The low building to the right and behind the statue in the middle of the traffic circle is Ben Thanh Market--that is, before the renovations that are going on to remove the traffic circle. The building to the far right in the photo is a hospital which I never saw any use of (fortunately), but for many years, it was not unusual to see men urinating in broad daylight against the outside hospital wall. People just walk on by.
Late one night I arrived in Ho Chi Minh City and took a taxi from the airport. By then I knew--pretty much--what the ride to the hotel looked like even in the dark. All was normal, exactly as expected, until the cab driver went around this traffic circle in exactly the wrong direction, and, by that time, I had spent enough time in Vietnam to know that I would get to the hotel safely. (It did help that between midnight and one in the morning there was not much traffic.)
I got there safely.
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