Antiquities and Crafts shopping in Saigon

The commercial face of Saigon is frankly turned toward consumer goods and fashion, thus quality crafts and antiquities shops are not easy to find. Here's a bit of what we've found, so far.

Antiquities

GLX

114 A Nguyen Hue Street. Tel: (08) 822-1923. www.glxartifacts.com

GPS: N10°46.578' E106°42.089'

Many of the valuable items here are Xing-era Chinese furniture, and Vietnamese wooden sculpture less than 200 years old. The shop is located a few doors south of the Vietnam Airlines office.

Tribal Crafts & Clothing

Two shops on De Tham Street (south of intersection of Pham Ngu Lao Street) have very nice selections of tribal clothing.

Sapa

223 De Tham Street. Tel: (08)836-5163.

Gorgeous tribally-inspired handbags, dresses, and accessories on the ground floor combine with authentic tribal clothing on the floor above. This shop is better stocked than their store on Dong Du (above).

Xa Saigon

259 De Tham Street. Tel: (08) 836-1839.

A few doors north of Sapa, designer Vo Thi Kim Van has developed a store with her own tribally-inspired fashions, mixed with the real thing. We bought two gorgeous Flower Hmong shirts for men at $10 and $15 USD, and felt terribly about not having bought more...