Places

The 5 km shoreline loop is the city's spine — 45 to 60 minutes on foot, and it is at its best in the mist between 05:30 and 08:00.

Worth knowing. Swan pedal boats and bicycle hire at 30–50k an hour along the north shore.

A guesthouse shaped like a fungal forest, designed by the daughter of a former Vietnamese president. You can climb the whole structure and you can also sleep in it.

Worth knowing. Narrow, high, unrailed walkways. Fine for confident children, not for toddlers or anyone unsteady.

The only working stretch of the old cog railway, running from a 1938 art-deco station. At the far end, a pagoda with a 49-metre dragon built from 12,000 bottles.

Worth knowing. About 30–45 minutes each way. The pagoda is 400 m from Trai Mat station.

A 1931 Romanesque church with a 47-metre tower, seventy stained-glass panels and a rooster weathervane that gave it its nickname.

Worth knowing. English-language Catholic Mass runs Sunday 19:00 at Sacred Heart church — the only regular English service in the city.