Walking along the evergreen streets in Saigon

Saigon used to be a beautifully green city, maybe still green but the image of a charming city has gone. Back in 70s, I was just a little kid, but still remember the image of Saigon in the old days.
Not much traffic, much cleaner, less populated, less polluted and it seemed people at that time behaved more properly.

                  Nguyen Van Cu street with the narrow alleys along two sides of the main street.

I may never forget the afternoon walk from my parent house to my high school along Nguyen van Cu street, that was my road to the school for 6,7 years. I loved these narrow alleys along both sides of the main street, as I followed them to my school with my childhood friend who was living in the same neighbourhood.
In Saigon this unique urban design, "double street", can be found in some other districts as well. Before, this small alleys were empty and covered only by the tiny golden tamarind leaves, but now mostly occupied by street vendors. Wonder do we have this kind of "double street" somewhere else in the world ? I thought it has been designed intentionally for bicycles, maybe I'm wrong!

            Truong Dinh street - across the Tao Dan park, used to be blocked as a part of the park. 

Saigon is developing and we have to pay a high price for that. The new skyscrapers - some looking good, some quite ugly, new roads opened, new bridges launched...but in return we have to deal with a lot of things: the traffic jam,  the pollution,  the over-populations, the flood, the social problems...It bites into the city, we feel a pain but then we realised that we should learn how to accept, how to ignore it.

           Huyen Tran Cong chua street - quiet with tall trees, nice shade, next to the Presidential Palace.

I don't know why I suddenly want to catch these streets in Saigon, probably while they are still there with the green trees, nice shade. Many of these trees are over hundred year old, some already died from the inside. During the raining season, we see people in uniform from a state company named " Park & Green trees" cutting off the old ones or pollarding them but I never see them to plant any! Maybe I just missed it.

           This street is named after a famous poet - Nguyen Du and it looks quite silently poetic. 

            Hàn Thuyên street - next to one of the few parks still left in Saigon's heart... 

             The historic street leading to the old Presidential Palace, used to be blocked before 1975 for...

           security reasons. Another street in front of the Palace, the trees seems young...

             again the "double street" style in Pasteur ...

              and also in Ton Duc Thang street, before here was so quiet with several monasteries... 

                   but now getting noisy with office buildings, bars, restaurants...

            Nguyen Binh Khiem street next to the famous Zoo and the old-styled high school Trung Vuong

             Nguyen Dinh Chieu street with many hundred-year old trees... 

         and Hung Vuong street leading to Chinatown and also to my house, my hotel Equatorial...

             Nguyen Hue street - one of the oldest but without trees, those palms are newly planted. 

          The historic street of Saigon, Dong Khoi, all the old trees gone only few left at the two ends... 

We have a famous song created by one of the greatest Vietnamese composers - Phạm Duy. He passed away early this year in his 90s and left a huge music heritage - a thousand songs that none of us will forget in many many years to come.
We don't have the autumn, we don't have the golden leaves fall but by some how many our poets, composers always inspired by this "Golden Fall"in their works, but I may prefer "the evergreen", so I'd like to end my walk along these evergreen streets with a Pham Duy's song as the image of the Saigon street with tall trees, great shade will live forever in his very sentimental piece of music.

       "Trả lại em yêu, khung trời đại học  

         Con đường Duy Tân, cây dài bóng mát

         Buổi chiều khuôn viên, mây trời xanh ngát 

         Vết chân trên đường vẫn chưa phai nhạt..."