Day 6 Reflections (27 May 2011) -- Jurvis Tan

Today we set off for retail marts, comparing those of the urbanized and the slightly less developed ones.

This is Viacom Center, it's shops here provide premium, high-class branded goods, it's pretty obvious this shopping mall is catered for the upper-class in Vietnam. Inside the mall, we realized there was a corner for kids to play with lego upstairs, from what i see, it seems that this mall has provided places for these kids to go while their parents go shopping.

After that, we headed to An Dong Market, this is fairly similar to Ben Thanh Market but prices are reasonable there because it's not really tourists-orientated. These market have stalls set up across the whole entire place with narrow, squeezey aisles and many shops eventually selling the same kind of stuff all over the place, totally different compared to Viacom Center.

 

After visiting An Dong, we went on to visit two hypermarts - Lotte Mart by the Koreans, and COOP Mart by the Vietnamese, both have shown significant difference in organisation of stuff, goods they carry so and so forth. In Lotte Mart, it is seen that all the goods come from various countries and are well categorized just like carrefour in Singapore. However COOP is a local startup and it is something like the Sheng Siong in Singapore, all the prices are lower, and there are brand mock ups, like for example, there's a "Gold Cow" for a "Red Bull" mock up there.

 

Day 5 Reflections (26 May 2011) -- Jurvis Tan

Today we visited VSIP (Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park) this industrial park is planned by Singapore and from what we noticed around the park, the Singapore style is localized into that industrial park's surroundings. From today I have also learned that building an urban city has to have provide all the following:

1. Providing jobs/opportunities
2. Living space/Housing Infrastructure
3. Services, such as retail & entertainment 
4. Supporting Amenities like education & healthcare

We visited Becamex - the company which is responsible for the construction of Binh Duong New City, and there we saw the whole planning model. I was initially unaware that Singapore was so involved in Vietnam, creating Industrial Parks, assisting Vietnam in planning some of their stuff. From what I've seen, it's pretty evident that Singapore is trying to extend it's reach from this island itself to many possibilities all over the world.

After that, we visited an International University which is currently building, this university is planned by Singaporean company ascendas and it has a Singapore flavor in it.

block of the university

Next, we went on to visit VSIP 2 another Industrial Park planned by Singapore, although it's not that developed yet, but we got a chance to see the model there. The planning of the VSIP dated as back as the SM Goh years, where he was then the Prime Minister who helped kick start this project together with Vietnam.

Housing is important!

Day 4 Reflections (25 May 2011)

Today we head for the Can Gio Biosphere Reserve to plant some mangrove trees but before that we had to go to a briefing in the Reserve's quarters.

Can Gio, being out of the mainland, we had to take a ferry over to the reserve. From there we have to head somewhere at the south where to reserve is located. From the trip to the reserve, it is evident that the Vietnamese are taking lots of measures to preserve their forests since post-world war 2 where the americans sprayed lots of herbicides and napalm on their forests just to cope the Vietnamese way of guerilla warfare.

The above two pictures shows the landscape of the Mangrove reserve in Can Gio. After exploring some of these plantations, we headed forth to plant some Mangrove trees!

Saplings

Boots to wear in the muddy area

After planting the mangrove plants, we went to visit a house near the rivers in Can Gio where this man explained to us some of the hardships he faced managing this farm he has and some of them include:

1. Deforestation and penalty from the authorities
2. The remote area where he stays that requires him to spend a lot of money on oil to transport his kids from his house to the schools in town.

Day 3 Reflections (May 24) — Hao Yang, Benz, Hao En & Jurvis

Photo 1:
Air holes for breathing underground.

Photo 2:
Booby trap made out of bamboo.

Photo 3:
Temple sides has arches similar to the ones at the Islamic Mosque.

Photo 4:
The Cao Dai Temple, the architecture has a symmetry.

What have we learnt:

1 The fusion of the Eastern and Western cultures and religion in Cao Dai Temple can be seen through the arrangement of structures and the decorative. Examples of the arrangement of structures adapted from the West are the symmetrical arrangement of the 28 pillars, the balconies, the front structures and the tall figure (much like Notre Dame Cathedral), and the arches (Islamic Mosque). Examples of the decorative adapted from the West includes the ceiling painted with clouds and stars. Those adapted from the East includes the supernatural animals, as well as the colours used (yellow, blue, red). They believe that the Left Eye is closer to the heart which signifies the Yang, seeing everything that people do.

2 The complexity of the Cu Chi tunnels, booby traps and how the Liberation Army (Viet Cong) used guerrilla warfare to defeat the Americans. The traps were carved by bamboo sticks for spikes, they had air holes coming out of the ground to breathe and smoke vents. There was also an underground well where the Vietnamese soldiers could get clean water, as Americans polluted the water. The tunnels are unusually small; only the size of a Vietnamese back then could get through. The entrances, landmines and bunks are very well-covered with twigs and dead leaves, leaving the Americans extremely susceptible to the Vietnamese and have no knowledge in Guerrilla Warfare. This shows that the Vietnamese were very intelligent and had great team spirit and morale to get America's remnants of bomb shells and create their own weapons.

3 The Cao Dai Temple, although seems well-planned and intricate, has no master plans made before the building was constructed. It was constructed without architects or professionals, but rather local farmers. Hence it took 5 years to construct. After the building was done up, the government requested for its master planning, which then the people started to take measurements of the building and put it back into "planning stage". Our group observed that there were a lot of sand and the prayers wore a white costume.

Day 2 Reflections (May 23) — Hao Yang, Benz, Hao En & Jurvis

What we have learnt:


The government is only reducing the number of traffic jams via developing roads and infrastructure planning and registrations of vehicles (motorcycles).

Some of the buildings are influenced by the French, and they are called colonial buildings.

This can be seen through the symmetrical design, large open porch, arches and decorative features in the architecture. In addition, the France-lookalike traffic lights around the area also supports this.

District 2 is still in development. Its aim is to replace District 1 as an urbanized living area. The infrastructure and layout of District 2 is also more well-planned than District 1.