Antidote to Burnout

Getting civilian military construction done -- RMK-BRJ [Part 1]

KBR (formerly the M.W. Kellogg Company and Brown & Root, Inc.) is the 4th largest American construction firm today (listed by Engineering News Record) and is a subsidiary firm of Halliburton, well known for its former CEO, now U.S. Vice... Read more →

RMK-BRJ Construction Industry Legacy in Việt Nam [Part 2]

All of the photographs below were taken in 1972 -- click on any of them to enlarge it. The huge American construction consortium RMK-BRJ was ubiquitous thoughout southern Việt Nam is the 60s and early 70s with its thousands of... Read more →

RMK-BRJ Construction Legacy in Việt Nam Today [Part 3]

Between 1965 and 1972, the consortium of the four largest American construction companies, RMK-BRJ, built much of the infrastructure of the lines of communications now serving southern Việt Nam today. All of the photographs below were taken in 1972 --... Read more →

Sociability and noise...

My blogger friend Virtual Doug and his wife have returned to the USA from Huê, Việt Nam. He recently published a post comparing the noise of Việt Nam with the quietness of suburban America. In addition to the millions of... Read more →

A very small Vietnamese house

This house in Bien Hoà is only 1 meter by 3 meters in area (3 feet by 10 feet) on the upper floor, and 1.5 meters by 3 meters on the ground floor. That is only enough space for one... Read more →

It takes a village...

From my vantage point in the midst of a thoroughly lower-middle-class neighborhood of TP. Hồ Chí Minh, there is very little crime. This is surprising since there is a large degree of unemployment, particularly among teens and young adults in... Read more →

Design Touches 4 -- More Gates

There is an incredible diversity of design ideas expressed in the urban houses of TP. Hồ Chí Minh. I could take hundreds of pictures every day of interesting design touches applied to these houses. Virtually every urban house is different,... Read more →

Keeping up with the world...

Living half-way around the world from your roots requires adaptation to the local culture and economy. Nevertheless, you do not have to leave everything you are accustomed to behind. Here are the joys of modern technology that bring my roots... Read more →

Houses on the Hem...

There is currently a very wide range of houses on the hems (lanes) of our district of Thành Phố (City) Hồ Chí Minh. To some degree, this is tied to the economic levels of the residents. This area is a... Read more →

Why I am not getting any work done...

This is the current view out of my office balcony door: The worker is applying the second and final coat of hard plaster on the new house across from me. Presumably he will drop back down next week to apply... Read more →

I am living over an old project of mine...

While in Saigon to manage construction contracts to Vietnamese construction contractors in 1972, I worked with a company called VIHICO to build a large storm drainage tunnel two or three kilometers long. The project was called Vo Thanh Drain, which... Read more →

The rainy season in TP. Hồ Chí Minh...

The rainy season in southern Viẹt Nam runs from May through mid-November. So we are well into it now, and each day has been unsettled with a thunder storm and hour-long downpour arriving at some point each day. The citizens... Read more →

More on café cà phê coffee...

My 17 April 2006 posting on coffee in Việt Nam discussed urban coffee houses. Since then, we have been expanding our experience beyond Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh to the suburbs. These suburban districts are still part of the administrative... Read more →