A year ago, an American expat messaged me on Instagram: “Is Phường 19 in Bình Thạnh your ’hood, too?” I had to check Google Maps. It wasn’t. …

Pandemic, or no pandemic, you guess the man who leans in real close has always leaned in real close. You’re pretty sure (like… 92.5% sure?) …

Sometimes I get to thinking about those rare old times of early 21st century Hanoi. How about you, buddy? Nah, I’m not talking about the dizzying highs like when I fell in love 12 times in the space of an afternoon without even getting off my motorbike, or when you…

I am not going to Danang in the morning. I’m not the only one. Vietnam’s Most Live-able City™️ has had a COVID-19 flare up. Three people are infected (and one in Quang Ngai). Doesn’t sound like much but they don’t muck around in these parts. So I am not going to…

Your father has sent an email. It begins: “You probably saw this but I see the World Health Organisation has issued a global alert warning to health authorities worldwide following outbreaks of a highly infectious respiratory disease in Hong Kong, southern China and Vietnam…” You hadn’t known this but you…

A REFRESHINGLY HONEST PRESS RELEASE TEMPLATE FOR ANY SUPER BRAND THAT WANTS A LARGE PIECE OF VIETNAM’S MARKET STARTING WITH EVERYONE AND EVERYONE’S MOTHER IN HO CHI MINH CITY [PASTE LOGO HERE] HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam [INSERT DATE] — [NAME OF SUPER BRAND] today opened the doors to its…

The year is 2003AD, the month is February; the time just after eleven a.m. You are in a rented house on the non-colonial-side of the French Quarter in Hanoi, standing in the kitchen wearing a woolly hat, a fake North Face fleece jacket, sports socks pulled up over the ends…

It was 2002. My friend and I just wanted to rent a house. We figured it’d be a straightforward affair. But the real estate agent, a French expat, wasn’t convinced. Convinced by us, that is. We weren’t exactly fresh off the boat in Hanoi. I mean, my housemate and I. …

Do you remember the time coins were introduced to Vietnam? For a very, very short period it felt like ‘something’ for a country with one of the least well-valued-currencies in the world. Like, oh, wow, now there’s coins like other countries that have comparatively well-valued currencies! But man, I’ve never…