Infrastructure Improvements

How many other people get excited about new roads and bridges? Come on, hands up...

Starting at the Camlette bridge in District One, one side of the East-West highway is now open, running into the city from Highway 1A, which enters from the South-West. Now instead of having to negotiate districts Binh Chanh, Seven and Four, traffic can cut up the new stretch of highway, through Q6, Q8, Q5, Q4 and straight into Q1. Probably takes about 10-15 mins from the highway to the heart of the city. That is a huge improvement.

At the moment it's like a deserted runway with traffic flitting up and down and people unsure where they are going (literally).


That's 8 lanes, M25 style.

I suppose one thing I like to see with new roads and bridges is the alternative perspectives they provide on the city. I can't say how wierd it was coming from D1 to see a turn off for Cholon 5 minutes later. Forget Tran Hung Dao or Nguyen Trai from now on!

I remember when I first arrived in January 2005 I stayed at Co Bac Street, just a short walk from the canal that seperates D1 and D4. It used to be one of the dirtiest places in the city, the pot-holed street partitioned from the no-mans land adjacent to the canal by a green corrugated iron barrier. Now, the old French townhouses provide a stark contrast as they line the new highway.







The road follows the canal as it sweeps through D4 and D5, with the newly laid canal banks and houses in the background, one could almost desribe some of the views as picturesque.



Passing Hoa Binh market:


Before you know it you're through D8 and into D6 heading towards the highway. Eventualy, as mentioned in previous posts, this highway will go under the river, straight through Thu Thiem and come out at the Hanoi Highway in D2.

The Phu My bridge is also open at least for cars and motorbikes, and quite spectacular it is too. So much so it has become a tourist attraction in its own right, the top being a new lookout and dating point for all, complete with photographers if you want a treasured memento. Most residents have probably never seen anything like this huge structure, and the views are spectacular, across the river and ports of District 4, back across Saigon proper. The other way stretches District 7, Nha Be and District 2.






Ports in D7 and looking out towards Nha Be and Can Gio.


Exiting into D2. The road, as on the D7 side, is not ready yet and still a gravely dusty mess. A lot of work needs to be done before the D2 side is ready for a lot of heavy traffic. One of the roads leading the bridge on the D2 side comes out just opposite ACG International School, near enough to the Vista project, also the same place where the East-West highway ends.


Two major projects that improve the infrastruture of Ho Chi Minh City, but still a long way to go!

Cu Chi

Lou took a visit to meet her Great-Grandmother and various Aunts and Uncles in Cu Chi yesterday. Cu Chi is a pleasant county with plenty of paddies and greenery, and Chi and I have tentative plans to build a house there some time. Land will be betrothed by grandma but it needs to split between her seven daughters (the boys already have theirs), leaving around 500m2 each. Not really enough for the palace we have planned. One of the main features, if we did build a house, would be the garden. Growing my own fruit and vegetables is the ambition, and around Grandma's house there were plenty of trees in flower.

Papaya:



Bananas



Buoi



There was also Durian and Mango trees in the garden with no fruits.

A couple came by the house with a bucket containing a smashed up bees nest, bees included, selling the freshest honey you'll ever find.



Uncle's house, with wood pile, pig shed and banana trees. He sold six four month old pigs for $1000. Not bad business I reckon...



Then of course the most important thing of the day, lunch.

Saigon Developement Update - August 2009

This morning I took a drive to town for a few things and stopped on the way to have a look around the site of the tunnel which makes up part of the east-west highway. One of the best vantage points is the Museum of Ho Chi Minh, one of my favourite places in Ho Chi Minh City. Not that you'll find me hanging around there very often, but there is something majestic about its location on the banks of the river, and something serene about the airy building.



Part of the gardens look out over District One.



I then took a stroll over the new Cau Khanh Hoi, under which the tunnel is being constructed. Some workers were beavering on a massive drain - hopefully for when the tunnel cracks and floods when it opens. Just kidding.





Then the tunnel itself, a cavernous opening that eerily plunges under the river.



Some makeshift accommodation for workers with the museum in the background.



Walking back on the other side of the bridge, I snapped these houses hanging perilously over a construction site, forget the name of the building but it's on the corner of HN and TDT. Finally they have started building - good luck to the residents who seem to have somehow constructed their houses on top of another building.



The entrance to the tunnel on the landside - it actually goes under the white building as well.



The no-mans-land of workers temporary accommodation and construction material where the canal has been filled in. It'll be interesting to see what happens on this prime land once the project is done.



The squalor of the living conditions for those working on the site is pretty shocking...



