Development - Latest Round Up

As the city continues to demolish and build, changing it's face literally every month, I'll attempt to round up the latest developments. Nguyen Thi Minh Khai has suffered recently from the totally absurd story behind the Pacific building. WHAT a joke.

Over in Phu My Hung, things have really gotten crazy. I am talking about the completion of the new highway which runs through the residential area, which must be at least four lanes each way. Roughly a year ago I took pictures of the area from around March last year which you can see here.

Comparing to today's finished project:

It is hard to show the sheer ridiculousness of the new road system through pictures. Here you can see half of the highway running in front of skygarden apartments. It is quite simply a big ruddy mess. For the residents down here now who may wish to cross one side of PMH to the other, it now means negotiating 10 or 12 lanes of road, with of course no provisions set out for pedestrians. Really a couple of pedestrian foot bridges are desperately needed, and the fact that they didn't incorporate these features when the highway was constructed is, for me, mind numbingly unintelligent -- but also typical. The planning just looks so random and hurried - a shame.

This was taken a year ago. It is the Saigon Paragon.

And today:

Adjacent to the Paragon, the Saigon Convention center is now under construction, and looks like it will be a good modern space.

The Panorama, a riverside PMH apartment complex, one year ago:

Today - nearly ready.

Over on the highway linking D7 and D4 and beyond to D1, big plans are taking shape.

District 5 in the distance.

Plans for a Police University on the site :

Back into town, a bridge now connects Thu Thiem to Binh Thanh district, creating an alternative route onto Highway One (other than the Saigon Bridge) and meaning motorbikes no longer have to queue and wait for the ferry across the river. Rather than join in with backslapping of the local media over the opening of this bridge, I feel it put things rather in perspective about Vietnam. Despite the 'incredible growth of 8% per year', we can see that this most useful and basic of infrastructure is still just arriving. The city really does have awful links, especially in this D2/D7 area in the south and east of the city.

The new bridge:

The bridge arrives in Thu Thiem on a typically narrow thoroughfare so it is still no good for heavy traffic. It will eventually link up with the east/west highway currently being built along the canal through D5, into D1, through the tunnel under the river (of which I have heard very little recently) and then into Thu Thiem eventually arriving at H1 some 2/3kms beyond the Saigon bridge. I am hoping this will eventually mean the end of articulated lorries trundling down Ton Duc Thang, which I envisage as a semi-pedestriansed modern river front in the future. Really, the river should be more of a centerpiece, as it is in any city, and once the old ports further along it's banks are cleared as they inevitably will be, we have potential for some nice outdoor restaurants/cafes lining the river. So much potential!

So in the old days, I'd finish working in PMH and drive over to D2 to play football - a minimum of 45 minutes. Not a million miles, but when you understand that it could actually be a journey of 15/20 minutes with the right infrastructure in place, you get frustrated. Apparently the bridge needed has had 'contractual' and 'bureaucratic' problems for many years. A very tired old story, one which represents the biggest obstacle to useful development -- because friends, acres of high end apartments and extortionate office space is only useful to the few. However, by 2009, this new journey should be ready to test drive, finally giving a link between the developments in Phu My Hung (which are spreading east) and the developments and apartment blocks in Anh Phu, D2 (which are spreading west). With decent transport links it is likely the two areas will continue to grow together, and what with the government plans for the rest of D2 (Thu Thiem), we could see a new urban center on the other side of the river. I am hoping this will happen and the burden will be lifted on what will become known as the 'old city'.

Now dominating the skyline of the city from many angles, the Saigon Pearl is nearly finished. In Binh Thanh district, it is right on the river and well placed - equidistance between the highway and the city center. The street it is built however, as residents of The Manor will attest to, floods horribly during the rains (which always makes me laugh as the slogan of the Manor is 'The best address in Vietnam'). Here is the Pearl, the Manor in the background. You can see the villas/townhouses built below the towering apartment blocks.

And from Ton Duc Thang in D1.

And close up:

In the town center, Times Square on Nguyen has finally begun construction phase, as my friend Chris often tells (he lives basically on top of the site and often they work at night). Saigon Happiness Square, Nguyen Van Cu:

And back where we started, Sailing tower on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai / Pasteur.

I am, of course, just skimming the surface, but that's a round up of what's going up. Amidst all the madness, the traffic, the people dressed in orange who sweep the dust a further two feet up the road, all I can do is share the sentiments of the giant billboard awaiting arrivals leaving the fantastic new international terminal at Tan Son Nhat :

Helmet Style

With the introduction of the helmet law, what I am about to show you was inevitably going to happen. Helmet fashion gone mad. Not happy with wearing a hat under the helmet, now we have to strap a good old sun visor around it, or a 'pretty' bonnet. Here they are, flapping in the wind.

