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Three banh canh noodle joints outpace Saigonese peers

admin — Mon, 21 Dec 2020 13:40:53 +0000

Three banh canh eateries in Saigon are creating a splash among hundreds of ordinary noodle shops in the city thanks to their cut-above style, service, and ingredients.

Resembling the Japanese udon noodle, banh canh, literally translated as “cake soup”, is either made with pure rice flour or rice flour mixed with tapioca, giving it a thick appearance and chewy texture. Typical topping options include pork, chicken, and seafood.

“Giant” crab banh canh in District 5

A pot of banh canh at Ba Ba comes with a ladle so customers can split the soup into smaller bowls for individual servings. Photo by VnExpress/Cao Ly.

Ba Ba (Madam Ba) eatery in Alley 84 on Nguyen Bieu Street in District 5 is known for serving their crab noodle soup banh canh in large ceramic cooking pots suitable for two to three people.

Aside from the big serving, the banh canh at Ba Ba lures patrons with its viscous orange broth enriched with crab meat, pork bones, and dried shrimp. Cashew oil and tapioca starch are added to achieve the color and viscosity.

Toppings consist of two to three slices of shrimp and fish cake, quail eggs, blood pudding, and pig skin. A portion costs VND92,000 ($4). The eatery opens from 9 a.m. until 8 p.m.

Phu Yen garlic chive banh canh in District 10

Customers can request to have less chives in their bowl. Photo by VnExpress/Cao Ly.

A specialty of central Phu Yen Province, a bowl of banh canh covered in garlic chives at 111 Cao Thang Street in District 10 might turn some away because of its strong smell. However, garlic chives are tactfully used here to dilute the fishy flavor of the soup.

In central Vietnam cuisine, the broth for soups is usually made with seafood for a sweeter taste than regular pork bone varieties. Simple yet delicious, toppings include thick cut noodles, fish cakes, a piece of mackerel accompanied by a sweet and sour sauce on the side.

A bowl costs VND40,000 ($1.7) and VND50,000 with mackerel. The eatery also serves other Phu Yen delicacies like chicken rice, basil chicken hotpot, and tuna salad. The restaurant opens from 7 a.m. until 9.30 p.m.

“Two bowl” banh canh in District 1

A portion includes a bowl containing the noodle soup and another with the meat, giving the eatery its “two bowl” nickname. Photo by VnExpress/Cao Ly.

Every noon, the eatery at 10 Pho Duc Chinh Street in District 1 teems with customers. Even though the sign only advertises squid porridge, the joint attracts customers for its delicious rendition of banh canh.

Each serving features two bowls, one containing the soup and noodles, the other, meat. A lime, pepper, and salt dip is served on the side. Here, the soup is topped with a chicken drumstick, wing, or pig’s trotters.

Recipe for making porridge is also used for the soup and sweetened with shreds of dried octopus, pork bones, and dried shrimp.

The eatery opens from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m. Aside from porridge and banh canh, it also offers Vietnamese macaroni (nui), wonton, and side dishes like century egg and boiled chicken feet.

The price for a bowl ranges from VND50,000 to VND55,000, depending on additional extras.

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Four Vietnamese hot springs to revive the senses this fall

admin — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 14:37:38 +0000

In the brisk breeze of late fall, enjoy the beauty of nature along with an invigorating dip in these select Vietnamese hot springs.

Tram Tau Hot Spring

Tram Tau Hot Spring, two kilometers from the center of Tram Tau District in northern Yen Bai Province, offers many pools at various temperatures, from cool to hot, for VND70,000 ($3) a person.

The hot spring also offers lodging, with complementary hot-spring baths for guests. A bungalow could accommodate up to four people from VND400,000 to VND700,000 per night. Besides, a shared stilt house could be rented at VND200,000 per person.

Yoko Onsen Quang Hanh

Yoko Onsen Quang Hanh in Cam Pha Town, northern Quang Ninh Province boasts close proximity to the UNESCO-recognized natural heritage site Ha Long Bay and is 20 km from International Ha Long Harbor.

Built in the style of a Japanese onsen, Yoko Onsen Quang Hanh includes a wide variety of services including hot spring baths, saunas, a spa and wellness center, lodging and restaurants, all featuring Japanese themes.

