Temples and Dragons: An Audio Walking Tour of Hoàn Kiếm Lake
What unites a harras of hornless unicorns, the Statue of Liberty and the military strategist that bested Kublai Khan?
Wallpaper*
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10th May 2024
Ho Chi Minh City: Rising Star
"I’ve observed this city transform over the past 15 years. In this story I wanted to couple my own musings with powerful local voices."
Going Places (Malaysia Airlines)
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1st February 2024
Cover Story: Saigon Steps Up to The Plate
"Most travellers' perception of [food in] Vietnam is stuck in the Bourdain era." So what's changed?
Insider
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30th December 2023
One family has been running Hanoi's best fish noodle shop for 20 years. They swear the secret to their success lives in the tree next door.
"It's a goddess. Her name is Bà Đông Cuông."
Lonely Planet
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23rd December 2023
Motorbikes, A Doomed Love Affair?
The motorbike is an iconic piece of Vietnam's aesthetic. But for how much longer?
Going Places (Malaysia Airlines)
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6th December 2023
Fabric Reborn
With the help of a Ho Chi Minh City-based brand, an exquisite, all-but-extinct Vietnamese silk fabric enjoys a revival.
Insider
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29th September 2023
If You Want a Local Taste of Ho Chi Minh City, Book a Night in an Old Apartment Block
As a travel writer who focuses on Vietnam, I visit Ho Chi Minh City regularly and have checked out most of the top hotels. In September, on my most recent visit, I decided to switch things up and stay at an apartment in one of the city's vertical villages instead.
SilverKris (Singapore Airlines)
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18th September 2023
Aboard The Vietage
Perched by the bow-shaped bar, I nurse the last of my mocktail, a liquid rainbow of roselle, lemongrass, mint and passion fruit. The hushed lounge is an unapologetic manifestation of nostalgia for the early 20th century. Rattan blinds and creamy curtains ensconce secluded corners. Dried tropical flowers spring from earthenware vases. As if part of the furniture, two dapper Englishmen perch opposite – though they grumble over laptop screens, not newspapers.
MICHELIN Guide
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14th September 2023
Refugee Turned Banker Turned Chef
Few chefs have a backstory as colourful as Peter Cuong Franklin’s. Born in a war-ravaged Vietnam, Franklin fled the country as a child in 1975, resettled in the United States, and graduated from Yale. He then launched himself into investment banking, a career path that took him across the world.
Going Places (Malaysia Airlines)
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2nd August 2023
Old Flames Die Hard
In a village outside of Hanoi, a new pottery museum offers a contemporary reimagining of Vietnam’s artisanal heritage.
MICHELIN Guide
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24th July 2023
Who Invented Vietnam’s National Dish?
It's complicated, it turns out.
Lonely Planet
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2nd October 2022
Friendly Fire
In 2021, when countries were scrambling for COVID-19 vaccines, villages in Vietnam were pumping out thousand of Pfizer jabs. The world hardly took any notice of how the
1843
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22nd August 2019
Vietnam’s Ghosts Are Hungry for iPhones
It’s 8pm in Hanoi’s labyrinthine Old Quarter and shop-owner Tran Thu Hien places her last $100 bill on the crackling street-side fire.
The Diplomat
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18th June 2020
Hanoi Cafes: The City's Most Important Cultural Spaces
Hanoi, the enigmatic 1000-year-old capital of Vietnam, is a city steeped in legend and layered with intrigue. At the city’s geographical and spiritual heart is the semi-mythical Lake of the Returned Sword, which divides central Hanoi into the chaotic tangle of lanes and alleyways that constitute the Old Quarter to the north, and the grand, tree-lined boulevards that form the French Quarter to the south.
Travelfish
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30th December 2020
Vietnam: Beyond the Stereotype
Vietnam is awash with antiquated and orientalist fantasies. Travel media outlets manufacture nostalgia for a colonial heirloom with crowded street kitchens and conical hat-wearing hawkers. Foreign travel companies overrepresent Vietnam’s beaches as if the country exists to serve sun-starved Northeast Asians and Europeans. And although Vietnam has been at peace for over four decades, American films continue to portray a perilous place reeling from war.
FRAME
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18th March 2021
Are Mashrabiya Facades Making a Comeback in Hanoi?
Looking at Hanoi’s aspirations for the future is like examining the mistakes of its counterparts in the present. Rather than forge a new cityscape and avoid the mishaps of Bangkok and Manila, Hanoi seems set to emulate these traffic-clogged, glass-obsessed and heat-choked dystopias.
Chao Hanoi
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18th September 2020
Heritage Repurposed
A blast of thunder detonates over the Hanoi Old Quarter, declaring the imminent arrival of an autumn shower. Specks of water fall like pin pricks as I squeeze through Trung Yen Alley, a narrow ribbon of road linking Hang Be Market with Dinh Liet Street.
Interior Design Magazine
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11th March 2022
Bridge to Tomorrow
The Chao Phraya, Thailand’s major river, meanders through the center of the country, linking the ruins of the former capital, Ayutthaya, to the current one, Bangkok, about 50 miles to the south. The legendary waterway, which has nurtured Thai civilization for centuries, is what inspires—and flows around—Sala Bang Pa-In, a new island re- sort by Department of Architecture, the firm’s second project for the Sala Hospitality Group, a regional chain of nine luxury hotels, spas, and boutique properties.
Hidden Compass
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12th January 2022
A House of Many Hues
Burnt incense flavors the air before drifting away and dissipating in the mist. Monks in saffron robes chant tirelessly, in unison. Magenta orchids and marigold lilies adorn an altar draped in crimson fabrics.
ICON
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3rd June 2021
Verdant Vietnam
Across the world, biophilic architecture is in full bloom as firms theatrically intertwine buildings with nature. But in Vietnam, architects are harnessing biophilia more quietly.
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