested, are brought there to torture, exploit, make a record and then take it to the Big Chamber. Because it is located next to Notre Dame Cathedral, Saigon people sarcastically call: "Next to heaven there is hell".

Bot Catinat in 1948. When the Japanese coup d'etat France in Indochina, the statue of Bishop Ba Da Loc was taken down and brought back to France.

After 1954, the notorious colonial-era Catinat camp was used by the Saigon government as the headquarters of the Ministry of Interior. Photo taken in 1967, at this time the square in front of Notre Dame Cathedral was named Kennedy Square. You can see the words Ministry of the Interior at the gate of the building on the left. The building on the right is unchanged from before, it is used as the headquarters of the Ministry of Social Affairs.

Overview of Dong Khoi - Nguyen Du intersection.

Saigon Metropolitan sprang up.

After 1975, the building 164 Dong Khoi was used as the headquarters of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Ho Chi Minh City. Currently, a real estate project of more than 7,000 billion has been approved on this golden land.

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History of the Saigon - My Tho railway

The first and only railway in Vietnam that could cross the river without a bridge. 

On November 12th 1880, the French Colonial Council licensed the construction and operation of the first railway in Vietnam to the private contractor Joret. In early 1881, the contractor Joret embarked on the construction of a railway from Saigon to the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. 

The railway from Saigon to My Tho had been built with a length of more than 70 km. The estimated cost of the project was more than 12 million francs with materials brought from France. By the middle of the year, all plans were completed and the construction site was put into operation. The organization of the construction of the railway was quite large and urgent, with more than 11,000 employees of both France and Vietnam - the French side was mainly engineer officers and engineers, while the manual workers were Vietnamese.

The Saigon - My Tho railway was the first railway of Indochina. This was also the second railway built by the French abroad, after the first railway about 13 km long at Pondichéry, India - built in 1879. It helped change the thinking of Vietnamese in Mekong Delta at that time when traveling only by horses and boats.

According to many historians, if the railway didn't stop at My Tho but also extended further to Can Tho and through Mekong Delta to Phnom Penh as originally planned, then the traffic would be in the early development of Mekong Delta, not prolonged retardation. Thanks to this railway, the position of My Tho became more prominent than other cities in the Mekong Delta, including Can Tho.

Due to the characteristics of local region, which is mostly rivers, most of the roads that the railway passed through were lowland and muddy. The need to reinforce the roadbed took more time. The railway also passed through large fields and some residential areas. One problem the railway had to deal with was that there were two rivers separating it. The French contractor ordered Eiffel to build two bridges, including the Ben Luc iron bridge (crossing the Vam Co Dong river) and the Tan An bridge (crossing the Vam Co Tay river).

Four years later, when the railway was put into operation, the bridges were still incomplete. Therefore, to bring the train across the big river, the carriages were temporarily separated to put on the ferry across the river, then connected again and then continued to run. The type of ferry used by steam engine carrying more than 10 carriages. The ferry was fitted with rails and devices to connect the ground track to the ferry's rails. The train had to cross the ferry until 1886, after the two iron bridges (550m and 133m long) were completed, so the train could go without having to move the carriages on the ferry again.

On July 20, 1885, the first train departed from Saigon to My Tho city. It had a total of 15 stations. From Saigon station (the current September 23 Park) went through An Dong, Phu Lam, An Lac, Binh Dien, Binh Chanh, Go Den, Ben Luc, Cau Voi, Tan An, Tan Huong, Tan Hiep, Tra Luong and arrived at the My Tho terminus near the Tien Giang river (near today's statue of Thu Khoa Huan).

At first, trains used steam locomotives, which ran unusually fast or slow. When going uphill across the bridge, sometimes the pot did not have enough steam to run up, so sometimes it slipped down. In 1896, trains were invested with new locomotives 220-T-SACM with stronger traction capacity. It took about 2 hours and 30 minutes to go through the whole route. The later has been shortened to less than 2 hours. The average speed was about 37 km/h, much higher than the Vietnamese transport at that time.

The Saigon - My Tho railway operated until the 50s of the 20th century. By this period, the car and bus industry began to thrive. The road system of Saigon - My Tho has also been invested more and better, so people had gradually turned to road for more convenience. These things had greatly affected the train service, there were days when the whole train had only a few dozen people, leading to losses. In 1958, this railway was stopped by the authority of Ngo Dinh Diem, ending 73 years of existence.

125 years later, the oldest railway of Indochina was researched and rebuilt by the Vietnamese Government. It is expected that this new Saigon - My Tho railway will have a length of 87 km, passing through Binh Duong, Ho Chi Minh City, Long An and Tien Giang. The project has a total investment of more than 7,000 billion VND as it will follow the new planning for the whole Mekong Delta. 