Tourists could buy entrance tickets to the hot springs, with different prices according to different time frames from VND500 000 ($22) per adult. Another option is to rent an in-day resting room for up to six hours for VND3.5 million or a full-day room for VND7.9 million.

Nui Than Tai Hot Springs Park

In Da Nang City, a central Vietnam tourism hub, visitors could enjoy spring water baths at Nui Than Tai Hot Springs Park in Hoa Phu Ward, Hoa Vang District with a year-long cool climate thanks to forest surroundings.

The park comes with a wide variety of services, such as amusement park, hot spring baths, mud baths and Japanese-style onsen. Entrance typically costs VND400,000 per person, with side-services such as pools.

Binh Chau Hot Spring Resort

Binh Chau Hot Spring Resort in Xuyen Moc District, southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province is famed for its hot spring and mud baths. Tourists here could enjoy the stable steam of hot springs under the lush melaleuca forest canopy.

The resort offers different baths and different pool sizes at the price of VND100,000 to VND700,000, with plenty of side services such as foot baths, massages and eating hot-spring boiled eggs.

Photos courtesy of the resorts

and Nguyen Thu Phuong

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House of tole hides cozy innards

admin — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 15:07:09 +0000

A house covered in white corrugated tole hides a warm interior complete with wooden furniture and greenery.

The 103-meter-square house in southern Ba Ria – Vung Tau Province has foam insulated tole covering its exterior drywall, creating a minimalist shape.

The white layer of tole gives the house a bright, industrial look.

The garage, living room, dining room, kitchen, toilet, and one bedroom are on the first floor. Trees are planted in many spaces, while the brown shades of the furniture create a sense of coziness in this three-generation family abode.

An atrium allows natural light to enter, which also benefits the many plants inside the house.

From a solemn worship area for adults to the child-friendly safety net above the garage, the house is meant to provide tons of comfort.

Minimalist bedroom.

The owners wanted a small garden inside the house, so architects decided to plant trees in as many corners as possible. The greenery combines with windows and an atrium, affording the home more natural features.

Photos by Quang Dam

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HCMC Party chief calls for Wuhan-style lockdown in Da Nang

admin — Mon, 03 Aug 2020 08:18:05 +0000

A police officer in Da Nang sets up barriers to isolate areas around hospitals where cases of Covid-19 have been detected, July 28, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Nguyen Dong.

Da Nang should be considered a “dangerous Covid-19 epicenter” and placed under complete lockdown like China’s Wuhan City, the HCMC Party chief has said.

According to the World Health Organization, one of the criteria for a country to declare a national epidemic is having 10 cases for every million population.

City Party Secretary Nguyen Thien Nhan told an online government meeting on Sunday: “In Vietnam, the ratio is currently 2.7 infections per million, and so, generally speaking, we are still safe. However, Da Nang is another story as it has gone far beyond that threshold.”

The city, which has a population of 1.1 million, has recorded 120 infections since local spread of Covid-19 was found again after more than three months on July 25.

The disease has since spread to eight other cities and provinces, and includes 35 cases in Da Nang’s neighboring Quang Nam Province, eight in HCMC, three each in Quang Ngai and Dak Lak, two in Hanoi, and one each in Thai Binh, Ha Nam and Dong Nai.

“It is necessary to identify Da Nang as the especially dangerous epicenter,” Nhan said.

Da Nang began a 15-day period of social distancing on July 28, which requires people to stay at home and maintain a distance of at least two meters from each other in public. Public gatherings of more than two people are prohibited, except at offices, schools and hospitals.

Since the Ministry of Health has said the outbreak in Da Nang has been going on “quietly” for more than one month now, and it is possible that many infected people have yet to show symptoms or be diagnosed, Nhan suggested that “Da Nang should apply the strictest measures to control the outbreak.”

The strictest measures seen internationally have been those applied in Wuhan, the capital of China’s Hubei Province.

Wuhan made headlines late last year and early this year as the place where, according to experts, the novel coronavirus first spread to humans. The city was placed under complete lockdown for two months from January 23 to March 22 and the populace was ordered to stay at home.

At first each household was allowed to send one member out once a day for shopping, but later that was also stopped. Each family was given a file to fill its requirements, and authorities sent workers to collect them, shop and deliver the goods.

The HCMC party chief also raised concerns about Da Nang’s capability to isolate people having and suspected to have the disease.

