One of my favourite Ice bucket challenges so far. James Quantrill a teacher at Saigon Star International School in District 2, on the beach at Ho Tram, with work colleagues. This water was absolutely freezing. The ice had been cooling beers for about 4 hours. It is a very short clip but the moment of […]

Life as an expat in Asia has many advantages and a few disadvantages (though I might struggle to find more than just a few). Moving abroad changes you, of that there is no doubt. Before I emigrated I was travelling all over the world as a gigging musician anyway, so you would think that the […]

Sometimes even large companies can get things right. It makes a pleasant change to be writing a piece that is only pointing out good things. In this age of hyper-competitiveness, It is sometimes difficult for companies to go that extra yard. As a travel writer I sometimes get great assignments, every job has its perks […]

As the wet season starts to take hold, life is Saigon takes on a whole different feel. Short journeys on the motorbike that were made without even thinking, have to be planned around the weather. Longer journeys are not worth considering, not for me anyway. I need to cross town for work reasons about once […]

When the time came to move on to Hoi An, we tried desperately to get an early flight to Danang, but unfortunately they were very busy. So we ended up being booked on a lunchtime flight. A bit of a shame really, midday flights always seem to leave travellers with a sense of having done […]

I awoke quite excited really, this was the day that we all were off to Halong Bay. Our bus collected us from the hotel at around 8.00am. We met up at breakfast and enjoyed the usual Vietnamese coffee, scrambled eggs and banana pancakes. The weather was frustrating and stubbornly refusing to allow the sun to […]

I recently went on a week long break. I had some friends coming over from England. They had been backpacking around Asia for about six weeks prior to getting to Vietnam, so I arranged to meet up with them in Hanoi, then take a nice break with them. It proved to be a tremendous trip. […]

I went along to O’Briens this week to see The Wanderlusters. I first saw these guys about 8 months ago and have seen them a few times now. I have been incredibly busy since moving to District 2 and kept promising myself that I would go to see them again. I finally did. Would they […]

Living and working in Saigon is, without doubt, one of the best experiences of my life. I simply love it here! My days are a constant merry-go-round of cafés, restaurants, pubs and friends. I use a swimming pool as my morning office and quite often a bar or café as my afternoon office. The weather […]