Same same, but different?

There are several reasons why I am fascinated by Asia and more specifically South East Asia, but I won't go into them in this post.

I am currently in Vietnam, my third country in this region (I was previously in Thailand and Cambodia) and each of these countries have their own peculiarities. But if there is one thing that you can find litterally  e v e r y w h e r e  in this part of the world, it's the shophouses.

The name is pretty self explanatory: these are buildings designed to serve for both business and residential purposes. They have a simple design, featuring a narrow and deep blueprint, usually including a street level floor and an upper floor.
An interesting feature is the door because there is actually none. Instead, the shophouses have one or more see-through iron gates (no they don't look like prisons!).

When business hours are over - basically from sunrise until late sunset - hammocks, tiny tables and chairs and sometimes even beds are pulled out and the family gathers for a meal, to watch tv, or for a simple chat. This implies that throughout the day, including the evening, there is plenty of life happening outside, at the street level. This sort of lack of privacy was not something totally new to me. When I arrived in Antwerp, I remember taking the tram and noticing that people didn't close their curtains while being at home. That was very uncommon to me, but later on I understood why people would keep their curtains open. The same happens also in the Netherlands and Danemark, for example, because the sun light is scarce, but that remains probably one of the biggest cultural shocks I have ever experienced.

PS: I do not currently have a decent picture of a shophouse in my mobile, so here is one of the central market of Phnom Penh, another example of cultural hotspot all over SE Asia!