In HCMC’s experience, it had to isolate 280 people every time an infection was confirmed, and this rate for Da Nang means it needs to isolate more than 30,000 people, and evidently it does not have the space for it, he pointed out.

Da Nang should therefore quarantine people at home, he said.

“The biggest challenge now is to make quarantining at home as effective as possible, and each person should have the responsibility to monitor others.”

The period from August 23 to 30 would be a “high-risk” phase, and without drastic measures Vietnam could reach the ratio of 10 infections per million people, and have 970 Covid-19 patients in hospitals compared to 242 now.

Without aggressive methods during the next 30-day “golden” period, Vietnam could face a pandemic, with HCMC and Hanoi running the greatest risk because many people returned there from Da Nang between July 1 and 27, he said.

The number of people traveling by air alone from Da Nang to HCMC in that period was 140,000, he said.

Hanoi Chairman Nguyen Duc Chung said 84,000 people returned to the capital from Da Nang between July 7 and August 2.

HCMC has reported eight Covid-19 cases linked to the Da Nang outbreak, and Hanoi two.

Both cities have done mass testing of returnees, shut down non-essential businesses like bars and karaoke parlors and called off all festivals and religious gatherings.

Da Nang Chairman Huynh Duc Tho said existing quarantine facilities are full and the city is considering using public places like schools for isolating people.

Vietnam has had 621 Covid-19 cases, 242 of them active.

Six people have died, all in the last four days after contracting the new coronavirus at hospitals in Da Nang.

More than 103,000 people are in quarantine across the country.

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Vietnamese student at Harvard fights for international learner justice

admin — Tue, 21 Jul 2020 13:01:52 +0000

With the Trump administration wanting to bar foreign students from staying if their universities switch to online-only courses, Hien Anh has stepped up to fight for her friends.

On July 6, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the new regulation, subjecting international students to deportation if they did not attend classes on campus as universities grappled with the question of whether or not to reopen during the pandemic. The new visa rule dumped over 1.1 million international students in the U.S. into quagmire.

Ton Hien Anh, student at Harvard University, did not worry too much since she had registered for a repatriation flight back to Vietnam in August. But witnessing her friends stretch themselves thin as travel restrictions stop many from going home, Anh knew she “must do something.”

Right after learning about the new ICE visa rule, she stayed up all night to research its effects on international students. After, she wrote to the university, asking it to safeguard student rights.

Ton Hien Anh at Harvard University. Photo by La Thanh Ha.

On behalf of international students stranded in America, she sent her letter to the university’s Board of Overseers. In the meantime, she talked with organizations and individuals, encouraging them to use the letter she prepared to show their support.

On the morning of July 7, the university held an urgent meeting. The dean responded to Anh’s email, telling her Harvard would officially sue ICE.

Different from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), one of the first institutions suing ICE, Harvard University will go 100 percent online in fall. While ICE gave universities 10 days to change their plan for the upcoming semester, no one knew how long the lawsuit would last before the judge’s final decision.

Anh, one more time, worked against the clock to suggest the university organize on-campus courses so international students could join and maintain their visa status.

The Vietnamese student studied how other universities were reacting to the new visa rules, policies of 15 institutions holding on-campus courses, and over 30 student movements calling universities to mitigate the rule’s negative effects.

“I was researching and receiving feedback from friends, alumnus, and professors who cared about this matter to complete the letter and call for more support,” Anh said.

In her open petition, she summarizes the consequences international students at Harvard would have to face if ICE won the lawsuit. Accordingly, they could be deported or have their visas revoked if they overstayed in America. Many countries have closed their borders amid the pandemic, placing many students into a dilemma. Besides, traveling across country also poses Covid-19 infection risks.

Anh poposed several feasible solutions for Harvard, affordable and easy to carry out without violating social distancing rules, such as organizing on-campus courses. She mentioned several universities in the Ivy League that will run on-campus activities in fall, such as Princeton and Yale. Other institutions like Colombia University and UC Berkeley added on-campus courses to their programs right after ICE released the new visa rules.

At the end of her open letter, she quoted university president Lawrence Bacow stating: “We will not stand by to see our international students’ dreams extinguished by a deeply misguided order. We owe it to them to stand up and to fight, and, we will.”

