By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
Friday the 13th. That’s the date that my wife and I were to book our flight to Hanoi, Vietnam. That was the date suggested by Bai, our son who is currently teaching in a private school in Vietnam. His wife, Riza and their 2 sons, Zian and Zuri, are also with him in that country.
We had no qualms about the date. No negative association to it. We treated it as a normal regular day. We were told that the date is still about three days away before the start of the TET holidays in Vietnam.
So we booked. We thought that the arrivals of passengers-locals or foreign tourists- will still be light during that date.
Alas, when we arrived at the Nai Bai International Airport in Hanoi, at about 1:25 am we got word that three flights arrived within 15 min before us, then three more after us. During those times, there were only 4 immigration counters open to process the arrival of thousands of passengers, taking quite a bit long for us to hurdle the barrier.
The airport is not as big As that of Changi in Singapore or Subarnabhumi in Thailand but it is quite orderly, not boisterous with the presence of people and quite efficient
Bai and Riza fetched us at the airport. They booked a Grab taxi to take us to their apartment. What impressed me immediately once we were out of the airport premises are the wide, well-lighted streets of 6-12 lanes each. And they are well-paved. No wonder, Vietnam roads were considered among the top 8 roads in Asia for the year 2025.
Bai’s family is residing in a middle class neighborhood called Ocean Park 1 built by the Vin Group of Companies, probably the biggest company in Vietnam at the moment. It is a diversified company that is into property development, car manufacturing, malls business, tourism, and many more.
I had visited at least three of the townships that the company developed; Ocean Park 1, Ocean Park 2, and Ocean Park 3. They are in Hanoi. They have developed much, much more of course. Our land developers could learn a thing or two from these.
Each of the townships maybe considered a city within a city. Although private, they have very wide roads normally with 6-8 lanes, they have several playgrounds where children could play freely, they have sports facilities such as tennis and pickle ball courts, they have primary and secondary private schools, they have restaurants, groceries, coffee shops, convenience stores, malls, at least 30 tall condominium buildings of 28 or more floors, natural or man-made lakes, tourist attractions, and many more. Several bus stops with very good waiting sheds are also established within each of the townships complete with modern buses that provide free rides to its residents. We are looking at areas of more than 3 thousand hectares each of the townships.
That type of land development is unheard of in the Philippines.
The tourism aspect is definitely another thing that could be considered by local developers with the help of local and national agencies.
Each of the townships has a tourist attraction different from another. This is the reason why tourists flock to each tourism site. One for example take a page from Venice complete with gondolas that visitors can ride, passing by a pirate ship and various sculptors copied from Europe. Another spot depicts scenarios from Greece, topped by a tower featuring Neptune. It’s quite a feat to have them all in one place.
It is interesting that in a man-made lake, it has even artificial beach where even foreigners swim and sunbath.
Filipinos are some of the tourists visiting the mentioned sites.
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