More articles hit the Word website, plus updates

A rooftop BBQ restaurant I'd highly recommend - here

Street Snacker - Bun Cha Ca Danang. A delicious fish-cake noodle dish - here


Despite being an officially atheist country, Vietnam does Christmas. The big department stores have giant illuminated displays of Santas and reindeer and sleighs and snowy Christmas trees, our local co-op store is playing dodgy covers of Christmas hits and the staff are all wearing santa hats, and the foyer of our apartment building is thoroughly decked out...

Yes, that's a roaring log fire

The "ice-bar"

Our friendly local Communist party's website has a few images of the brilliant illuminations, which include a mile-long boulevard of twinkling flags to mark the 40th anniversary of "reunification" which falls in April 2015 (the Americans know it by another name..."the fall of Saigon"). I'm hoping to get Rosie on the back of the bike, camera in hand, to film this amazing sight for you.

Our friends Geoff and Jane have recently blogged pictures of the various Christmas scenes from Ho Chi Minh City here.


The weather in Saigon is warm and dry, currently 30 degrees (midday). The arrival of the dry season brought with it significantly lower humidity levels so it's much more comfortable outside - it feels rather like those record-breaking hottest days in the UK at the moment.

Rosie's 3 week Christmas break began in style yesterday (lunchtime cocktails in the Mekong Merchant anyone?) and today we're resting and relaxing preparing to haul on our rucksacks once again and get travelling for the next week or so.

As a pre-Christmas treat, we bagged a table a HCMC's number one restaurant, Pizza 4Ps, for tonight - I'm expecting good things - and tomorrow morning (Sunday) we'll be bussing it to Nam Cat Tien for a spot of cycling, hiking and bird/gibbon spotting in the jungles of one of Vietnam's most splendid national parks. After three nights, on Christmas eve, we'll head up to the mountains of Dalat.

1,500 metres above sea level, they say it's the Switzerland of Vietnam, enjoying year-round Spring-like temperatures (roughly 10 degrees cooler than Saigon), sweeping mountain scenery and plenty of homely goodies like cauliflower, strawberries and early morning mist. We've also been promised surroundings that are "even more Christmassy than Saigon".

Stay tuned...