Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens – a mixed bag.

Most visitors to Saigon, even expats those who live here, never go to the Botanical Gardens. Most don’t know that it exists.

Ease of access is not an issue. It’s in District 1, a short walk from the 5 star hotels, the major office buildings, and many services apartment buildings. It’s at the end of Le Duan street, at the far end from the Reunification Palace. It’s directly across the road from the Saigon offices of PetroVietnam, the largest and most important company in Vietnam.

Unfortunately it’s also a small zoo, indeed one of the oldest in the world. Its formal name is the Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens. It’s been a zoo and botanical gardens since 1865, although it was not formally opened until July 14th 1869. At the entrance there are also the Museum of Vietnam History, built in 1927, and the Huong Vong Temple, built in 1929.

The Wikipedia entry for the Gardens is a copy from the internet blurb published by the Gardens itself. It’s a fairy tale, even in the opening sentence that proclaims that it is “famous with foreign visitors”. It’s nothing of the sort.

The problem is that it could be, it should be, a very good botanical gardens very close to the centre of a huge, densely populated population which is desperately short of parks and gardens. There are many magnificent, tall, old trees, and in Saigon there is no shortage of splendid orchids and exotic plants. In 1927 it was said that “The establishment of the botanical gardens is an exclusive decoration to Saigon that distinguishes it as one of the finest cities in the Far East”.

The problem is not the Gardens. The problem is the Zoo. I know that the French established it as a zoo and gardens, and that they have an odd ancient obsession with having caged birds and animals in municipal gardens, but that is not an excuse for Vietnam in 2011. There is no reason or excuse for having this small zoo here. Some school children visit it but it is very difficult to believe that seeing the animals in the enclosures here turns any of them into environmentalists. Most are just interested in ice creams.

If Saigon needs a zoo, and there may be good scientific reasons for having one, it should be in an area with plenty of space where the animals and birds have some semblance of an existence in which they are not distressed. There is plenty of land on the outskirts of Saigon which, despite its huge population, is contained within a very small area. A properly prepared and presented zoo would attract far more tourists than the negligible number that presently come.

There is a white rhino and a white tiger, both hopelessly sad. The white tiger has been moved to a new glass-fronted enclosure, which is a lot better than the old cage. But it should not be in a cage, especially not one with a glass front which all the local visitors seem intent on tapping to create an angry reaction from the tiger. The elephants have also been moved to a better enclosure, contained by a moat rather than a cage, but like so many elephant enclosures it is significantly too small. The less said about the circumstances of the hippos, the better.

Tigers, elephants, hippos and, of course, rhinos need lots of space to roam around. This is truly sad.

But away from the animals the Gardens are very pleasant. If you want to go somewhere to escape from the chaos and intensity of Saigon, take your book or newspaper and go the Gardens. It’s quiet and relaxing. Just keep away from the parts given over to the Zoo.