What are those astonishingly bright lights seen from an airplane window when approaching Saigon at night? I’ve had visitors ask me this on the drive home from the airport, and the question appears on Reddit every few months. I remember being befuddled myself the first time I witnessed the patchwork radiance.
So what are those bright lights that overwhelm the aerial view on clear nights? A hubristic attempt by humanity to mock the cosmos and its flimsy scattering of faded stars? A glitch in the matrix's landscape rendering? A simple illusion induced by the curvature of the earth and your own slipping sanity?
The real answer isn’t anything so outrageous: it's dragon fruit, or, to be exact, farms that grow them, as the fruits do not emit light. Near the coast, not far from Saigon, communities such as Hồ Cốc outside Vũng Tàu boast expansive dragon fruit farms. Left to the natural order, the cactus plants will produce numerous harvests per year, a boon to the local economy. But if super-charged via around-the-clock light, the plants become extra productive, blooming out of season and thus producing even more fruits which are of notably high quality. It’s easy to understand how this led farmers to string up lights throughout their massive fields.
In response to global concerns over energy consumption and sustainable agriculture, and with the assistance of government support, farmers have transitioned from inefficient traditional bulbs to 9-watt energy-saving LED lights. When coupled with solar power setups and water-saving irrigation systems, they result in significantly reduced power and resource consumption.
Photo via Hoàng Hậu dragon fruit farm.
The view of the distant countryside sprawled out beneath its electro-luminescent afghan is worth requesting a window seat next time you have a flight from TSN. And yet, I feel a little shame in revealing the origin of the lights. Knowing the dragon fruit lies behind the mystery is a bit like uncovering Tutankhamun’s long-lost tomb, only to discover it had already been looted and contains nothing but plaster shavings and mouse turds. So much radiance, so much uncertainty, all attributed to what one Reddit commentator described as a fruit that tastes like it has given up on its dreams: a passionless fruit.
Photo by Alberto Prieto.
[Top image via Reddit user stknrdr]
