Nguyen Thai Hoc: A quiet road

(Baonghean) - Sometimes, without much human or object imprints, or the age of the street, the street is still easily remembered. That is because the street has soon become an important axis connecting several streets and both sides of the street have their own characteristics with a slow pace of life despite the repressed desires of a first-class city here and there. That is Nguyen Thai Hoc Street, Vinh City...

The end of January has come, the banyan trees are swaying with red leaves. On the sidewalk, in the afternoon, the footsteps of some old men with white hair are walking, as if accompanying a rare slow pace of the street. Nguyen Thai Hoc Street is 1 kilometer long, connecting Le Hong Phong Street from the East to Tran Hung Dao - Truong Chinh Street in the West, formerly located within the inner city boundary of the old Vinh urban area. Formed at the same time and playing the role of an inner-city artery along with Tran Phu, Phan Dinh Phung, Quang Trung, Le Loi, Phan Chu Trinh Streets... but strangely, Nguyen Thai Hoc Street up to now still does not have the specialized features like other streets.

The street's southern side belonged to Quang Trung and Doi Cung wards; its northern side belonged to Le Loi wards. More than a few decades ago, both sides of the street were still fertile soil, wet rice fields in the winter wind and white sand in the summer sun. At the beginning of the small alleys leading to collective housing areas and sparsely populated areas, there were almost always small shops selling green tea and peanut candy; people's gardens at that time still had casuarinas, bananas and bamboo with pigsties and chicken coops peeking out, creating a rustic village scene. In those days, most of the people living on this street were laborers, almost always having to be present at factories, workshops, or gathering at bus and train stations to drive cyclos, carry goods, etc., so the street was somewhat deserted and looked like a place of hardship.

A little closer to home, the street is remembered partly because on the south side, the first large two-story stone-paved house of a private individual in the city - the house of a paint dealer - grew up; and where Maximark supermarket is now, it is the house of the owner of the once famous HP battery company. For some reason, both of these houses later went bankrupt. Meanwhile, the popular restaurant with the sign "Mrs. Can" on the north side of the street has persisted from its old, dilapidated level four to a spacious second floor, but it seems that year after year, this restaurant serves the same number of customers every day and the same old faces...

Fifteen years ago, before Ly Thuong Kiet Street (running from Vinh Bus Station to the old Bai Than intersection in Dong Vinh) was opened, Nguyen Thai Hoc Street was burdened with important traffic for the convenience of one-third of the population in the south of Le Loi Ward. Along with the construction to make the street more spacious, Nguyen Thai Hoc Street was almost more bustling at night thanks to the duck and rice noodle stalls at the west end of the street, cooking with spicy flavor as the main culinary feature, but it has indeed become a delicious dish of Vinh's once-popular cuisine.

After that, the hot pot restaurant with the sign “Mrs. Xoan” opened (near Mrs. Can’s rice restaurant) and quickly became successful, and now the “Mrs. Xoan hot pot” brand has opened in many other streets. Perhaps when it comes to service development, the culinary scene on Nguyen Thai Hoc street is the easiest to “prosper”, such as the eight-rice restaurant, Shanghai chicken, wild vegetable hot pot… all flourished from here and when they attracted customers, the old cramped restaurant all brought the brand to open a new, more spacious place!

However, the truly spacious and modern street mark on Nguyen Thai Hoc street must be said to have started since Maximark supermarket - Vinh's first modern supermarket - was built. That new and civilized type of service once attracted the city's people so much that children were brought to Maximark Nguyen Thai Hoc as a big reward for their academic achievements and good behavior; young people in love led each other to Maximark as a kind of romantic care and concern for each other; and mothers and sisters rushed to that supermarket whenever they had free time, sometimes just to admire it to their heart's content. Now the city has many supermarkets that distract from the previous crowdedness of Maximark Nguyen Thai Hoc, but it can be said that this supermarket has created a "supermarket mark" for Vinh people.

After Maximark supermarket, Nguyen Thai Hoc street is mentioned a lot thanks to the Doi Cung apartment building on the south side, the second new urban apartment building built after Nguyen Sy Sach apartment building in Hung Dung, which once shook up the real estate "weather" in Vinh. Although Quang Trung apartment buildings were crowded decades before, perhaps the concept of "living in an apartment" with its criteria began to form in the minds of Vinh people since the Nguyen Sy Sach and Doi Cung apartments were built. But even though the apartment block is located on the street like that, the facade still does not have the excitement and bustle of service signs commonly seen in other apartments built on the main street later.

It seems that the somewhat calm sound is from the spread of the slow pace of the street, even though there are still many houses on the street that are not rented out or open their own business services. The street has not become a specialized business, there are quite a variety of services, although not on a large scale, but enough to include a few sympathetic brands of clothing restaurants, hair salons, coffee shops, etc. Recently, when Vinh Industrial University was built, together with Doi Cung apartment building, the Central Investment and Development Joint Stock Company created a long, airy stretch of the southern side of the street, while on the opposite northern side, in front of Vinh Orthopedic - Rehabilitation Center, there are old level 4 collective houses left over from the subsidy period, there is a wide stretch of sidewalk, only for a few tea shops to spread tables and chairs to serve students in the afternoon.

The services that have opened and built their brands have gone to find other more bustling places; the spacious, modern buildings have sprung up but still have their own unique tranquility; and, the residents of the street, both old and new, seem to have a leisurely, friendly look... all of which create a surprisingly slow pace on Nguyen Thai Hoc Street, making the street more familiar to the residents and a sympathetic impression for visitors to easily remember a street name.

Sam Temple