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Saigon Lockdown July 2021

During July 2021, the Covid epidemic broke out violently throughout Saigon and southern Vietnam, so the government ordered a blockade throughout Saigon, especially people were not allowed to go out after 6pm.

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THE EXECUTION SITE IN SAIGON

This execution site were established in the years 1965 - 1966 when the situation in South Vietnam was extremely chaotic, there were continuous coups, monks protested, the VC exploded bombs in the middle of Saigon, and crooks took advantage of the difficult situation to speculate, hoard, manipulate the market to get rich... The SVN government at that time had to set up this special military court to try many outstanding cases with severe sentences, not only for terrorists or crooks, but some corrupt government officials also suffered severe punishments as many documents or books of the day recorded. These public executions were aimed at suppressing crime with a deterrent character, but also gained a lot of international notoriety, especially when foreign journalists were sympathetic to the VC and intended to oppose the SVN government - they distorted the truth to exploit propaganda...

The place is now near Ben Thanh Market, HCM City.

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HISTORY OF NGUYEN HUE BOULEVARD - SAIGON

Nguyen Hue Boulevard started with a canal called Kinh Lon, which led water from the Saigon River to Gia Dinh citadel built by Nguyen Anh in 1790. At that time, it was also called Cho Vai canal because there was a canal along the banks. Many overseas Chinese focus on selling cloth.

After the French captured Saigon, in 1861, Admiral Charner issued regulations limiting the city's territory. The Grand Canal was renamed the Charner Canal, with both sides running parallel roads named Rigault de Genouilly and Charner. This photo was taken by photographer Emile Gsell in 1870.

Another photo by Emile Gsell of the 1870s street with the Great Canal and the block on Charner Street. The bridge across the canal connecting the two banks is the guide to Ngo Duc Ke street today.

In the middle of Charner Street is the first market of Saigon, built in 1860. The French call it Charner market, and the people call it Cho Lon or Saigon market.

In 1914, when Ben Thanh market was completed, this market was closed. The location of the old market today is located in the area of Bitexco building, and the State Treasury of Ho Chi Minh City today.

In 1887, the French filled the canal and merged the road on both sides into Charner Avenue. However, Saigon people call Kinh Lap street.

After filling the canal, the French built a system of tramway (steam train) Saigon - Cho Lon - My Tho. On Charner Avenue, the section near the Saigon River, there is a train station.

And the tallest house is the house of Mr. Vuong Thai, a Chinese giant in Saigon at the end of the 19th century. In 1883, the French government bought this house and completed the repair 4 years later. Today this house is still there, is the headquarters of the Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department. Viewed from the walking street, the house is hidden by tall buildings and dense trees.

From the canal to a modern and busy boulevard in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Modern buildings were built by the French on this road. Typical is the Tax Trade Center, built in 1880. The building is the oldest commercial center in Saigon.

At the end of 2016, the Tax mall was demolished to carry out the construction project of a commercial center for office and hotel services.

From the bank of the Saigon River entering, the left side of Charner street has odd numbers, the right side has even numbers. On the left side of the road is a market, so the trade is busy. On the right are mostly French shops and cafes. Kim Do Hotel is now the headquarters of the Société des Garages Charner Company, which has sold and repaired cars since the late 19th century.

Charner Avenue becomes the widest street in Saigon, where major festivals take place, there are many shops and headquarters of companies, hotels... Right at the intersection with d'Ormay street (Mac Thi Buoi) in the east. must be the Grand Hôtel du Coq d'Or. Today it is the Palace Hotel.

Rex Hotel consists of 5 floors built in 1927. Initially, this place was a garage, selling cars. In 1959, the government of the Republic of Vietnam upgraded it to a hotel. After 1975, the hotel was renamed Ben Thanh until 1986 back to the old name as it is today.

At the end of Charner Avenue is Xa Tay Palace, today is the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City built from 1898 to 1909. At the corner of Bonnard (Le Loi) and Charner (Nguyen Hue) avenues is a house named Hotel des Nations, on the right. Figure. In the 40s, the Eden quadrangle was built at the location of this house. By 2012, the project of a commercial center was completed on the basis of the quadrangle.

A famous building on Charner Avenue is the Court of Reconciliation, built in 1870. After the city court was completed in 1887, the Mediation Court was fully functional. The location of the Mediation Court today is a building.

The General Treasury was built in 1920, now is the State Treasury of Ho Chi Minh City.

In 1956, Charner Avenue was renamed Nguyen Hue by the government of the Republic of Vietnam. Since 1960, every spring, Nguyen Hue Boulevard has appeared flower markets from all over to gather at Bach Dang wharf, on the bank and stretching on the boulevard.

In the late 90s, for reasons of order in the city center, Nguyen Hue flower market moved to the park on September 23. In 2004, the flower market returned to the flower street with a new look. In April 2015, Ho Chi Minh City inaugurated the Nguyen Hue walking square with a length of 670 m and a width of 64 m.

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