the electricians
Anyone who’s been to Saigon (or read my February 2009 post “saigon, or, the art of motorbiking”) will understand my fascination with electrical wiring. Here in the city of a million motors (more like 6 million motorbikes actually), one of the strangest sights is the overhead electrical poles – strung with millions of miles upon miles of useless wire. It seems like every time a power outage occurs, the first thing that happens, is the electricians come and string up NEW wire, without removing the old corrupted wire. The city has started installing massive central power stations to consolidate some of this mess, but you’d hardly notice the change. Just look above you. So yesterday I was walking on the street and saw a funny site. Apparently someone high up in the HCMC power world told someone lower than them that Thai Van Lung’s electrical poles needed new wiring – completely new wiring. My guess is that the investors in the new condo building at the corner of Thai Van Lung and Le Thanh Ton have some powerful friends. So there I am standing in the street as hundreds of miles of wiring was just removed (showering down as motorbikes zipped among the ruins and cars dodged hay-bale size colossuses) and replaced by tiny spindly men standing on bamboo ladders wearing motorbike helmets. Two of them were kind enough to pause for a picture. I love this city! -b
The Electricians. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 2010.
