An Duong

An Duong (Ann Zoong) is the main street here in Yen Phu neighborhood. The street intersects with the levee road (Yen Phu), and then turns so that it parallels both the levee and the river. There are a number of little alleyways that intersect with An Duong, like ribs off a spine, heading toward the levee or the river, but never accessing either. We live on the corner of An Duong and one of the alleys (Duong 1). I've walked down several of the alleys and never quite get to the river. It means the neighborhood is a bit isolated, and a self-contained community.

According to my housemate Jacques, this neighborhood was given primarily to retired military families, which means it seems to be fairly well off - many of the houses are quite large. Dad, did you ever think your son would be living in northern Vietnam in a retired military neighborhood?

An Duong itself is a lively street, and seems to serve as the neighborhood's meeting space. There are people lounging in storefronts, selling vegetables while perched on a stoop, serving up bun cha, or doling out haircuts at all times of the day. The street is narrow enough to walk down the middle of, but busy with motorbikes and bicycles nonetheless. There are even chalkboards on the outside walls of a few buildings where people can write messages.

On the side streets, there is almost as much activity, and add to it lots of little kids riding around on bicycles and saying "Good evening" to me. Most of the housing here is of the typical 3 to 6 story Vietnamese modern house, with balconies with tacky railings, covered roof decks for laundry, pointy tin roofs, and a little courtyard to park motorbikes. But there are still traces of what the neighborhood must have been like before, small one-story shacks with tile roofs. Most of these seem to be about to be demolished.

There are also some surprises down the alleys - one house has this strange metal relief, there's nothing else like it around here. And down another alley there is an old traditional stilt house, that seems to be being restored by the Ford Foundation, but with little evident fanfare.