Visiting a coffee shop hiding Saigon Special Forces’ secret cellar

General


Located at No. 113A Dang Dung street, Tan Dinh ward, District 1 in Ho Chi Minh City is Do Phu – com tam Dai Han, a coffee shop that once hid Saigon Special Forces’ secret cellar. It used to be the ‘red address’ of the Saigon Special Forces, which specialized in hiding cadres and stored about 2 tons of weapons to prepare for the Tet Offensive in 1968. Its history traces back to the year 1968, when a member of Saigon Special Forces named Tran Van Lai, with his wife and family, built 2 secret weapon cellars at their house located in the midst of enemies surrounding. In Lunar New year of 1968, Saigon Special Forces took weapons from this cellar to take and captured the Independence Palace as well as many other important targets. During the war time, to hide from enemy’s sight, the shop also opened a broken rice stall that became popular to Korean soldiers at the time for its special kimchi sauce. Nowadays, Do Phu coffee shop introduces young generations to many historical artefacts associated with Saigon Special
Forces. This is one of the interesting destinations that visitors should not miss when having opportunities to visit Ho Chi Minh City.

Source: Vietnam News Agency