Phu My Hung Neighborhood

Today we decided to explore another residential neighborhood in the south of the city at District 7 called Phu My Hung. This fairly large, new area features newly built buildings atop stores, cafes and beauty salons. There are wide streets shaded by trees and an 8 lane highway leading to it. It reminded me a lot of “Ramat Aviv”, the affluent north Tel Aviv neighborhood where Tel Aviv University is, only missing a fancy mall (for now). After a fruit shake in one of the nice places at Phu My Hung, we drove back to the city and headed to Ben Thanh market. The large and colorful market has not changed a bit since the last time I was there 6 years ago. There are still lacquer souvenirs on top of clothes on top of shoes right next to food stands. The whole market is very crowded and after an hour of navigating the narrow alleys (and a close encounter with a huge cockroach) we got out to eat lunch elsewhere.

To our surprise, rain started falling while we were busy shopping and it got stronger by the minute. By the time we were back at the hotel, it was pouring rain. When it was time to go and hang out at our friend’s Bao’s house we decided to take a taxi instead of covering ourselves in plastic ponchos to drive on the bike (which is exactly what everyone else was doing). Bao lives in a gorgeous French villa in Binh Thanh neighborhood which he shares with 2 other roommates. He moved out here about 6 months ago from New York where he was working at an online marketing firm. It turns out that his company used to work with the company I used worked for, Showtime, and we know some of the same folks.

The highlight of the evening was when Kevin, Aryeh and I tried to find our way back to the main street near Bao’s house and got lost in an endless maze of alleyways. We were saved by a shirtless Vietnamese guy with a cell phone who was just hanging out, chatting on the street late at night. Luckily for us, Aryeh speaks fluent Vietnamese as a result of living here for 8 years and, within a few minutes, a taxi was called and we all went back home.

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