It is conventional wisdom that the majority of Việt Nam’s growth is happening in the cites – principally in Hà Nội and Sài Gòn. No argument from me on that. Both cities are coming apart at the seams, as Antidote to Burnout pointed out recently. Though recent hard data is difficult to come by, most figures from 2000 indicate about 80% of the population still lives in the countryside. (EarthTrends Country Profile )
So – what’s happening in the countryside?
Undeniably, the standard of living in the countryside is lower than it is in the cities. It retains its bucolic beauty, yet change is happening here as well. It is easy to find families still living in nasty little shacks with dirt floors, but they are rare. Most people now live in a sturdy, if unremarkable, concrete home.
As you pass through small villages, you might notice beauty parlors. Little ones with one or two chairs. Not barbershops – but women’s hair salons. Seeing these, you know disposable income is increasing. Poor women don’t have the money to
get their hair fixed. A proud, but very shy, young lady showed me around her shop. Somebody in her little village was spending dông in her shop.
The same is true with the Internet. Though not as ubiquitous as in the cities, Internet cafés can be found in many villages. Note there is only one motorbike outside, but lots of bicycles; another indication of transition. Inside the only people you see are young. Though they lack the sophistication of Internet users in Korea, Europe, North America, Japan, or other developed countries, they know chat, email, and finding web sites about popular singers. There still are few web sites in Vietnamese, but that too is changing.
Where is this new money coming from? Its not coming from traditional agriculture, which is primarily rice growing, nor from vegetable farming. Its coming from new sources, as exemplified by these shrimp ponds. Aquaculture is a major new sector of the Vietnamese economy, and shrimp farming is the biggest 
part of the sector. (Business Briefs) You need electricity for shrimp farming – the ponds must be aerated and water pumped. But, you also need to get product to market, and new infrastructure is being built to help farmers do that.
One more indicator: the mobile phone. No, you don’t see many people out there with a phone
screwed into their ear, but change is still underway. As I stopped for some fuel for my môto, I looked up - - and there it was - - the mobile phone tower.
Hey – they want to talk to Uncle Binh in Sài Gòn too!
