There is a particular kind of guest that arrives at a backpacker hostel in a way that makes the staff look up from whatever they are doing. Not because of anything dramatic. Because of the cast. At Footprints in Otres, Sihanoukville, where I worked for a stretch that taught me more about traveller behaviour than…
The bus dropped me somewhere near Tay Ninh and the husband of the center owner picked me up. He drove me to the hotel, helped me with my bags, and left. I looked around the room. There was a particular kind of sofa. There was a heart shaped bathtub. I messaged Robby, my agency handler,…
There is a particular kind of tired that comes at the end of the Vietnamese summer school break. It is not the tired of having done nothing. It is the tired of three months of doubled schedules, extra classes stacked onto regular classes, and the specific challenge of teaching children who are present in body…
By day five of a twelve-day trip back to South Africa, something shifts. The weather is good. The food is familiar. My mother’s cooking is exactly as I remembered it. We sit in the garden in the cool evening air and talk until the night sky fills in above the trees. There is genuinely nothing…
There’s a thing that happens at Vietnamese beaches that takes a while to understand if you grew up somewhere else. The beach is full. People are dressed beautifully. Parasols are open, selfie sticks are extended, and the photographer of the group is working harder than anyone else there. The water, for the most part, is…
It’s Monday morning in Sóc Trăng. Yesterday I sat through 18 IELTS mock speaking tests and a round of primary level exams before that. This morning I cleaned the air conditioner filter, put washing on, walked next door for a banh mi and a coffee, and came back to my laptop. The week’s schedule is…
Midday, Saigon. Nobody’s filming this. Vietnam Is Not Your Budget Hack He was proud of the apartment. Showed the camera every room, every balcony view, every detail that confirmed he’d made a smart life decision. Then, a few minutes later, he was haggling with an elderly street vendor over fifty cents. A conical hat. Handmade….
Two sides of the same coin. “Unbelievably filthy beach. Discarded plastics, bags, straws. Avoid.” “I just enjoyed a swim at Mũi Né’s beach, which turned out to be clean and stunning.” Two recent TripAdvisor reviews. Same destination, same month. Neither person is lying. That’s the thing about Mũi Né that nobody quite manages to explain….
People ask this question and expect a simple answer. Vietnam is safe. Thailand is safe. Cambodia requires more attention. That’s the short version, and it’s not wrong. But after seven years living in Vietnam, not visiting, living, I’ve noticed something the safety indexes don’t capture. Vietnam looks the least safe of the three. The traffic…
Same Streets, Different Worlds: Watching the Star Lanterns Go Up in Sóc Trăng The yellow flowers come down. The star lanterns go up. It happens in the same shops, on the same streets. The Tết decorations barely have time to gather dust before the next cycle begins. If you live in Sóc Trăng long enough,…
