The Kindness of Strangers

Take a bow world. People, pat yourselves on the back. Goodness and decency flourish. Kindness, laughter and generosity of spirit rule. Like Blanche Dubois we are constantly amazed, warmed, delighted and thankful for the generosity and warmth we’ve encountered from total strangers on our travels. Here are some of the stars of our show, people […]

Dislocated Recipes For Success: Vietnamese Pineapple Salad

Nu Eatery Pineapple Salad (Troy NGO) Serves: 4 Easy Vegan + Gluten Free Ingredients Pickled shallots 2 shallots, cut into thin rings ¼ cup water ⅛ cup vinegar 2 slices fresh ginger 1 ½ tbs sugar ½ tsp salt Dressing 1 cup orange juice 1 lime, juice and zest 1 lime (optional) 3 passionfruit 1 […]

Cà Phê Hooray !

Ca Phé, café, coffee. “Should I kill myself or have another cup of coffee” ? – Albert Camus (seen below beside himself with ennui and existential angst). . To which we dislocated hippies reply, ” Don’t be a silly goose Bert, have another coffee” ! The Vietnamese are serious coffee lovers – from hole-in-the-wall two-seat […]

Who Nū ?

HôiAnese Fusión Café – Nū Eatery Down an alley that if you blink you’ll miss (look out for the coconut shrunken heads stall!), opposite the 50s retro Vietnam Sustainable Space (self-help slogans and an old sewing machine in the window) you’ll find the delightful Nū Eatery. It is so hip now that locals eschew it […]

Spicy and Hot in Da Nang

Dearly beloveds, We’ve skipped through paddy fields, golf courses, resorts and building sites, statuaries and beachfrontage. Hôi An and Da Nang are more or less connected, with just a few dozen acres of rice and chicken runs between their respective urban sprawls. Two final words on Hôi An ( three if you count the word in parenthesis […]

Hôi An – Man oh Man !

Hôi An is an enchanted place, a powerfully beautiful medieval port city that fell asleep 200 years ago and has now awoken, and we, your dislocated hippies, have fallen under its spell. We had arrived a little frazzled from Nha Trang, extricated ourselves from the sleeper bus, and walking like Egyptians, folded ourselves into a […]

Fabulous tribal fashions in Faifoo

Hōi An ( formerly known by Westerners as “Faifoo”) has a marvellous display of photographs and clothing of the tribal people of the central plains and the hills and mountains north west of Hanoi, (the most famous of whom are the H’Mong). We, your dislocated hippies, are not ethnographers and wouldn’t know a tribal person […]

The Frenchman, the Chef and the Gorilla

It’s been more than 60 years since Uncle Ho handed the French a flogging at Diem Bien Phu and the French PM, Pierre Mendes-France decided , (after 90,000 casualties and with huge popular backing), to pull out, leaving behind only the recipe for croissants ( for which we dislocated and ever expanding hippies thank them), […]

Mrs Ha

Hoi An’s central market is a ancient buttery yellow ochre barn like structure with arches framed by wooden lattice, huge supporting beams and a soaring tiled roof. The eaves are ringed by little old greengrocers, their sumptuous fruits and veggies laid out before you like a magic carpet load of luscious greenery. Once […]

The Songbird and the Frenchman

Hoi An continues to deliver the goods. It’s a seething yet strangely soothing melting pot of people, tastes, clothes, ideas and music. Today we met Michel, a charming Frenchman who has lived in Saigon for over 20 years. Michel had been sent to Saigon as a troubleshooter for his firm, the dongs and Francs weren’t […]