The day before NYE

It’s that time of year again, and the buzz is palpable. Today, the shops are alive, the streets are bustling with shoppers. Today is the street traders bonanza, I noticed….(see previous post + comments).
Finally, I had a morning totally dedicated to driving around the city, researching for three or four upcoming blog posts, and snapping [...]

Reclaiming the streets…

The length of the country things are changing and quickly. Recent stories describe a number of dramatic changes, which if they are really enforced could impact on many low income workers. Firstly, the baffling ban on modified vehicles.

Already delayed until June (as described here), the impending new rules mean one less obstruction on the busy [...]

Bikes

Nothing more than a personal post, to show all my family and friends my new motorbike. I always remember a conversation with Jimmy Thong, who upon asking moi what kind of bike I guided around these uneven streets, seemed mortified when he found out it was a Nouvo, the same kind driven by none other [...]

Our Cooking Class in Saigon

Cook is my company’s cooking class in Saigon, and by far our most popular pursuit by hungry, knowledge thirsty tourists. They love the opportunity provided to them to be able to visit someone’s house as well as have the cooking experience. Other classes offer the market shopping as do we, but we choose a local [...]

Bot Chien

In the search for potential venues for our Dine packages I finally managed to try some Bot Chien, a dish that always garnered my interest when I saw magazine columns regarding it. It looked Western to me, like fried squares of potato with fried egg on top. Mmmm just add a little salt and vinegar [...]

Queuing

London, England.

People queue. British people are famous for queuing. We queue just to get into another queue. We queue to ask about where we should queue. We separate queuing people with ropes and guide them with signs. We spilt queues when they get too big and start them again on somewhere else. We zig-zag queues [...]

Helmets Everywhere

I am sure this won’t be the first blog on this topic….but here we go.
We’ve all seen the headlines, and driven under the red banners strung out around the city. We’ve heard the whining, the complaining, the excuses. But now is judgement day. According to the article ‘Nation to dole out swift justice for those [...]

Thu Thiem

Saigon is a large, heavily populated city. I have visited, driven through, worked in, or lived in almost all the districts of the city, there is very little I don’t know about some parts of it. Thu Thiem however is an exception. For years I have watched the bikes streaming off the ferry and entering [...]

Visions of 2020 to come true…?

Back in March this year I wrote a piece called ‘Will 2020 ever come to Saigon‘. In it I said :
What I envisage for the city is a pedestrian area encompassing Nguyen Hue, Dong Khoi and Lam Son Square. I am no urban planner and maybe it’s too late to build the parking that would [...]

Stormy Pics

Once again, a massive delay between posts, but I am submerged. Lots of material in my mind, lots of pictures to take, just finding the time.
For now, just some pictures I took last night. One of many things I would love to learn more about, photography. Vietnam is like a photographers wet dream…or is that [...]