Da Lat is the capital of Lam Dong Province in the Central Highlands Region of Vietnam. This city in the mountains is by far the most visited place in the Central Highlands. The cool climate attracted French colonialists to establish it as a hill station, and they even built a railway that connected to the […]
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Da Lat Monorail
The Da Lat Monorail is a proposed urban rail transit system in the city of Da Lat in the Central Highlands region of Vietnam. The monorail plan was announced in 2011 and approved by the local government in 2013. At that point, they were hoping for it to be completed by 2020. The proposal includes […]
Ho Chi Minh City Metro 2021 construction update
Ho Chi Minh City is currently constructing its first metro line. Following on from the 2020 construction update, here is the Ho Chi Minh City Metro 2021 construction update. Line 1 Line 1 of the HCMC Metro has been making slow progress, with the latest revised opening date set for the end of 2022. It […]
Bangkok to Ho Chi Minh City by rail on the Southern Economic Corridor Railway
The Southern Economic Corridor is a proposed transport route that would connect the port of Dawei in Myanmar to ports in Vietnam, via Thailand and Cambodia. This is an alternative route to the East-East Economic Corridor. [Map via anz.com.] The Southern Economic Corridor route goes from Dawei to Bangkok and then on to Aranyaprathet on […]
Hanoi – Chiang Mai Railway
The Hanoi – Chiang Mai Railway is an unofficially proposed railway that would connect Hanoi (Vietnam) to Chiang Mai (Thailand), via Luang Prabang (Laos). There are a number of long-term planned railways for Laos, but a Hanoi to Chiang Mai railway is not one under consideration. The railway proposal is via a map from China, […]
Ho Chi Minh City construction update – 2021 edition
Here is the third annual Ho Chi Minh City construction update (following on from the 2019 and 2020 construction updates). Continuing from last year, COVID-19 continues to cast a shadow over the construction sector. In fact this year has been worse, as Vietnam was one of the best performing countries in handling the virus in […]
Phu Quoc construction report 2021 – The biggest leisure development site in Southeast Asia
The island of Phu Quoc in Vietnam has gone through an unprecedented decade of growth, with the government intent on turning this once sleepy island into a “sleepless city”. I say unprecedented because I have never seen anywhere in Southeast Asia that compares to what is going on here (Sihanoukville in Cambodia would be the […]
Future Phu Quoc – Hotels and resorts planned and under construction
Phu Quoc is an island of Vietnam to the far southwest of the country, off the coast of Cambodia. Phu Quoc is part of Kien Giang Province in the Mekong Delta Region, with Ha Tien being the closest port. Phu Quoc is the largest island in Vietnam, and with its sandy beaches and tropical climate, […]
Cocobay Da Nang: the failed leisure and entertainment complex
Cocobay is a leisure and entertainment complex in Da Nang, with a total investment of VND14-trillion (US$617 million) by the Empire Group. Cocobay is located halfway between Da Nang and Hoi An, covering an area of 31 hectares with a 600-metre beachfront. Accommodation of three to five-star standards ranges from hotels, condotels, semi-detached houses, townhouses, […]
Vung Tau construction update – 2021 edition
Vung Tau is a popular beach resort city in Southern Vietnam. Its proximity to Ho Chi Minh City makes it a defacto beach suburb for the city. In 2020 I did construction reports for the beach cities of Da Nang and Nha Trang, both of which rely heavily on international tourism. You could see first-hand […]










