Another day in Ho Chi Min and another day in super humid and
90 plus degree weather. Breakfast at the hotel was similar to yesterday’s, and
after having it both times, there’s something different about the orange juice
here that I like. We had a lecture at the university about the urban
development of Ho Chi Minh City, and unlike America, Vietnam is rapidly
expanding in population, foreign investment, gross domestic product, and
overall development. It’s crazy how a city originally developed by the French a
hundred years ago that was meant to hold less than a million people has
developed enough to hold an estimated ten million in the near future. After
that we had another language class where we learned how to introduce ourselves
and say hello and goodbye. After classes at UEF, we visited Phu My Hung
Corporation’s new city center, which is the company that I studied back in the
United States before coming to Vietnam. PMH pretty much is an urban development
joint company between Taiwanese private investors and the Ho Chi Minh
government that continually work on the “Dragon to the East Sea” project to
expand South Saigon. Their urban areas are really high class, and are
completely sustainable with different types of schools, shopping centers, and
recreational areas. Almost 50% of the in the area is reserved solely for green
space like parks and walkways. What’s really coincidental is that the giant
rubber duck, which was in Pittsburgh earlier this year, was in Ho Chi Minh City at Phu My Hung, so I got to take a
picture with the same thing halfway across the world.
and then we had dinner at a restaurant with a few Vietnamese
students of UEF. They ordered us authentic spring rolls, phở, and fried rice.
Afterwards, we spent some time going around the city and then I made my way
back to the hotel to get ready for the next day.
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