Lomography

On our way to Roxas from Puerto Princesa, we asked the driver of the hired van to stop by at the old Vietnamese Village or Vietville. In 1975 after the fall of South Vietnam in the bloody war in their country many Vietnamese came by boats and sought refuge in the Philippines. The United Nations set up refugee camps in Palawan while processing their resettlement and screening out those not qualifed for refugee status or asylum. The Philippines hosted them until 1996 when the refugee program ended. Since then, many of them have resettled in the US and other Western countries while some whose status were 'free to stay in the Philippines but unable to leave for other country' remained surviving with the support of the church and Vietnamese communities in the West. What used to be a village of 1500 residents in 1996 is now down to a family living through operating a noodle house restaurant where Palaweños, tourists and other visitors can savor authentic Vietnamese dishes at affordable prices. The village now looks like a ghost town whose many decaying houses are abandoned.