You don’t need a history book to learn something about Vietnam’s past. You’ll do just fine with a city map that encourages you to read the street signs.
Tag Archives: Saigon
98. Catfish and Mandala
Twenty-four years after its publication, a book by a visiting Viet Kieu — an overseas Vietnamese — suggests the culture hasn’t changed much in the subsequent generation.
93. Year of the Tiger: A Collection
As the lunar calendar turns, I realize that what really matters in my life are the relationships that I create and nurture.
92. Travels with My Best Friend
Two old pals reunite for three weeks exploring some of Vietnam’s urban and rural environments — big city to beaches, highlands and history.
91. Underground at Cu Chi
A tour of the Cù Chi Tunnels gives insight into how the North Vietnamese Army won its war against the South and its American allies.
89. Dining at Ănăn, Vietnam’s Finest
An Asian-born, American-raised chef blends two very different culinary cultures in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City.
82. Discovering Vietnam’s Art
Through periods of freedom and suppression, Vietnamese art continues to make an impression as it reveals culture and history to a curious world.
66. A Day in the Life: Ho Chi Minh City
A full day on the streets in Saigon doing absolutely nothing, or at least the next best thing: Stop, look and listen.
65. Christmas in Thao Dien
Even for an expatriate who has strained to distance himself from Western culture: Sometimes, you’ve just got to have a hamburger.
64. The Soul of Colonial Saigon
Modern Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon, is the sum of its historical parts. Many of the city’s most memorable buildings reflect the French colonial era.
63. A Brief History of Vietnam
A review of the nation’s long and varied history takes center stage in this report, as the author prepares to hit the road with a pocketful of magazine assignments.
61. Coffee Culture in Dak Lak
Vietnamese coffee is a stronger brew than most foreigners expect to find here. The author learns about its robust beans with the help of a South African friend.
53. My Year in Photos: Fifteen Favorites
A selection of the author’s photos, each of them a memory from a year of Travels in Vietnam.
47. Vietnam and China: No Love Lost
Vietnam is not one of China’s biggest fans. The reasons may be rooted in a long and combative history, but they extend today to a perceived lack of respect.
38. On Speaking Vietnamese
Learning to speak Vietnamese may be harder than it first appears, no thanks to 11 vowels, six tonal diacriticals and a handful of regional dialects.
34. Sometimes It Rains
“Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. Sometimes it rains.” — Tim Robbins as Ebby Calvin “Nuke” Laloosh in Bull Durham (1988)
33. On Dating (Chapter One)
Dating in a new culture is like finding one’s self as a Stranger in a Strange Land. As any local might tell you, it’s “same same … but different!”
30. Where the Wild Things Are
The Saigon Zoo & Botanical Gardens, one of the oldest such parks in the world, shares its urban campus with a wonderful history museum.
26. The Bleak Legacy of War
Ho Chi Minh City’s most profoundly emotional collection is displayed at its War Remnants Museum, where visitors learn more than they wanted about what is called the American War.
Saigon Soars into the 21st Century
Sharing a link from the East West News Service, which published this feature in March 2021.
Travels in Vietnam 