Vietnam - Living Conditions

I was pleasantly surprised and not so wonderfully surprised by the living arrangements throughout my stay in Vietnam. My home base consisted of a single room about 12’x10’ including the bathroom. I was very pleasantly surprised that a place costing $200/mo had air conditioning, cable TV, foam bed (no springs), and a refrigerator. The exterior door leading into the complex was a sliding door. The lock on this sliding door would not work from the inside. The bathroom had a sink, toilet and removable showerhead in a 5’x3’ area. The drain hose from the sink deposited onto the floor 2.5’ away from the drain. When the toilet flushed an unexplainable effluent went to a different hose onto the floor and rolled across the floor for 2.5’ before reaching the drain. The effluent was not colored, but was also not a coincidence that it came out only when the toilet was flushed. I tried not to think about why the two events happened at the same time.

At the two hotels we stayed at the night shift slept at the hotel. You could see them sleeping on a mattress or cot either in front or behind the desk. That means a request for a wake up call is useless because the night staff is asleep while customers are sleeping. The first hotel was located inside a 6-story structure, the first story being a large appliance store. You had to walk to the back of the store to get to the stairs leading to the hotel. In the late evenings the store closes and the metal roll-down door prevents anyone from entering. If you are out for a late night you have to open the mail slot and yell\bang hoping that the night staff that is sleeping on the second floor in front of the hotel desk can hear you to open the door.

Uncle’s farmhouse was located in Ben Tre. There is a small, well-maintained road that leads back his home. The road is large enough for two motor scooters to simultaneously travel. The area is lush with foliage, fruit and coconut trees. The area is by the river. There are also lots of ponds of standing water around, perfect for breeding mosquitoes. Being so close to sea level I wonder what happens when the monsoon season comes. The structure is fairly large for the area, about 50’x20’ with one bedroom, a bathroom and a covered kitchen annex. It has three-inch exterior walls and a sheet metal roof. Other than being covered by a grate to prevent intruders the windows are completely open to the exterior environment. The kitchen annex is best described as a covered patio with a large iron stove that burn anything you put into it as fuel. The bathroom had a toilet and a floor drain (no sink). Water is boiled on the stove so that warm water is available in one bucket to mix with the cold water from the other bucket. So each pitcher of water used for the “shower” is a different temperature depending on how good you are at mixing the two solutions. Brushing your teeth works the same way; you just fire away at the floor drain and rinse it afterwards. At night mosquito nets are set up around the sleeping areas.

Cousin’s place was significantly smaller and much poorer construction. The front room’s walls are made of 1”x6” boards with many inches between them exposing the exterior environment. The roof is sheet metal. The entire place is smaller than my one car garage. I have seen barns and sheds in the US of better construction, it is sad to know that hard working members of the family live in such poverty. My guess is the difference is between Uncle’s house and Cousin’s house is having foreign money sponsoring the construction versus all local earnings.