Day 2 Reflections – Niklaus Teo

The 3 things that i learnt today

68th story Bitexco Fiancial Tower in District 7 of Phu My Hung Urban Area

  The first thing that i learnt today in the tour around the city is the plan for development of urbanization in the city of Saigon. From what i observed and learnt today, there are selected areas of Saigon that has been developed or was in construction. Also others that have not been developed yet. but  For example places such as District 2 & 7, in a bid to develop new urban centers, trade centers, Shopping centers, tall private buildings, schools, roads, bridges and more are being built around this area. They are not completely funded by the government, in fact companies from other countries invest in these areas to build buildings due to the fast growing economy in vietnam that is the fastest in any country in South East Asia. Its increase in GDP of 8% for the last 3 years is evidences of the fast growing economy.

A junction filled with motorbikes stopping at a junction

  The second thing that i learnt today was the choice of mode of transportation in Vietnam. For personal transportation  I noticed the high amount of motorbikes as compared to other mode of transport like cars or trucks. The reason could be due to the lower income level that the majority of the residents in Saigon receive force them to have motorbike as their mode of transport. There were many incidents of me seeing some families of 3 or 4 sitting on a single motorbike. 

  In Terms of public transport, the main mode of transport i have observed were the city bus service and the taxi. I have heard of pillion riders, whereby you are transported on a motorbike to your destination, but i did not observed many of such services. The buses are not usually fully filled, which indicates the fewer population using that mode of transport, but the buses are still air-conditioned and uses bus stops to pick up or drop off passengers. Taxis were pretty evident and they use metering to determine the cost of the taxi ride.

Mung Chua Phuc Sinh church in Saigon, Vietnam 

 The third thing that i learnt today is the French influenced design of older buildings in Vietnam. This is due to the fact that previously, Saigon was part of the French Colony. Therefore, there are many historical buildings like Mung Chua Phuc Sinh church and the Buu Dien post office that have designs similar to the bulidings that are found in France.