One of the reasons we chose Saigon, Vietnam, for our SE Asia home base for the next year, is that there are so many places we can explore within a four-hour (or less) flight. However, realizing we are as close to Australia as we’re ever likely to be, we decided …
The Lunar New Year, known as “Tết in Vietnam (short for Tết Nguyên Đán”Tet), which translates as “Festival of the First Day”) began on Saturday, February 10. One of the prettiest traditions for celebrating the Lunar New Year in Vietnam is the proliferation of flower markets. All over the city, local …
At midnight on February 10, 2024, countries celebrating the Lunar New Year said goodbye to the Year of the Rabbit and hello to the Year of the Dragon. The sign of the Dragon is considered auspicious. Birthrates spike in dragon years, as babies born in these years are said to …
We set aside at least one day a week (usually Friday) to find and explore new neighborhoods in our adopted hometown of Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) Some of our favorite finds are the museums, temples, street fairs, shops, and other sites that wouldn’t have been on our radar if …
While we had a fantastic New Year celebration here in Saigon on December 31, The Lunar New Year is coming up in February, and the excitement around Ho Chi Minh City is palpable. The Lunar New Year is the biggest holiday in Vietnam (and in many Asian countries). We’ve been …
I’ve heard a lot of people say Bangkok is nothing more than the city you have to fly in and out of on your way to other locations in Thailand. However, when Mark and I started planning a short trip to Bangkok to meet some friends who would be in …
DaNang is located in central Vietnam along the coast of the South China Sea. With a less-than-two-hour flight from Saigon, we made the trip north and had our toes in the sand in almost no time. Known for its long, sandy beaches, DaNang has a population of more than a …
Under a star-filled, pre-dawn sky, my husband and I sat with hundreds of other sleepy tourists waiting for the sun to rise behind the temple known as Angkor Wat. The ancient, five-spired temple slowly revealed itself as the sun tipped over the eastern horizon. First in shadowy silhouette against the …
There’s a popular Vietnamese dish that, at its base, is a food that was once considered “not good enough to sell.” It’s called Cơm Tấm, which translates as “broken rice”. Broken rice are fragments of rice grains that have broken off during handling. In earlier times, it was considered inferior …
We’re three weeks into our Vietnam adventure, and we have (with the help of our fantastic real estate agent Leo) found a beautiful apartment and signed a one-year lease. With that, we begin our dream of living in Vietnam for at least 12 months.From the wall of windows of our …
