“I only spend my money on two things”, he said. “Sports shoes,” he lifted his tiny leg to show us his spotless, size three Nikes, “and orchids”, he gestured towards the delicate, white and pink potted plants resting on every available surface. We met Mr Mu in his coffee shop, right across the road from…
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The imposing walls of Hue’s Imperial Citadel, a city within a city, loom over Hue. These walls have borne witness to the rise and fall of dynasties, the toppling of governments, the waging and winning of war. Now the crumbling, moss-covered remains of what was once a heavily guarded fortress look out at the modern city…
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I was told that nobody goes to Ninh Binh, which isn’t in itself a reason not to go but went some way in explaining why we found it so difficult to find somewhere to eat that first night. After walking the dark, rainy streets for half an hour or so we settled for a pho…
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“So, this myth”, I asked the tour guide, “about the dragons. Where does it come from? Did anyone ever write it down?” He smiled and looked at me with raised eyebrows, the way you’d look at a small child who asks something cute, like are the sun and the moon brother and sister, and said,…
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Saigon thought it could destroy me once but I don’t break that easily and now I’m back and I’m going to show Saigon who’s boss. If I was making a film of this trip I would have stepped off the train from Mui Ne, flung my backpack down onto the platform of Saigon station…
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I’m on the patio of a stilt house in a tiny Tay minority village, close to the shore of Ba Be Lake in Bắc Kạn Province, Northeast Vietnam and this may be the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. I’ve been sat here for a few minutes or maybe a few hours, you really can’t…
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Hanoi’s My Dinh Bus Station is not for the faint-hearted. According to the lady who worked at the bus station – who was only snappy with us because she worked in a bus station – the bus we needed to take, the once-a-day local minibus that would take us way up north to Ba Be National…
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