Bui Vien backpacker’s street is still empty on a weekend (Photo: SGGP)
Bui Vien walking street, or “Westerner street” as the locals call it, at its best used to see some 2,000-5,000 visitors each night. Now there are at most 7 people on the side of the street on a regular weekend.
Having mostly provided services to foreign visitors, restaurant and hotel owners at Bui Vien were left hanging by a thread as the epidemic limited travel across the world.
Talking to Vo Quoc Thanh, the owner of 3 bars and restaurants in the area, SGGP reporters learned that many establishments like his tried to switch professions, offering breakfast and lunch and other street food that might be more appealing to regular folks.
“It’s not been really effective though; this area has been associated with foreigners and tourists that are willing to spend, so people assume our current prices are also inflated”, Thanh remarked.
Phuong, the owner of a nearby pub, lamented: “Before 2020 we usually had to take up one-third of the street just to set up tables, and still there were not enough seats. Now all of our stuff is stacked in a corner collecting dust”.
Of the establishments to go out of business, the most surprising one according to the locals is Cong Coffee, a regular on must-visit lists across domestic social media which have also succumbed to profit loss as Covid-19 raged on.
On the other hand, most business owners at Bui Vien said they had to shut down mostly because of high rent. Monthly rents could reach US$5,000 per unit, and though there are landlords who lowered the fee by 20% to 50% a month, not everyone can afford to keep their place open.
Not only the street-facing buildings, establishments across 600 meters of small alleys along Bui Vien street itself were major contributors to the area’s economics and have also taken a tumble. They offer everything from affordable street food and performance to body massage and homestay experiences.
Ha, who sells grilled ribs and chicken at the entrance to one of the alleys, told of the days she earned around VND 1.5-1.7 million every night (US$65-$73.6), enough to feed herself and her 4 children. “Now I make at most VND300,000 ($12.9) on an extremely good day”, she sighed.
There are 40 out of the 90 restaurants at Bui Vien currently out of commission due to mandatory lockdowns aimed at non-essential services, of which 10 have posted leasing ads at the time of this article. According to District 1 People’s Committee, of the 20 newly established businesses in the area, 8 shut down within the same year.
