Capitalist Rats meet Saigon Micky

We beetled towards Hoang Sa in District 1 (to check in with the lovely Lunch Lady of Saigon), when we came across a splendid park. Saigon is strewn with lovely green spaces, beautifully treed, gorgeously shrubbed, elaborately flowered. They often have magnificent ceremonial arches, stirring heroic statues and heavy duty exercise gear for the locals […]

Revolutionary Grace under fire at the Museum

We Britons were taught a lovely poem at school about a brave little French sailor boy who refused to leave his post and was subsequently consigned to Valhalla by our accommodating ancestors. It began… “The boy stood on the burning deck, Whence all but he had fled; The flame that lit the battle’s wreck, Shone […]

The Englishman, the Bear and the Whistle

We tumbled out of the train in Hanoi just after 5 am and made our way to a nearby 24/7 tourist eatery called Puku (evidently the Maori word for stomach). There we found eggs and coffee and two lovely English midlanders, Dave and his Dad Neil from Derbyshire. We had an enjoyable chat with them […]

Da Nang: Valley of the Coffee Dolls

We were lying in bed in Da Nang watching the neon sign of the Hotel Miami Beach flicker. It’s all strangely quiet and tourist free. We had expected a bigger badder Nha Trang but there’s not a growling, beetle-browed Russian bear in sight. No bears, but quite a Dragon. Da Nang is famous for it’s […]

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 […]

South China Sea Change ?

Sick of your lifestyle ? All that Western Affluence feeling more like flatulence ? Does ennui concern you or have you given up caring ? Are first world problems getting you down ? You, my friend, may well need a sea change ? How about buying a second hand bookshop in beautiful Hoi An on […]