Saigon : A Developing City

I feel homesick. Homesick for Saigon that is. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and whenever I leave that crazy mish-mash of pastel colours and incessant noise, I really have an urge to get back there. Seoul strikes me as 'Seoul'less with very little atmopshere after living through the daily 'heart on your sleeve' attitude that pumps through Ho Chi Minh City.

Anyway, I want to start talking about the level of development I am seeing in HCMC. I hope to prove it by posting some before/after pictures of builldings under construction out in Phu My Hung, to the South of the city centre. The development is not however limited to PMH, across the city new hotels, apartment blocks and shopping centres are being constructed. Down by the river there are two massive projects underway. One is the tunnel under the Saigon River. The other I have reliably been informed by Mel from Antidote to Burnout is a clean-up of the canal and the construction of a new highway from Cholon to Ton Duc Thang. Indeed I was down there just recently and snapped the clean-up myself....(what luck!)

Here you can see where the far side of the canal has been cleared and levelled out. The houses in the background edge onto a sketchy road that runs along the canal. It's not the best road in the city, and it passes under the stinkiest bridge you'll find (too many fish being sold).

I did have some more pics which I'll upload later, they won't load just now for some reason.