The crystal ball works - or the prevailing of common sense

I've always thought Saigon has a unique and charming city center, specifically the central part of D1 - Le Loi from Ben Thanh to Hai Ba Trung, Dong Khoi from the Notre Dame to the river, Nguyen Hue and its surrounding side streets. Even Ton Duc Thang, with the hotels lining the river front.

Back in March 2007 I wrote the following in the post 'Will 2020 ever come to Saigon?:

What I envisage for the city is a pedestrian area encompassing Nguyen Hue, Dong Khoi and Lam Son Square. I am no urban planner and maybe it's too late to build the parking that would be necessary, but wouldn't it be nice.....

And then in 2010 in 'Nowhere to go'.

Do not despair however residents of Ho Chi Minh City. One last hope remains and I am talking about the frontage of the Saigon River in Districts One and Four. Nguyen Tat Thanh currently houses the Saigon Port which I hear will be moving to Nha Be District at some point in the future leaving a wonderful stretch of riverfront available from the Tan Thuan bridge all the way to the Museum of Ho Chi Minh. And why stop there - once heavy traffic is diverted from Ton Duc Thang with the completion of the tunnel and the East-West highway, the river front here could also be developed. Picture it - kilometers of walking, restaurants, cafes and family attractions. With the District 1 skyline in one direction and the Phu My bridge in the other, the esplanade would be the envy of South East Asia, thousands of new visitors would flood the city, and long suffering residents and their children would finally have somewhere to enjoy. 

Now see the article 'Ho Chi Minh City downtown area to be expanded' (10/5/2013)

According to the plan, which has been approved by the city government, the existing downtown area, covering District 1 and District 3, will be expanded to include an area along the Saigon River in District 4 and Binh Thanh District and the ports along Nguyen Tat Thanh Street and the Tau Hu-Ben Nghe canals. Many streets in the area will become pedestrian streets and shopping areas, and the green area will be expanded by 70 hectares. Le Loi and Nguyen Hue Streets will become pedestrian shopping areas.Except for buses and other public transport services, motorbikes and personal cars will be banned from traveling into the area

The Saigon River’s western bank quarter: the river’s bank area that stretches to the Tan Thuan Bridge will become home to cultural centers, recreational facilities and public spaces.

I truly hope the city authorities press ahead with these plans and make this a reality. Combined with the proposed plans for a link to Thu Thiem via a pedestrian bridge and a large riverside park on the other side of the river, the city could make giant strides towards providing genuine recreational areas for citizens.

Plans are just plans however. As the press is reporting, the take off of the 'new urban center' in Thu Thiem is hitting roadblocks with land prices too high, despite 95% of the clearance already having been completed.

Thu Thiem new urban area unattractive to investors.

So, we'll see it (all) when we believe it.

Building a House in Viet Nam : 2

From this to this, 20 trucks and a roller later.

TET 2013 in Photos

Louisa and friend Eva

Lucky Money from Grandma

New Years Day

Pagoda

Pagoda

The Crescent 

The Crescent

The Crescent

The Crescent - Protection

The Crescent - Water Police

Pleasant Stroll

Curiosity 

Deserted D1

Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, New Years Day

83 Years - The socialist party is spring sunshine for a new life

Celebrating 224 years of historic victory in Dong Da 

TET sponsored by Dominio's Pizza

The fighting spirit of the TET offensive 1968 will never die  

Familiar

Building a house Viet Nam: Part 1

Around four years ago Chi and I sold her mother's small house in Binh Thanh and used the money to buy two plots of land, one in Cu Chi and one in Binh Chanh. Four years later, we've decided its time to start building a house for mum to live in before she turns our hair gray. And potentially a nice weekend retreat for us too.

I plan to chronicle the process here.

The land was purchased at 600,000 per  sqm, 1000 sqm. So a total value of 600 million VND at time of purchase, around $29,000, in 2009.

Since then, all we have done is erect a huge fence and set of gates around the land (cost: $1000). The land is totally overgrown with tall grass, trees and bushes. Recently we had someone survey the land for clearance, and he discovered a whacking great bomb crater in the middle of it. That's gonna take a little extra earth to fill in. This same man is quoting us 1 million VND ($50) per truck of earth, and estimates that it will take 30 trucks to fill in our crater and raise the level of the whole plot above the road. Once he's done this, the earth needs to be left at least 4 months to compact naturally before any construction can take place.

