Final Word - The Best Of

It’s been two years now of blogging here at the Final Word. I thought I’d take this chance to say thanks to everyone who has read and commented over the past couple of years. I’ve blogged about pretty much everything : work, getting married, the development in Saigon, the future of Saigon, moving house, advertising, [...]

TET Fireworks

After the cancellation, debate and then reinstallment, it was time to settle down and enjoy. By 11.00pm, there was nowhere to move. The early birds had set up along Ton Duc Thang , waiting for midnight. This is taken outside the Majestic Hotel looking up TDT, with Dong Khoi off to the left.

The fireworks were [...]

An Everyday Journey

A bleary eyed man climbs out of his bed, walks through to his kitchen, and gingerly sips on some hot green tea prepared earlier by his wife (she’s always up earlier than him, no matter how hard he tries). If it’s one of those days when he was too lazy to do some morning exercise, [...]

The 100th Post

Welcome to the 100th post of The Final Word (in Saigon)! Started off as a load of boring tripe — now it’s turned into a kind of dogs dinner that carrys a faint whiff of wet mustard. So well done blog, and well done blog readers for putting up with such crap. Anyway, most ‘readers’ [...]

Are you hard-headed?

A recent magazine article combined with comments from a friend prompted an internal debate. Why don’t I wear a helmet? I remember, as a kid on my paper round, my parents forced me to take a huge plastic mushroom as protection. Too embarrassed to wear it, at the first opportunity I’d stuff it in the [...]

Getting Married Vietnam Style - The Final Part!

I have just read an article about blogging, the title of which was ‘Nobody cares what you had for lunch’, so bearing that in mind, I’ll make this the final part of the Getting Married series. I’ve added a link in the catagories section to direct FW virgins to all 6 glorious episodes.
So, we leave [...]

Independence Day

Not the movie with Will Smith. 02/09 is Vietnam’s 04/07, although it is celebrating a rather more recent date of 1945 when the Viet Minh led by Uncle Ho seized control and declared Vietnam to be an independent nation. This celebration takes place out of stubborn principle, as there barely seems anything worth celebrating about [...]