A year ago, an American expat messaged me on Instagram: “Is Phuong 19 in Binh Thanh your ’hood, too?”
I had to check Google Maps. It wasn’t. Technically my ’hood is Phuong (ward) 22 — a newly developed urban realm composed primarily of generic high-rise towers and a hectare’s worth of Truman Show-style villas.
As a “corner shop” resident, I can choose from a triumvirate of convenience stores: 7/11, FamilyMart and CircleK. That’s why, especially of an evening, I’m keener to be associated with Phuong 19, a much older, more “Saigonese” part of Ho Chi Minh City.
Not that it’s all that old.
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