Merry Christmas!

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• Chuc mung nam moi!

  We have entered the Year of the Dragon. For Vietnamese people, the first few days of lunar January are the most important days of the year as they set the tone for the entire year. My Dragon Year started out at Bumrungrad Hospital, where I underwent sinus surgery bright and early on the first day [...]

• anphuneighbours

  The Saigon neighborhood in which I live - An Phu - has an expat Googlegroup message board called “An Phu Neighbours”. People post notices about events, stuff to buy and sell, and warnings and recommendations. The site gives a hilarious view into expat life, with people falling into heated (and usually retarded) arguments and asking [...]

• Nung Love

  This morning I came upon a couple of lines in a traditional Nung song and was inspired to find out more about this ethnic group. Apparently, the Nung are Vietnam’s sixth largest ethnic minority group, with around 900,000 people. They live in the mountains of northeast Vietnam. Here are the lines that caught my attention: [...]

• Tempest in a nail-polish bottle?

  My daughter, who is almost 3, is obsessed with all things pink. I recently bought her some pink sparkly nail polish and painted her toenails. Not surprisingly, my 4.5 year-old son demanded the same treatment. I found myself steering him towards a “more masculine” color - dark blue, and painted his digits. In the past [...]

• Beach rules

  Overall, I really like the Ho Tram Resort, which lies around two hours from HCM City. But given that it’s a four-star resort, you’d think that they could get their English-language signs sorted out. Of all of their “Beach Rules” my favorite was the one barring lepers from swimming! Has this been an issue for [...]