In the first 20 hours, the petition attracted over 1,000 signatures from Harvard professors, universities, and alumni, including more than 50 presidents and management board members of organizations within the university.

Dean Rakesh Khurana of Harvard College said he had submitted Anh’s letter to the Board of Overseers to consider plans for the fall semester, thanking the Vietnamese student for raising her voice.

On July 8, Harvard and MIT officially sued the administration, attracting dozens of universities, state authorities, and tech companies to join the fight by opposing the new visa rules, which were rescinded on July 15 after a federal court hearing.

Right after, David C. Lamberth, professor of Philosophy and Theology at Harvard, sent an email to Anh, telling her he was delighted about the government’s new decision.

“The wide range of voices from all across the country, from students, faculty, universities and industry all came together in less than a week, and the kind of self-advocacy you did contribute in no small part,” he told her.

The fight was not full of roses. Anh faced several challenges while calling for support. Many did not understand the law or the reasons why they should care about international students. Some, including professors, even told her to keep quiet.

To Hien Anh (second from left) and her family at her sister’s graduation in the U.S. Photo by La Thanh Ha.

Her mother was like a cat on hot bricks after learning her little daughter was standing up to the American school.

“She is just an international student, how can she talk with university leaders. I was worried she would be deported,” said La Thanh Ha, Anh’s mother.

But the Vietnamese student is a real fighter.

“I want to bring voices from the Harvard community to university leaders. I want to help them have a comprehensive understanding of what would happen if international students are sent home amid the pandemic,” she told her mother, who later gave her 100 percent support.

Anh is not the first in her family to go to Harvard on a full scholarship. Her elder sister, Ton Ha Anh, also attended the 384-year-old university and now works as a senior business analyst at American management consulting firm McKinsey in New York.

While Ha Anh is more sociable, Hien Anh is more introverted and has a passion for social activities to demand justice for the underprivileged. She is a member of the management board of a school organization which has been raising money for over 100 eye operations for poor children and supplying food and shelter to the homeless.

Last semester, Hien Anh was one of the top students in her class. Bonnie Talbert, a lecturer in Social Studies, impressed after reading her final paper about racism in America and the Black Lives Matter movement, sent the paper to Dean Rakesh Khurana.

Now, nearly everyone knows about the Vietnamese student who raised her voice to protect international students at Harvard.

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Vietnamese engineer recounts grim battle against Covid-19

admin — Tue, 21 Jul 2020 12:57:27 +0000

Stranded for six months in Bangladesh after going there on a business trip, Nguyen Quoc Toan also contracted the novel coronavirus.

Early morning one day in the middle of July Toan folds his blankets and steps outside to catch some sun.

After spending eight days in the emergency room with oxygen therapy, the man who feared he would die of the novel coronavirus can now enjoy the summer breeze back home in Vietnam.

“In the last seven months I have experienced many things and realized that life is strange and beautiful simultaneously,” the 42-year-old engineer says.

Born in Hanoi, he now lives in Saigon’s District 4 and works for a project funded by the Bangladesh government and the World Bank.

After the Lunar New Year in January, the chief consultant to the mechanical engineering team left for the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, hoping to return to Vietnam on February 28. But a visa issue caused him to miss the return flight, which was then postponed to March 26.

But that did not go too well either.

In late March the first Covid-19 case was confirmed in Bangladesh, and the government decided to impose a lockdown to contain the pandemic. On March 26, the day of his flight, the country suspended flights to all countries except the U.K. and China.

Toan’s group, which had four people in the beginning, grew larger after 11 more Vietnamese from construction sites across Dhaka came. The 15, comprising three women, shared a 250-square-meter apartment.

Without enough beds in the four-bedroom apartment, some had to sleep on the floor. Stranded, with no idea when they could come return home, and anxiety due to the raging pandemic stressed some of them out, and arguments and conflicts broke out constantly.

Toan, understanding that people were worried because they did not know when they could return to Vietnam, tried to comfort his fellows but also told them to stop fretting to reassure their families. After the first week things got better as they realized they had no choice but to put up with the hardship.

Nguyen Quoc Toan works out on the roof of his house while stranded in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photo courtesy of Nguyen Quoc Toan.

Dividing themselves into groups of three to five people to cook and clean, they bought gloves, protective clothes and face masks for those going out to shop. They went to the supermarket once every four days. When there was too much to carry, they would rent a trolley to bring the stuff home.

