VietNamNet Bridge – This house of less than 5 square meters is located in the Hanoi Old Quarter. To move around inside, the owners have to crawl.

Contrary to the flashy, crowded appearance of the front, deep in alley 44 of Hang Buom Street are houses of less than 10m2. Entering the alley, one would feel like going into a bunker.

In this alley, the house of Mr. Xuan, a motorbike taxi driver or xe om is the smallest. It is only 5m2, with a length of 2,64m, a width of 2.5 m, and a height of 1.1 m.

It is called a house but it is more like a garret, where the owner can only lie or sit, or crawl to move. For decades, this house has never had sunlight.

Xuan joked: "My house shall make the World Guinness Record for the smallest house in the world."

To reach the house, guests have to climb over a wall of nearly 2m tall, surrounded by electric wires; there is no door to the house.

Inside the house, in addition to a number of essential items such as a television, an electric fan, a rice cooker, ... Xuan did not buy anything else because there is no room. He has only several sets of clothes, which are hung on hangers to save space.

Also because the house is too small, the rice cooker is used to cook rice, boil vegetables and cook soup. Xuan has to wash rice, vegetables, dishes, etc. at the public water tank of the alley.

Moving around in the 5m2 house is tragicomical. Normally Xuan has to crawl inside the house. To change shirts he has to kneel and to change trousers he has to lie down.

Xuan said that his parents shared their 10m2 house with Xuan and his brother so his house is only 5sq.m.

Not only inconvenient and small, this house is severely polluted because it is adjacent to the water tank and the toilet tank of the neighbors. The house is always wet and moldy and covered with coal smoke from the neighbors.

After divorce, Xuan lived in the house with his son, a college student. Recently the son moved to live with his mother.

With the modest income of a motorbike taxi driver, Xuan said he cannot afford to buy or even hire a room.

Now Xuan just wishes the local government would help people like him to escape from such tiny houses.

Kieu Ly

Photo: Le Anh Dung