Da Nang - Day 2

Tuesday 8th of April

Breakfast was at 8 am this morning which was so that we would be ready to walk to the Planning Institute of Da Hang at 9:15. We all had to wear our business attire again as this meeting was a bit of a first impression, and was with some of the top planners of Da Nang.

The office building was about 15 minutes walk away, which in our long shirts and pants was not exactly comfortable in the humidity, even at 9:30 in the morning.

The meeting was another presentation given to us but again in a meeting environment around a central table. The planners did not know much English and so we listened to the presentation via a translator, similarly to yesterday except yesterday involved more English. The experience of using a translator is challenging but also very interesting.

We learnt about the strategic plan for Da Nang which has a number of similarities to that of South Australia's strategic plan, but also a wide range of differences. This meeting was probably more beneficial or more interesting than the University meeting because it felt less formal and more inviting to ask questions about the planning system.

Following the meeting we were all left to our own devices for about 2 hours. A group of us wandered slowly back to the hotel to get changed before heading out to get some lunch at a restaurant nearby that had been suggested by some others in our group yesterday.

Tom, Scott, and I arrived there first before being joined by Matt Rofe and Lachlan, and finally Phil and Matt Fielke came along. This really was a fantastic place and will test my belief of not repeating a restaurant! My meal, including a big glass bottle of coke worked out to be about $3.50.

After that fantastic saving, we decided to revisit a shoe shop nearby. I ended up spending about $20 on a very reasonable pair of shoes. There may be some more visits to that shop in the coming days if I keep saving on meals!

We all had to reconvene at the hotel at 1:30 pm to get on a bus for a tour around the development sites in Da Nang. We had a new translator for this trip, and one of the members from the Planning Institute was our guide. We visited sites that had been mentioned in the meeting which really gave us a good visual representation of what we are learning about.

Most of the plans for the future are anticipating a doubling of population growth and are trying to improve the living conditions of the area. The community are apparently consulted in the developments but probably not in the same way or to the same degree that they might be in similar projects in Adelaide.

It was really interesting to be able to get out of central Da Nang and into the outskirts. The way buildings are built, and where they are built are fascinating. In the middle of nowhere there are often two or three storey houses, with a frontage of about 3 metres.

We travelled along the coast and down to Marble Mountain where we stopped down a street FULL of marble sculptures. This was probably a poor decision because as soon as the bus stopped a whole lot of shop owners came running down the street to get us into their shops.

Vacant lot at Marble Mountain

A storm began to roll in during the next leg where we were able to see some areas of flood plains that had been filled in to facilitate the expansion of urban areas. It was becoming increasingly obvious that there is a very large emphasis on 'Build it and they shall come'. All of the roads and street lights are in place, and clearly some have been for quite some time, but there is no development apart from the odd house in the middle of the field.

We almost got to the next destination before it started to pour with rain. To the point where we couldn't see the truck two meters in front of us. This was particularly scary when our driver decided to overtake the truck in front by passing over into the lane of oncoming traffic. We all survived though.

Pouring with rain.

We made it to the planned area for the High-Tech park, again a huge area with soil covering 1,100 ha of land. Nothing was on it, it was just an area waiting for investors to build things on. This would never happen in Adelaide.

The situation at the High Tech Park

We headed back to the hotel where we had our own time for the rest of the night. Matt, Tom, Scott, Phil and I all headed to the tailor to get some suits made up. Back at the hotel I Skyped the family at home before heading off with the majority of the group to get dinner near the river.

A lot of people will be happy to know that I got my directions wrong, despite my confidence, and I should have listened to Hannah who knew the correct way home when me, Matt, Carly and Hannah decided to head back.

-Nick