Toan was working and reporting to his manager, and spending time reading and working out. Every day he would exercise looking at a YouTube video and jog on the roof, and urge his housemates to join.

The rooftop quickly became their favorite place as they worked out and watched planes fly in the sky, nursing their dreams of returning home.

After more than 100 days they were told there would be a flight to Vietnam on July 2. But the good news from the Vietnamese embassy was quickly replaced by bad: Covid-19 had arrived at their apartment.

On June 24 one of the group got a fever. Within five days 14 or 15 of them had Covid-19 symptoms like fever, body ache and tiredness.

“We did not think we could be infected since we were taking serious precautions,” Toan recalls.

They bought medicines, made soup to be given as comfort food, used homemade herbal steam baths, and took care of each other.

The fever vanished after two days, giving them reason to believe it was just the flu.

At 10 p.m. on July 2 they were taken to Dhaka airport in protective clothes.

Nguyen Quoc Toan’s group prepares to leave for home from Bangladesh on July 2, 2020. Photo courtesy of Nguyen Quoc Toan.

Toan, following his long journey from Dhaka to Van Don International Airport in Quang Ninh Province in northern Vietnam and transfer to a quarantine facility in Thanh Hoa Province, almost passed out of dehydration.

The next morning medical workers came to take their samples for testing. On July 5 the results came, and 14 of them had Covid-19.

They were taken to the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi immediately. That night Toan felt his body ache, and he struggled to breathe. All he could eat was soup.

The next day doctors decided to put him in the emergency room as his oxygen level was too low.

“You must breath on your own to increase your oxygen level,” they told him.

Doctors and nurses were around him that night, but the machine indicated that his oxygen level went too low every 10 minutes.

The doctors told him to get down on his knees and lie face down to breathe, but the exhausted Toan could not remain in that position for long.

“You must try, you must breathe on your own.”

“I can only kneel, I have no energy,” he complained.

The next morning he felt better, but doctors told him his lungs were severely damaged by an acute complication caused by the virus.

“You have to try to eat no matter how tired or uncomfortable you are,” they told him explaining he had to keep his strength up.

Nguyen Quoc Toan recovered after spending several days in the emergency room at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi. Photo courtesy of Nguyen Quoc Toan.

Toan, despite his constant headache and 39-degree Celsius fever and sometimes bloody sputum in the mouth, never skipped a meal.

After three nights without sleep, his condition got better. On July 15, after eight days of fighting with death, he could finally be taken off the ventilator and discharged from the emergency room.

After losing eight kilograms in 15 days since contracting the disease, he tested negative for the first time. He was so happy that he began to write poetry, something he had never done before.

He had been speaking with friends and colleagues around the world, and they had constantly encouraged him to fight the deadly virus.

He now wants to spend more time with his family, especially his two young daughters. He plans to meet and thank all the doctors and nurses who helped him get well when they can finally discard their protective clothing for good.

“The most valuable thing we have is not a mountain of cash or a massive house, it is our health and the safety of our family,” Toan wrote on his Facebook page, saying the Covid-19 infection and the hardship he suffered made him realize those things.

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Work on bridge to HCMC coastal district to begin in 2022

admin — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 11:47:45 +0000

An artist impression of the Can Gio Bridge in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo courtesy of HCMC Transport Department.

Construction of the Can Gio Bridge, connecting Ho Chi Minh City’s outlying namesake district with the city’s center, will start in 2022.

Deputy Minister of Transport Bui Hoa An announced the construction schedule at a meeting with the district’s voters on Monday, saying the completion date is set for late 2025.

He expressed the hope that locals owning lands could reach agreement with authorities to hand them over so that the work could be implemented on schedule.

The VND5.3 trillion ($230 million) bridge will replace the Binh Khanh ferry as the means to connect the coastal Can Gio District with the rest of HCMC.

The cable-stayed bridge will be 3.4 kilometers (2.1 miles) long and have four lanes and navigational clearance of 55 meters (180 feet).

It will start at the intersection of roads 15B and 2 in Nha Be District’s Phu Xuan urban area, span the Soai Rap and Cha Va rivers and end on Rung Sac Street in Can Gio District.

City authorities had initially thought of building it under a combined build-operate-transfer and build-transfer model.

