In my last posting photographs, you may have noticed a tent camp in the middle of the site under demotion behind my house in HCMC. It is typical in Viet Nam for some of the construction laborers to live temporarily on the construction site. You most often see them within the structure of whatever it is they are building.
At various times, it seemed that there were anywhere from two to six persons camping on the site. They often went out for take-out dinner, but also did some cooking on the site.
It must have been hard for the day workers who camped on the site to put up with the night equipment operators removing debris from the site with diggers and dump trucks. This is done at night because trucks are not allowed on the Saigon streets during the daytime.
I have been meaning to write about camping for a long time. My wife and I love to camp out when in America. On the other hand, I haven't seen any recreational camping yet in Vietnam.
I don't mean to say that we and the Vietnamese all live in camps like that pictured above. We live in houses, but the houses are so open to the warm air that it seems like we are constantly camping. If you have ever camped in a California State Park campground on a 4th of July evening, or Labor Day evening, you might know then what it is like all the time to live in a Vietnamese neighborhood. The cooking smells (often barbecued) waft through the air house-to-house. Someone is always playing a stereo full-blast (or singing karaoke). In the morning you wake up to pots and pans rattling as cooks get going next door. In the evening, you hear your neighbors talk and laugh into the night. I love it all.
