“Pavement” Cafés

Find a shady place which gives you a wide range of things to observe, spread a piece of old newspaper on the pavement, sit down and enjoy a cup of coffee (or any other drink you like). This is a new style of drinking coffee among young people in Saigon.

“Pavement” sitters contemplate “elegant” ones

The spacious and breezy area around the Virgin Mary’s Cathedral in District 1, HCM City, with the April 30th Park and a mixture of modern and old buildings, is a valuable place for businesses. Highlands Café on the ground floor of the Metropolitan building, another Highlands café near Diamond Plaza and Paris Café nearby are always filled with customers.

Yet, Trung, an employee at an advertisement company, passes these elegant cafés every morning to stop at a familiar “pavement” shop on Han Thuyen Road. The shop has neither tables nor chairs. Customers are handed out old newspapers or leaflets with which to find their own pieces of ground to squat on. “This is the biggest café in Saigon as it includes a part of April 30th Park,” Trung joked.

The predecessor of this café was a sidewalk shop. One day, the landlord decided to build a villa, and the shop had to move away. An original idea occurred to the shop’s owner. He bought an old 9-seat Mitsubishi bus, took all the seats off, and designed it into a café.

Cars are allowed to park on the part of Han Thuyen Road near April 30th Park for 5,000 dong/time. Thus, the café’s owner has to pay only a small fee when he “opens” his shop every morning. There are always two drink specialists on the bus. The owner collects customers’ money. The staff also includes 3 to 5 waiters. Customers only need to park their motorbikes on the park’s pavements, which is much more convenient than at other cafés.

Sitting “in” this common shop, one can observe the fairly famous café opposite at No. 5 on Han Thuyen Road with its high tables and cushioned chairs, high-tech laptops, French croissants and Australian breads.

Squat on the sidewalks to watch vehicles go by

The idea of “pavement” cafés in Saigon perhaps originated on Nguyen Dinh Chieu Road, near the HCM City University of Architecture and University of Economics.

About 8 years ago, there was a café near the front gates of the universities and customers sat on the pavement of Pasteur Road, or idled their time away in front of Phan Dinh Phung Stadium. Ever since the stadium was being repaired, the cafés has been situated on Nguyen Dinh Chieu Road, where customers now sit along the school walls. Almost all of these customers are students.

Many customers have graduated from college, but they still meet their friends at the dear old place where they can sit on the pavement, stretching their legs comfortably. The atmosphere around here is noisy, partly because thousands of vehicles pass by, partly because students entering the universities have to pass this road, and chiefly because they gather here to drink or eat lunch.

Because of the noise, local policemen have threatened to close the café. The alert mistress had to install a weather-beaten wooden folding table on which stands a basket filled with bottles and tools. Whenever she catches sight of the policemen, she grasps her table and basket and runs. Her face has become very familiar. Sometimes she sells things to students though they have no money to pay her yet. Occasionally, she gives boys free cigarettes.

Sit and watch many other things

Customers sit at “pavement” cafés to contemplate crowded streets with vehicles rushing by, old-style houses, people eternally in a hurry in Saigon, or merely falling golden leaves. Hidden by bustling August Revolution Road, and stretching from Dien Bien Phu to Ngo Thoi Nhiem, is quiet Le Ngo Cat. On this relatively short road, there are two cafés with small chairs which customers often gladly abandon in favour of the pavement.

Young people in Saigon consider Le Ngo Cat Road a very "sensitive" meeting place at night. Thus, the two shops are closed as early as 5 pm every day. It is a shame that customers have no chance to enjoy the sight of two rows of yellow cassia trees on the sidewalks with falling leaves and trembling branches on breezy afternoons.

The pavement café on Alexander de Rhodes in District 1, near Newspaper Café, is always busy. Two businesses jumped on a short pavement, taking turns to operate. One opens in the morning and the other in the afternoon. The morning café seems to have made the greater investment with several colourful plastic chairs, but customers are used to the services of the afternoon business, which uses pieces of paper and canvass as chairs.

There is a row of very tall trees along this street, spreading their shade widely. Huy, a pavement sitter, often sits here the whole morning. He stays until 11 am, when sunshine invades his seat. The rush hour in the afternoon when Pasteur Road is most crowded is also the busiest time at the afternoon café.

What do these cafés mean?

More and more young people choose these pavement cafés because they are bored with “living” inside café shops noisy with music, stuffy with air-conditioners and smoke. Hoa, 20 years old, with the latest PS motorbike, highlighted hair, teeth in shiny braces, and the upper hem of her trousers revealing a scorpion tattoo, threw herself on the ground at a pavement café. For the past month, she has been sitting at the café on Han Thuyen Road with her friends.

Most pavement customers are office employees working in District 1, as well as students. Lan, a reporter who has the habit of drinking at the pavement cafés on Alexander de Rhodes, shared her feelings, "Though sitting only a lane away from the busy Pasteur road, I feel my life calms down greatly." Perhaps the reporters who gather at this café every afternoon after sitting inside Newspaper Café also want to seek such calmness.

Hoang, a stylish girl who often meets her customers at many "5 stars" cafés in Saigon, one day decided to drink at a pavement café out of curiosity. After only a few minutes, she stood up and walked away because of the strange feeling of sitting carelessly on the ground.

She admitted that these places are delightfully shady and spacious. Yet, from a cultural angle, she found them unacceptable. She said students and office employees shouldn’t sit on the ground, leaning their backs against the walls, looking at passers-by and letting people stare at them as though they were people of no culture or knowledge.

"There are many café shops in Saigon that meet all sorts of demands for entertainment and culture. Why do these people have to sit on the sidewalks?” Hoang said. She is also worried about the hygiene of the drinks sold by these cafés because they are often kept for many days.