But the National Assembly passed a law on public-private partnerships last June that does not feature the latter model.

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300-year-old pagoda, a major attraction in Binh Dinh

admin — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 11:45:21 +0000

Thap Thap Di Da, a 17th century pagoda, adds to the charm of central province Binh Dinh with its cultural, historical and architectural beauty.

Thap Thap Di Da is located 30 km north of coastal town Quy Nhon, Binh Dinh’s capital. The pagoda was built in 1683 during the Le Dynasty era and originally known as Chanh Hoa. In 1691 King Le Hien Tong renamed it Thap Thap Di Da.

The gate of the pagoda is built of bricks made by Cham ethnic people and roofed with yin and yang tiles, and has two layers of surrounding walls.

At the sanctum entrance are long sentences written in Chinese characters, carved on wood and painted in gold.

In the main area, the main structure is made of wood and carved with sophisticated and elaborate lotuses, dragons and stylized phoenixes along with more old writing.

The main part of the pagoda consists of the hall, the West and East areas with a large corridor connecting them with a large yard paved with square tiles and diverse kinds of ornamental plants.

In addition to the main structures, there are also 24 large and small stupas in various architectural forms.

The main gate of a stupa.

In each stupa are statues of majestically shaped beasts.

A stupa in the northeast of the pagoda.

The pagoda retains a famous white stone. Legend has it that the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945) executioner used to behead people on this stone. The stone is next to a 300-year-old tree by the south of the pagoda wall and dubbed ‘the slashing stone’.

The pagoda entrance is shaded by an ancient bodhi tree. In summer the lotus pond in front of the pagoda is filled with flowers that give off fragrance.

Thap Thap Di Da is one of the most ancient pagodas in central Vietnam. It has been named by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism as “a national cultural and historical site”. The pagoda has undergone four renovations so far.

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HCMC developers turn their attention further afield

admin — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 11:23:19 +0000

An aerial view of a satellite urban area project in the southern province of Dong Nai. Photo courtesy of Aqua City.

Real estate giants are gobbling up huge areas of land in HCMC’s neighboring localities like Binh Duong and Long An for mega projects.

A recent survey by VnExpress found that these companies have pocketed hundreds and even thousands of hectares in satellite urban areas in several provinces as of mid-June.

From 2018 until June this year, an average enterprise in Saigon holds at least two to three projects in satellite urban areas, according to the latest report of Ho Chi Minh City-based real estate firm Ngoc Chau A.

While their land purchase in the main market, HCMC, is limited to a few dozen hectares, the giants are focusing on huge projects in the southern provinces of Binh Duong, Dong Nai, Long An and Ba Ria – Vung Tau, and even in central provinces or northern cities.

Novaland, a real estate developer with a huge market share of residential houses in Saigon over the past decade, has been one of the early birds in the new trend, launching its business strategy to expand to provinces surrounding big cities since 2018. As of June, it has invested in at least four projects spanning thousands of hectares in Binh Thuan, Dong Nai, and Ba Ria – Vung Tau provinces.

Nam Long, a real estate giant that has led the affordable housing market over the past two decades, is also opening a large urban agglomerations. This year, the company is focused on developing the first phase of urban area Waterpoint in Long An, which covers 55 hectares.

Despite having a land bank of 681 hectares across several provinces and cities, Nam Long still spends VND2 trillion ($86 million) per year on more land. The acquisition criteria of this company is that the land must be large in scale and belong to satellite urban areas of provinces or cities, or be located at the gateway of key economic regions in the southern or northern region.

At present, the company is preparing to develop satellite communities in Long An, Dong Nai and Hai Phong.

Saigon real estate developer Hung Thinh has also been developing projects in Dong Nai, Binh Dinh and Ba Ria-Vung Tau in recent years. On average, from 2018, this firm has been launching at least one new project in the satellite urban areas a year and putting them on sale.

According to Ngoc Chau A’s latest report, from 2018 until June this year, a real estate enterprise in HCMC holds at least two to three projects in satellite urban areas on average.

Ngoc Chau A said that trend started in 2018, but by 2020 the speed of the “big migration strategy” will get faster and bigger. It will also create stronger waves in the coming decades as the new projects can take 5-10 years to develop and even longer.

