Tag: Vietnam

Railway Cafe, Hanoi

Those tracks running off to the northeast of the nearby Hanoi railway station appear well maintained and in use, though I have to admit I have never seen a train passing on the several occasions I have walked by this location. As I recall, the first time I visited Hanoi in 2015, there were no cafes lining the sides of the tracks. Somebody decided, rightly it seems, that this location would appeal to foreign tourists visiting Hanoi. If you happen to be a train buff, you have probably noticed that Vietnam uses very narrow gauge tracks.

Suburban Pioneers, Da Nang

Why do people choose to build and live in a raw, undeveloped area like this, remote from the city center and almost completely lacking in amenities and services? Money. That is certainly my first guess. Land costs closer to the center of Da Nang are prohibitively high for many Vietnamese families. An area with lower land costs like this one makes home ownership affordable to people who would be hard-pressed to buy in more developed parts of the city. You can be sure the families that have built the homes pictured here expect their investments to appreciate significantly in the years to come. And this will almost certainly happen as more people move to the area and businesses serving the new residents follow in their wake.