Ohh shall I, shan't I, HOW MUCH! 40,000 VND a piece actually.

In action:

In my opinion, I think they are PATHETIC - pathetic is one of my family's favourite words. And rightly so. Chi generally agrees, my students seem split down the middle between PATHETIC and stylish/fashionable/acceptable on a practical level (keeping sun off face etc). Not having that.

Possibly even worse : the hat helmet. For the boys...

And for the girls:

And for all your helmet needs, here's the guy you want to see....

New Years Day

Yesterday was spent in county Cu Chi, and it turns out that Grandma lives just a few kms down the road from the main tunnels site. The family (this is Chi's mum's side) have a good sized plot of land. Here you can see Grandma's newly built house and one of Chi's uncles lives in the house next door.

Out back, a couple of huge pigs. Uncle rears and sells them, along with brewing wine and selling that too.

Grandma's land : Tropical. You can just make out her house in the background.

The family : Grandma sits with five of her eleven children (two different husbands). Four of her daughters stand in a line behind her, and one son standing behind Chi. Chi's mother is second from Grandma in the line, although it could be any of those aunts considering the resemblance!

I asked Chi what her family did during the war. Were they troubled by it or involved, especially considering where her mother's family lived in Cu Chi? She explained that her grandmother and family lived in the residential areas of Cu Chi which were away from the fighting. She casually mentioned that she suspected her grandmother and friends sold heroin to US soldiers. Many sources claim that up to 15% of servicemen were hooked on heroin by the end of their service. For anyone who hasn't, pick up the story of Frank Lucas, the movie 'American Gangster'.

Chi's father is from countryside near Ben Tre in the Mekong Delta, where he has a fish farm. His father, Chi's grandfather, was Chinese and boasted four wives. Being south of Saigon I guess they were largely unaffected by the war. I'd be interested in learning more of her family tree, but I'm not sure this is a well known concept or if local authorities keep the kind of records you'd need to go beyond the living relatives and their knowledge. But I'd be interested to hear of the heritage of some of the reader's families out there...

The day before NYE

It's that time of year again, and the buzz is palpable. Today, the shops are alive, the streets are bustling with shoppers. Today is the street traders bonanza, I noticed....(see previous post + comments).

Finally, I had a morning totally dedicated to driving around the city, researching for three or four upcoming blog posts, and snapping the photographs. I saw before me the captivating scenes of city life in the grip of a festive fever, Saigon in full boisterous flow. It has been one of those days that reminded me - no matter how much my clothes smell of petrol or how much grit I comb out of my eyebrows, no matter how many articulated lorries blast their horns at me, no matter how sunburnt my nose gets from long drives, no matter how many times I nearly get killed by (a. bus b. bad drivers c. taxi), no matter how badly the canal below my apartments stinks of poo, no matter how many beaver sized rats I send scurrying from nibbling on my break cables down in the parking, no matter how many people point at me and yell 'You' just because I am white (I could go on), no matter, it's water under the bridge. Saigon is the boss, I am just a permanent visitor. It's learning to appreciate it everyday as when you first saw it, that's the trick.

So - pictures people, pictures.

I head out of my apartments and weave down a busy lane. It's 10.30 and usually the fruit sellers are packed up and gone. Today, they are all there, and more than usual - the sidewalks are jammed (I have to chuckle after the recent debate on street traders). Out onto Hai Ba Trung, flower sellers are everywhere, the street is ablaze with bright yellows. A crowded bakery flushes it's jam onto the street (TRAFFIC not strawberry).

The small park in Tan Binh is transformed into a market for hoa dao (peach blossom) and kumquat bushes.

It's time for not only a tree, but a new, well, anything it seems. Flowers cover the large area in the background, in the foreground a man is selling terrapins. Remember, a turtle is for life, not just for new year and then to be found a week later wedged in the water filter.

New jeans...

Down on Nguyen Hue, the usual floral displays the length of the street attract the crowds.

The atmosphere is undeniable. Tomorrow is New Years Eve, which means a lunch that would floor a crew of rutting Rhino back from a hard days work at the swamp (E Blackadder). Evening time means hitting the town with the greatest natural advert for Honda and Yamaha ever, a scene which one of my friends teaching down at VUS (Tom) said 'must be one of the wonders of the world, there's nothing like it in any other city'. That, my friends, is fuh real.

On New Years Day I will be heading to Cu Chi in a minibus with assorted sundry to Grandma in law's house - undoubtedly pictures and anecdotes will arise. See you then, and happy new year!