Back to blogging

Last posted at the end of July! A near 2 month hiatus is not what you'll read in any blogging manual as a good idea. I've been too busy recovering from my 40km round trip to school everyday to post I think, considering that road has literally disintegrated. The Phu My bridge company, I discovered, were the first private company to have their loan guaranteed by the government. They are now nearly bankrupt and have no money to repair the road and are requesting 250 billion dong to do so. It's symbolic in some ways of the problems of the entire country. You have the sparkling Phu My Bridge, a foreign managed project, in still perfect condition - what should be a symbol of Vietnam propelling itself into the 'future' in terms of improving its infrastructure. Then you reach the other side and my, are you back in the dark ages. Private companies have now twice come along and dumped gravel in the potholes, the road is literally impassable for heavy trucks, although they are still trying.

Talking of infrastructure, the Thu-Thiem highway is yet to open because the tunnel is still not ready, although it seems to be close. Last I heard was a June opening. Although there are some obvious problems here - the same stretch of road that leads to the TT highway and onwards through the tunnel to District 1 is also the road to Cat Lai port which in the afternoons can be jammed solid with HGVs. Add to this traffic coming off the highway to enter the city center you have tailbacks into District 9 and complete gridlock. Work is on going on the Thanh My Loi road leading from Thu Thiem to Cat Lai (road being widened into 4 lanes) but at the moment this road too is falling apart from all the wet weather and construction.

Over on the Hanoi Highway land clearance has started for line 1 of the HCMC Metro system. The line will run over the Saigon River beside the Saigon Bridge and follow the highway from there down. For those who know the area, this is the old Petrol Station on the corner of Thao Dien...




And looking up the highway towards District 9, this is where the Metro line will run next to the highway.




Planning to bring more pictures soon of construction and infrastructure developments and of course regular happenings from the 'gon.