High Wires (aka a wire nest)
Every person who comes to Vietnam is either mesmerized or scared to death. First they notice the traffic and motorbike culture; appearing as chaos. However the second thing they notice is the mangled electrical wiring above their head; which leads to the question – how do they fix a wiring problem if something goes wrong?!
The electrical poles often look like a birds nest, thrown together with no real rhyme or reason. As you stare at it you can’t help but wonder how they could ever work on this dizzying maze of wires with any success. Then again, while living in Vietnam we would have power outages about twice a week which says quite a bit about the actual infrastrucutre in Vietnam; I guess that’s why they call it a ‘developing country’.
For those of you who haven’t yet been to Vietnam (what are you waiting for?!), here are a few photos of what you can expect when you look upwards.
That’s a great post; I haven’t been to Vietnam.
Ha! When I was in Vietnam, I took the same photos of these birdsnest wires and sent them to my father, who is a retired electrician – he actually started his career as a lineman – he was amazed.
Wow, this is incredible! How do they find the right wire to fix when it breaks? Brilliant.
Hi Sherry! You must be back from Nepal! Where are you? How was your trip? We are in New Hampshire…you should read what happened to us on MY blog – will make you glad you don’t own a house!
Still contemplating a trip to NYC when you are there – hope to talk to you soon!
–Lynn
@lynn – no i’m still in nepal right now in a tiny little village on the annapurna circuit with my dad – having a great time. Will be back in NYC on Nov. 19 after a quick stop at the beach in Sri lanka! Would love to see you while i’m on the east coast!
So sorry we missed each other in Vietnam, Sherry. You are right about the electrical wires as your photos illustrate. My first experience with “electric wire overload” was in Manilla. How do they keep them all straight?
My gosh. I can only imagine what a pain it must be for electricians in Vietnam.
You see this all over in Beijing, Taipei and Africa too!! We are just home from a month in Kenya and Tanzania and have some these kinds of pictures in our repertoire too. Although I do think there are fewer of them, which likely means less electricity in total. I’m loving your blog – especially the Ger to Ger posts
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That is so scary! My god what a risk. But Im always amazed on how workers in the mid of the mess now exactly their way around.
There’s a true story : One electrician fell down from the top of the pole and he was saved by our amazing birdsnest wires ( like he fell into hammock >__< )
@Huong – that’s a great story! I’ve often thought that you could walk on the mass of wires easier than you could walk down most sidewalks in Saigon!