If you drive from Hanoi to Ha Long Bay you may see, rising up from an otherwise rural setting, a gleaming, modern city complete with parks, lakes, and luxury accommodations. It’s creator is a guy who started by selling instant noodles. Now he’s the richest man in Vietnam. You might say he went from noodles to oodles.
We arrived in Hanoi yesterday, and due to an error on our visas, had to limit our stay in Hanoi to one night. We don’t want to leave, but we have to move on. Our accommodations tonight will be on a boat in Ha Long Bay. We’re halfway to Ha Long Bay now.
We made the most of our night in Hanoi by going on a foodie tour in the Old Quarter. If you’ve been following along, you know that one of the delicacies on the tour was an exotic dish made from wiggly little critters that live in the sandy bottom of the Red River delta. I can report at this time that I’ve suffered no ill effects from last night’s extravagances.
Time to Hit the Road
The road from Hanoi to Ha Long Bay took us through the heart of the city, through the outskirts of town, past a massive industrial park, and finally into the countryside.
That is, I thought we were in the countryside. The scenery had become mostly rural. Not much going on. And then, on our left, a beautiful, completely modern “city” came into view. Wow.
We were passing Vinhomes Ocean Park. People vacation here, have long-term rentals here, or live here full-time. If you lived here, you’d never have to leave. And you might not want to.
There’s a shopping mall, parks, a gym, salt water and fresh water lakes. The little ones can attend kindergarten here. The older ones can attend the university that’s on-site.
There aren’t any low-cost accommodation options here that I’m aware of, but there are three levels of “high-end” and “luxury” apartments. Take your pick. Or just stay in one of the hotels.
Vingroup
This self-contained city is one of many holdings of Vingroup – a Vietnamese conglomerate. They’re big into real estate development, manufacturing, services, and more. The guy behind it all is Phạm Nhật Vượng. He started from scratch – in Ukraine!
In the early ’90’s, he was a Vietnamese who found himself living in Ukraine. Times were tough in Ukraine, even back then. People sought out inexpensive food options. He started a small business manufacturing instant noodles.
Ukrainians ate ‘em up, you might say. His business grew, he expanded the product line, and much later, sold the brand to Nestle.
He moved back to Vietnam and started multiple ventures, the first of which was a seaside resort. As his empire kept growing, amusement parks, resorts, and real estate development became core businesses.
These days, Vingroup builds and operates hospitals, resorts, and manufactures all kinds of things – even cars. Vingroup’s automobile company is called Vinfast. I’ver seen two Vinfast cars on the road in California.
The pièce de résistance of his real estate developments is Landmark 81 – the tallest skyscraper in Ho Chi Minh City. (That’s it, pictured at the top of this post). It’s quite a sight.
And to think that it all started with instant noodles. Wow.
To be continued…
The awesome photo of Landmark 81 at the top of this post, credit: istockphoto/Vu Viet Dung.