During this time, Chi and I will be looking at the house and garden design. Here's what we are working with:

The area for allowed housing is 120m2. We have a friend working on some 2D designs in various shapes.

Once we have leveled the land and the rainy season arrives we'll buy some young trees of varying kinds to plant.

I will be mostly living this project vicariously through my wife and various other family members who live in Cu Chi. The only pictures I have right now are these, and it won't look like this for much longer:

 

 

Tales from a Vietnamese christmas holiday - HCMC, Phu Quoc and Long Hai

Another festive period spent in the glorious people's paradise the Socialist Republic of Vietnam accompanied by those responsible for my existence, the one responsible for maintaining my existence and one whose existence I am responsible for.

First up, enjoying the urban pleasures of exotic Saigon. With one eye on child friendly activities we set off to Dam Sen Cultural Park in district 11. Well, I say cultural. The park consists of a boating lake and gardens surrounded by crude and distinctly third world entertainment. A small circus houses bicycle riding bears and monkeys whilst outside four elephants spend their day doing a never ending shuffle back and forth, due to a chain wrapped around a leg and shackled to the floor. There is also a gigantic ferris wheel locally nicknamed 'the death trap' (by me) with small boilers attached that you are supposed to sit in as the ride rotates. Such contraptions inspired the final destination movie series...hence, I passed. All in all, distinctly underwhelming and led to a feeling of being de-cultured. Perhaps it is the most brutally honest cultural park going - 'This is our culture - it's shit'. (It isn't). Note to Vietnamese tourism authority: exploit your fantastic country and its culture by redeveloping Dam Sen because it could be very lovely.

Elephants chained up at Dam Sen

However, the Dam Sen complex is salvaged by the fantastic water park. Now 'wet and wild' it is not, but as a venue to take the kid(s) it's exceptional (all relatively speaking for Vietnam). Get there early before the crowds and only go on a weekend if you really really like humanity.

Saigon Square was an important stop off point for a stock up on Kipling Bags, apparently the latest in-thing in England. Available here for peanuts.

In Tao Dan  we enjoyed the tall trees and play area. At around 4.30 a steady stream of men and women appeared, all looking like they were on their way to a tennis match, walking in single file with solemn expressions. I had to explain to Dad that this is what Vietnamese call 'exercise', although to the uninitiated it did also look like a terrifying zombie movie where all moved as one towards some unknown gruesome end. In this case, it was just the rush hour traffic after a few laps of the park. We then fed and watered at Platform of Personal Pizza for Peace. And I suggest you do too.

Phu Quoc beckoned.

French owned Mai House was just right. Beautifully manicured gardens leading down to a large beachfront area covered with tall, swaying palm trees. The sea, clear and calm.

 

There were trips to Bai Sao beach and Mango Bay (Ong Lang).

Bai Sao Beach 

Louisa at Mango Bay

Mango Bay Sunset

The new Phu Quoc International Airport has now opened and is fantastically deserted. Infuriatingly, disembarkmentation is a stone throw from the terminal yet passengers still have to board a coach. Health and safety? The arrival of the new airport and direct flights from Hanoi invited cries of  'there goes the neighborhood'. But hoardes of Israeli tourists and full moon parties are a way off. Every vacant beach will certainly be ruined be developed in the near future however, with many resorts already underway.

To highlight the comedy value of Vietnamese infrastructure, getting to Phu Quoc island takes the same amount of time or less as getting to Mui Ne. Mui Ne is only 200km by road. Average road trip to Mui Ne, about 5 hours. Phu Quoc is 400km away and in the sea. Flight time less than an hour.

Santa was not garunteed to drop by such a random location so just to make sure notice was posted in the bungalow window. It worked.



Seeing in Christmas Eve with a seafood BBQ on the beach is never too shoddy.


A return to HCMC and a short stay at Anoasis at Long Hai concluded our trip, where once again returning by car took 2.5 hours despite being under 100km. The Cat Lai ferry shortcut to the Phu My Bridge didn't quite work out. Although it was very entertaining to see the local militia forcibly turn away a taxi and another car who were trying to skip the line, sending them reluctantly to the back of a very long queue.

