Vietnam's tallest building is the BITEXCO Financial Tower.
UPDATE: now 2nd tallest
At least for now its the tallest. It's just a short walk from my hotel. Pay $200,000* and you get an elevator ride to the 49th floor observing deck. It is just a few floors below what I think is the helipad. Before I went up I was hoping maybe the observing deck was outside on that big platform. No :-( . Still great views of HCM from the deck. I'd definitely go up again.
looking west, Ben Thanh market is in this picture
I've was told an even taller building will be completed in Hanoi over the next few months. Even after that it is still a great view. No matter, its nice place to get a view of the city after all the walking around it that I've done.
Ben Thanh Market
As I've walked around HCM I've used the building as a guide post to set my direction and distance from the my hotel. In addition to being easy to see it's unique shape makes it obvious which direction things are relative to the building.
Rules are posted in a fair number of places. Much like in the US but the rules are generally more extensive. And usually there are elements to the rules that make me wonder just exactly whether there's a snowball's chance in hell the posted rule would actually be broken.
This small boat I was on is a fine example of that.
Below are the posted rules. Note rule 3. The end of the first line and the beginning of the second. What is the likelihood radioactive materials or cattle might be brought on the boat? The radioactive materials could certainly be hidden but a cow, a cow. How could a cow be brought on board without the crew knowing someone was attempting to bring aboard a cow.
There is a lot of trash everywhere I've been. The beach I went to, Can Gio, is a real mess. In HCM there is trash on the streets everywhere and on the tour bus rides I've taken small trash piles are everywhere along the roadside. And Tây Ninha where the Cao Dai temple I visited had trash on all the streets the bus drove along.
In places like HCM it is difficult to find a trash can. Every other city I recall visiting has them pretty much at every corner and often times along the block as well. In Vietnam I've had too look carefully to find trash cans. This is true even in the resort I visited. And the beach at the resort is not one I'd like to go barefoot along.
I see street cleaners are everywhere in HCM. By "street cleaner" I mean a person in an orange jump suit pushing a rolling bin and carrying a broom and dust pan. A veritable army of these people sweep the sidewalks and streets. The street gets cleaned and the cycle starts all over again once the cleaners abandon the streets. My impression of the Vietnamese approach to public sanitation, at least in HCM, is "throw it to the ground and the street cleaners will pick it up."
This works after a fashion in HCM but I don't imagine the street cleaner vs trash ration is high enough once outside the city center. Judging from the trash piles I've seen along the roads it isn't. Much of the trash is inorganic, plastic, so it will be around for a while. Plastic bags are abundant and many beverages are sold in plastic bottles.
One item of trash I haven't seen much of is glass. From my bicycle riding I've developed a keen eye for glass to avoid flats. In the US it is everywhere. Even along quiet country roads. Given the amount of beer I see being consumed from glass bottles here I expected there to be plenty of that along the roads too. I'm not seeing it though. I don't know if there are bottle deposits but I guess glass must be valuable enough a resource that it doesn't qualify as trash.
Another video from the back of a motorbike. This time in the evening after dinner. Perhaps its the narrow streets, maybe it's that nobody walks and everyone's in the street on a motorbike, pedal bike, three wheeler with or without motor or maybe its just the unfamiliarity of it all but it seems to me that more than any other city I've been in HCM is always bustling.
There has not been a time when the streets are not busy. For me its fascinating.
Life happens on the sidewalks here and moves in the streets. Motorbikes park everywhere and crowd the sidewalks. Where there aren't motorbikes there are vendors on the sidewalks selling pho (soup), rice and rice flour dishes and sandwiches. Also drinks of various sorts.
Then there are the customers sitting all around on various sorts of low plastic furniture. There is hardly room to move on the sidewalks. So everything that moves, pedestrians, bikes, motorbikes, three wheelers, cars, etc. moves in the street.
If you ever come to Ho Chi Minh be prepared to experience traffic in a way you've never imagined before.
Vietnam's tallest building is the BITEXCO Financial Tower. 
