"LIFE ON THE STREET + SOCIAL REALTIONSHIPS IN HCMC (1st)". In Treatment [TH]

It surprised me to find this same behavior in HCMCity, a city of nearly 8 million of inhabitants and with a 4 million motorcycles on its crowded roads.
 

Street Bar. (Montse)
 

It seems that, despite the morphology and density of the city, people still wants a connection to the public space. You can find several examples as a group of people  doing a barbecue, playing cards, doing the laundry or washing and selling vegetables. They share with their pets this public space, as well with domestic animals as chickens. It is common for bars and restaurants to assume as their own their adjacent sidewalk and they appropriate it and fill it with small tables and stools for their customers.

To this unexpected occupation are added mobile carts and small businesses that occupy any corner or space available in the city. Then you can find a tobacco shop,a gas station, or a motorcycle garage. You can also find out how, with a table and a sewing machine, a woman works as a seamstress in the corner, or how with a chair and a mirror nailed to the wall, the space becomes a barber.
 

Bike workshop. (Montse)

Saigon is therefore a city where its streets not only create a network of urban communication, they have a commercial and social relationships role, so active and enriching. Unfortunately,due to that, walking it's difficult due to the bad maintenance these streets have.
 

SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS IN HCMC (First Part). (Sergio Diez-Cascón Soler)
 

Le Sud Gaudir. Concert (Sergio).
 

For an expatriate it's essential to find some compatriots in your same situation. In our case, and thanks to our boss Pep Vich and to our coworker (and finally a very close friend) Beatriz, we were able to be in touch with the Spanish people based in Ho Chi Minh City. In 2009, (during our first trip to Vietnam) we went for the first time to a kind of social club where people were meeting for having a beer, to play domino or just as a starting point of the night life. It was the Spanish restaurant-bar called Pacharán.

At Pacharán, Wednesday is The night. Half-price's mojitos,live music and party until late in the morning. This year, however, the Le Sud Gaudir restaurant, with a pool on its terrace, has hosted our own concerts (as the great duet I sang with Beatriz Peor para el sol), pool parties and other celebrations. In both cases, we used to be a group of around twelve Spanish. Sometimes someone is missing, but there is always a friendly atmosphere between us always ready to enjoy the Vietnamese party. Any new arrival or departure of one of us was cause of celebration, including paella and a big party.
 

Le Sud Gaudir terrace (Sergio).

TO BE CONTINUED... NEXT WEEK MORE!! > "WHEN NIGHT FALLS + SOCIAL REALTIONSHIPS (2nd)"

IN TREATMENT - METALOCUS.

DIRECTOR: JOSÉ JUAN BARBA. COORDINATION: INÉS LALUETA. ORGANIZATION: INÉS LALUETA, PEDRO NAVARRO. ENGLISH VERSION: KAREN SIMPSON. GUESTS FIRST SEASON: JOSÉ JUAN BARBA, MARINA DIEZ-CASCÓN, SERGIO DIEZ-CASCÓN SOLER, LARA FERNÁNDEZ GONZÁLEZ, CARLOS GERHARD PI-SUÑER, MONTSE PLA GARCÍA-CASTANY, XAVIER NICOLAU CUYÀS, FERNANDO RIAL PONCE, VERÓNICA ROSERO.