Nguyen Thanh Huong, general director of the Dai Phuc real-estate firm based in HCMC’s Binh Thanh District, said that the trend of moving away from HCMC and investing in satellite urban areas has developed strongly among the city’s real estate companies over the past three years and is set to intensify further in 2020.

Huong said there are many reasons for this “outward migration.”

This strategy was an inevitable trend in the context of land in HCMC becoming increasingly scarce. Over the past two years legal procedure in the city have become “congested,” resulting in prolonged investment periods and huge financial costs.

Land in HCMC has also become more expensive after consecutive “land fevers” between 2016 and 2018, prompting businesses to expand to surrounding areas and even farther to acquire land at more affordable prices, she said.

The strong investment in and development of inter-regional infrastructure in adjacent provinces and satellites urban areas near HCMC is also a big boost for the outward real estate movement.

“Investing in satellite urban communities of Saigon is a vital strategy for businesses to expand land acquisition at a low price, easily create products with competitive prices and promote market share in neighboring areas,” she said.

She added that because the nearby provinces adjacent to HCMC still have large land areas at relatively low costs, investors have more convenient conditions to develop large-scale projects, promising localities they can create mega-cities and make positive contributions to local socio-economic development.

However, Huong also pointed out this trend is not without its drawbacks, including inadequate transport infrastructure, slow development of facilities for settling in and a paucity of jobs that make it difficult to attract residents.

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Transport sector enters slow lane due to coronavirus

admin — Wed, 19 Feb 2020 12:39:08 +0000

Buses at My Dinh Bus Station in Hanoi on February 17, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Anh Duy.

Nguyen Van Quyet’s 40-seater bus on Monday left Hanoi for a northern province carrying five passengers.

“This is still better than other days when I had to drive an empty bus for six hours,” the 43-year-old driver said.

Before the coronavirus outbreak, each of Quyet’s trips included at least 30 passengers, and with a co-driver he could make three a day to Lao Cai Province, bordering China.

But as the number of passengers fell because of the epidemic, Quyet’s monthly salary dropped by half to VND10 million ($429).

Driver Nguyen Van Quyet writes down passengers name at My Dinh Bus Station in Hanoi on February 17, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Anh Duy.

Sao Viet Bus, Quyet’s employer, slashed its Hanoi-Lao Cai route buses from 30 to 10 since the outbreak as the number of passengers fell by half.

CEO Do Van Bang said the company is bearing losses worth billions of Vietnamese dong (VND1 billion = $42,900) a month, therefore the cutdown of trips was inevitable. “But even with fewer trips, some busses carried only one or two passengers.”

Other transport companies face the same dilemma, with the coronavirus dampening travel demand and hurting the logistics industry.

My Dinh Bus Station, one of the largest in the capital and usually packed with commuters, proved unusually deserted in recent weeks with passenger numbers falling by up to 40 percent.

“The number of buses here has never been this low. The virus has had a huge impact on travel habits,” said Ly Truong Son, station director.

My Dinh Bus Station on February 17, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Anh Duy.

Chauffeur companies are struggling too. DNT Joint Venture International Company Ltd has seen its 25 buses and minivans idling away in the parking lot the past few days, a contrast to the same time last year.

“We have not been able to sign any contracts for the next few months. The business is almost paralyzed.”

DNT’s monthly revenue has dropped six times to VND500 million ($21,500) since the outbreak, said CEO Nguyen Thu Ngan.” We estimate a loss of over VND7 billion ($300,500) in the first quarter.”

Son Ha Logistics Company, operating over 100 container vehicles, now run only two trips a month along certain routes compared to five previously as some of its trucks remain stuck at the northern border with China.

“We are losing over VND3 billion ($128,800) a month,” said spokesperson Nguyen Thai Hoc.

The impact of the outbreak urged Hanoi Transport Association to call an emergency meeting with business leaders last week to brainstorm solutions.

Bui Danh Lien, association chairman, said many small and medium transport companies are at risk due to dropping revenues amid large bank debts.

The association has requested government support in delaying repayment deadlines and cut down road fees on agriculture produce containers until the end of the second quarter.

Meanwhile, the epidemic continues to hurt drivers like Quyet, who has only met his family once since the outbreak commenced as he tries to limit transmission of the virus.

“If the number of passengers keep falling, I could lose my job.”

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