[Photos] Life in a Saigon Tube House

If you think your living conditions are cramped, you haven’t been to Nguyen Phi Vu’s house.

The motorbike repairman and his wife, Pham Thi Kim Ngan, live in a triangular house with an area of two square meters, reports Zing.

At the foot of District 8’s Chanh Hung Bridge, the couple and their three children have lived in the house for six years. Vu and Ngan pay VND3 million a month in rent.

During the day, Vu fixes bikes while Ngan sells sugarcane juice and nước sâm. Their eldest children – a girl in Grade 6 and a boy in Grade 4 – regularly help with the couple’s work.

Ngan cooks the family’s meals in a makeshift kitchen outside the house, but at night many of their possessions are packed up into the washroom, which doubles as a storage closet after dark. Other valuable items, such as motorbikes and the cart from which Ngan sells her nước mía, are covered with blankets and locked outside.

Even if the family were interested in expanding the house, it’s not really an option, as their small triangular dwelling is hemmed in by other buildings.

[Photos via Zing]