From that, to this:





The first InterContinental in Saigon and the Kumho Asiana Plaza form part of the massive new complex that looks ready to open soon. This is on Hai Ba Trung, the site of the old Saigon Square. I noticed another gaping hole where there shouldn't be one on the corner of Le Thanh Ton and Hai Ba Trung - this used to be a posh restuarant with whitewashed walls.



Another big project underway is around Dong Khoi, Le Thanh Ton and Ly Tu Trong. There used to be a great open air coffee shop and small garden here but obviously it's days were numbered.



I was planned to report from Nguyen Huu Canh as well but it'll have to wait - it's carnage down there at the moment!

Portraits of my girl

A couple of shots of Louisa Vy at 9 months old. Her face is really looking like her mum's side of the family now despite people also saying she looks like me...

Vietnam driving test

Since returning I've been warned by friends that the police are much more likely to stop you and also refuse a friendly offer of wink-wink-nudge-nudge-put-that-in-your-pocket-and-we're-alright yeah? Although I've met some who say nothing much has changed in the 12 months I was away, some are the living evidence that it has changed (just a little). So, for the effort required to get a license, I thought better to get one rather than have my bike confiscated for a month - a big inconvenience. Anyway, being a lazy sod who has had enough paperwork to deal with in this country to last a lifetime, I paid someone to do it all for me - the hanging around and getting things translated and notorized anyway. I did have to go to the British embassy and be ripped off for one stamp (over 20 quid). Once all is ready and a brief medical that a man who was actually having a heart attack at the time could pass, the application is submitted at the office on Ly Tu Trong and you recieve the date of your test.

The test location is in Q.Tan Phu heading out of the North-West of Saigon - the unsealed road leading to it is harder than the actual test. The test is notoriously easy, and here I will document the photographic evidence. The course takes about 3 minutes to complete and consists of the following.

The figure of 8, where no one I spoke to knew if you were allowed to touch the yellow lines or not, you are not meant to put your foot down during the test either.

Exiting the figure of 8, attempt the 'straight line' (I agree, if you can't do this you really shouldn't be on a bike) and then on to the slalom. I say slalom.



Then it's on to the fearsome off-road track...



And that's it.

So after practising it is then a question of waiting for the test to start on time (or not). Luckily foreigners are afforded the luxury of going first and your names are called out. Three 'judges' sit at their desk trackside. Unfortunately, and this is a big tip for anyone with an upcoming test, you are not allowed to do the test wearing shorts. 75% of the foreigners turned up wearing shorts. Fortunately, my friend Craig happened to have his test on the same day so I stepped into his jeans whilst he donned my shorts. An unlucky Frenchman trudged out of the makeshift foreigner changing rooms in baggy trousers and a shirt two sizes too big for him, much to the amusement of the locals. It was all in good humour. The judges didn't pay a blind bit of attention to what was actually happening on the track, you could have driven into the coffee shop scattering chairs and tables and ending up with motorbike on top of you and had time to get up and resume the figure of 8 without them noticing. You finish and go and stand in front of the desk and they say 'Pass - good, very good!'. Will collect the plastic in 3 weeks.

Swine flu asides

At coop mart they are handing out useless surgical masks when you spend over 200,000 VND. Chi just refused to take one point blank. "Don't give that to me...", she said, ah that's my girl, not caught up in this non-existent pandemic.

A man came to change the toners in our Xerox wearing a mask. Chi asked "Why are you wearing that mask, are you scared of the swine flu?". "No", he replied, "I am wearing it because I thought you might be scared that I had swine flu". That pretty much sums up the madness that the WHO and the media have stirred up. "Take it off - in this house, no masks" quipped the wife.

The family keep whispering irritatingly ignorant points of view rebroadcast parrot fashion from the radio. "Don't take the baby around, it's not safe". Neighbours of the mother-in-law gossip to her - "Don't go to district seven, they have SWINE FLU there", Chi's friend not allowed to visit (despite being a grown adult). Two of our chefs from Connections Vietnam barred from working by their husbands because they might get SWINE FLU. People nattering on Facebook about WHERE TO BUY TAMIFLU (the proven to be dangerous and completly ineffective drug) in HCMC and if the vaccine is avaliable yet (untested and highly toxic, don't we ever learn anything?). Are they all crazy?!

How about less panic, fear and blind adherence to corporate media and more exercise, fresh air, healthy diet, vitamin D and good sleep. It's called an immune system people.

And yet we all have to go on, no matter how mad the world is.

But if anyone tries to take my temprature and certainly Chi's, look out because we can't garuntee where the thermometer will end up!

Saigon In Minature

I'm sure many of you have seen this as it has been popping up in magazines and on blogs but I'll repost it because it is just so cool. Saigon using time lapse and time shift photography.