Life is quite normal wherever you live and work - there's no getting away from the humdrum of daily existence. But having South East Asia on your doorstep is not a bad perk at all when it comes to holiday time.

Cu Chi by river boat to see Great Grandma / Future of Cu Chi

On Sunday I took Chi on a surprise visit to Cu Chi. The real surprise was that we were going by boat thanks to Saigon River Express. Their tour leaves the wharf in D1 on the Saigon River and heads upstream taking you through Binh Thanh, under the Saigon Bridge, through D2 past Thanh Da and then snakes up the north east of the city, passing Thu Dau Mot. The whole journey takes around 1 hour 20 minutes (quicker coming back) and ends at Ben Dinh restaurant, on location at the Cu Chi tunnels. Instead of visiting the tunnels during the two hours onshore we went over to Grandma's house for a short visit, just a few kilometers away. I also got a chance to see our plot of land in the this area too. I have jackfruit (more on that later).

Cruising the river

Leaving D1, a nice perspective on the skyline

Saigon Pearl

Uncle's house in Cu Chi. Waiting for the big bad wolf

Lou with her great-grandmother

Collecting fresh veg to take back to the city

Uncle collecting milk from rubber trees to sell

Uncle's mini rubber tree plantation in the back yard

  Uncle shows Lou and I how to get coconuts out of the tree  

Now I don't own very much that I feel is worth owning, but one thing I do have that I am very happy about is a tree. Not only is it a tree, of a commendable size, but it is a fruit bearing tree. Not only is it a fruit bearing tree, it is one of my favorite fruits, the jack fruit. 

In all its glory. My jackfruit tree

Our land in Cu Chi, back end, An Nhon Tay.

We hitched a ride back to the boat and devoured lunch at the riverside restaurant, left just before 12 and were back in our apartment in Phu My Hung before 1.30. D7-Cu Chi is a standard 2.5/3 hour journey in a car usually requiring a trip through the heart of the city. Cruising there by boat is definitely the way forward. Surely in the future there will be public river transport up to Cu Chi. For now, its limited to this $69++ per person tour.

I'm excited about the future of Cu Chi. Obviously, its in a good location - by the river, near the Saigon/Phnom Penh highway, and within (relatively) easy reach of the city. The Saigon Safari Park project will be very close by to the land above, in the An Nhon Tay/Phu My Hung wards of Cu Chi District. The best map I could find online was here. I love finding a .gov.vn site that has such a crap green arrow drawn in MS Paint. The image is not very good.

I took the liberty out of my own interest of creating a Google Map of the location of the Safari Park. https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=205534455282465890907.0004ce57132e88e2ef47e&msa=0&ll=11.115075,106.475973&spn=0.049943,0.055189

Mel of Antidote to Burnout provided the following map for me as he had been involved in a project for the development of Cu Chi new town - a 1000 hectare area with 1/3 of it devoted to green space.  Don't expect this to come to fruition for another 10-15 years. All this is on the other side of Highway 22 which runs from Saigon through Cu Chi district. 

Watch these spaces

Two huge areas of development in District 2 is the 'Saigon Bridge 2' and the first metro line running from Ben Thanh to Suoi Tien.

The Saigon Bridge 2 is being built adjacent to the current (and infamous) Saigon Bridge which was, until the recent opening of the Thu Thiem tunnel, the main entry way into the city from Bein Hoa and basically anyone else coming in on Highway 1. The Highway has been dramatically improved through District 9 on towards Bien Hoa with new bridges and widening of the highway. The new Saigon bridge will be one of the final pieces in improving the traffic flow in and out of the city.

The current Saigon Bridge seem from D2

Construction crews on both sides clear the land for the new Bridge 

The Saigon Bridge entering D2, with the unfinished Thao Dien Pearl apartments in the background, which will eventually have a metro station too. 

Artist Impression: 

Further down the road we have the beginning of the construction of a metro line No1. Wikipedia says completion is scheduled for 2015, however we'll go with the Saigon Times article that goes for 2017 and commencement of operation in 2018. So I'll be back here in 6 years time to write a review of my first ride on the Saigon metro. I hope. 

Looking at the area of construction adjacent to highway 1