Vietnam

What to buy and where to buy it in Hanoi I travel a lot and I am tempted by so many stunning Asian goods and textiles. When in a country which has a famous good, e.g. Sri Lanka’s Ceylon Tea, Chinese Silks, Thai teak, etc. it is a wonderful reminder of the trip to bring something ...

Ah Bia Hoi. No trip to Northern Vietnam is complete without at least a couple glasses of the stuff. Forget Saigon, 333, or any of the other local beers. Look instead for a small, street-side shop selling locally brewed versions of this light drink. Bia Hoi means simply “fresh beer”. It’s unpasteurized beer made daily in ...

A good value hotel located in the heart of Hanoi’s Lake District Everyone agrees the Sofitel Metropole Hotel in Hanoi is the nicest, most luxe hotel in the city. But it is also $200-300 USD a night. So it is a bit of a splurge in a city where one can stay elsewhere for $30 ...

Something for everyone at this well-priced Vietnamese restaurant We are always tempted to eat a lot of French food in Vietnam – all the amazing baguettes and well-priced wines and cheeses. These are not easy to find in other places in SE Asia and when you live abroad for a while it is hard to say ...

Visiting the celebrity chef’s signature restaurant in Hanoi Bobby Chinn is one of the most celebrated chef’s in Asia. If you watch the Travel & Living channel, there is no doubt you have seen his show Bobby Chinn Cooks Asia. Beyond that, he is regularly featured in newspaper and magazine articles, recent Sony handycam commercials and ...

  2 days and one night aboard a luxurious boat on Indochina Sails on Halong Bay One of the must do’s if you are visiting Hanoi is a side trip to Halong Bay. I personally have done it twice – once on a bit of a budget and most recently in style on Indochina Sails. Indochina Sails ...

Bahn My: the darling sandwich & craze of the US foodie movement. If you read food sites such as Serious Eats you’d think there was no food more synonymous with Vietnamese cuisine than Bhan My… more so even than the beloved Pho. Is this hipster sandwich as prevalent in Vietnam as it is stateside? No. ...

Four days in Ho Chi Minh City were spectacular. Living in Thailand, the thing that always amazes me is how different Vietnam is even though there are so many superficial similarities…Asian culture whose roots are Chinese, developing nation with a high poverty level, similar cultural customs, etc. But where Vietnam separates itself is with the people. ...