Category: Recommended
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Visiting the Bamboo Master at his bamboo farm
Recently, I hopped on the VIP bus heading to Vung Tau. Got off at Ba Ria and grabbed a “xe om” driver (motorbike taxi) to the nearest local bus stop. Then, enjoying the bus ride with the locals. After a while, I checked my phone. Real-time destination sharing in progress. At the endpoint was the…
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MADS – Magazine d’Art De Saigon, A Contemporary Art Magazine
The idea for an arts magazine came at the end of 2017. April 2018, the first issue launched online. 1000 readers within the first month. By word of mouth alone. The magazine is free to read online, take a look at it here. There is also a printed version of the magazine available as print…
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Buzz Escooters – British Engineering in Vietnam
Pat Joynt, the owner of Saigon Scooter Centre, is also developing electric bikes in Vietnam. Over the last 10 years, classic Italian Scooters got converted into electric bikes. The VTronic and the EBretta were the results. Now, the Buzz Escooter has arrived. We photographed the prototypes at our studio in Ho Chi Minh City. …
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5 unique souvenir gifts from Vietnam
Finding something different and unique is a challenge. Mass production, cheap materials and reused ideas you find everywhere. Living in Vietnam since 2000, I have seen the progress and changes to the country over the years. I still believe Vietnam can do a better job promoting its beauty and I wanted to contribute with what…
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Souvenirs in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and what to buy as a memento
UPDATE 3rd January 2018 We no longer sell our lacquer products through third-party stores. Please visit our company website and contact us via the contact form. For regular poster prints, tote bags and t-shirt souvenirs, please visit our online web store. — Traveling to the Far East. The sentence has a magical sound to it.…
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What a difference a slip of paper can make – A visit at the hospital ward, Nguyen Du Street, District 1
A chain of events. A one year anniversary notification found its way to my inbox. An Expat blog meet-up, always at a new location, and almost always having new people participating. Thus, I met Dennis and his wife, Quynh, for the first time. A random encounter with a touching outcome. They do charity. Several stories…
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Making a difference – If only for a day
Walking through narrow alleyways where even the motorbikes would have their mirrors bent inwards by the walls. Retracing the steps afterwards, we would appreciated road markers left behind on the walls as we are getting lost. A maze within a small section of the town. We are in Phu Nhuan district, 5 minutes away from…
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Meet the Ebretta and the V-Tronic, the electric vintage looking scooters
Saigon Scooter Centre (SSC), have just launched two electric scooters, a Lambretta and a Vespa, perfect for inner-city travel. Speed of up to 60km per hour and a traveling distance of 40 kilometers on a full charge ought to be enough to whizz around town in green style. Patrick, from SSC, brought the bikes over…
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The 24 hours trip to Singapore
Singapore is a great shopping destination and I travel yearly to purchase additional gear for my studio, either from Cathay Photo or Shriro, sometimes both outlets, as the brands I am using are not available at my normal dealer LeDuc in Saigon. I do not enjoy any sponsorship from any of them, but I do…
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SGN Style, a new project sees the light, yay!
A new blog project to promote up and coming creatives in Saigon. The second project to see the light in 2011. The first one is Saigon Creative, the monthly inspirational breakfast talk. Due to internal restructuring, aSaigonCreativeMorning became Saigon Creative and has now a new website address: http://saigoncreative.blogspot.com/ If you signed up on the old…
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To the top of the world, or at least to the 46th floor, the Skydeck at Bitexco Tower in Ho Chi Minh City
Famous cities around the world like to have an observation deck for tourists to see the city in all its splendour. Paris has its Eiffel Tower, with an almost infinite queue, that I passed on the opportunity of seeing Paris from above. New York was different, the former World Trade Center had both an indoor…
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Saigon Creative’s event for April welcomed Tuan from the Propeller Group at Stella Cafe for: Culture exchange. Hip hop New York. Inspired Asian moves. Kung fu.
Sunny Friday morning in Saigon and the Propeller Group represented by Tuan is ready to give a lecture to the early birds. Quite an exchange it was. A cultural exchange. The re-branding of Vietnam. Underground culture. Different from the underground in the past, the ones that everybody knows when you hear the word Vietnam. The…
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Saigon Creative Morning, a monthly serving of fresh ideas, inspiration, coffee & uncertain bakery items
Friday morning came, so did our attendees and our speaker, Dustin Nguyen. Coffee and pastry in hand, people started the small talk. Mingling around, then moved on to secure a good seat before kick off. After a short introduction, Dustin Nguyen pulled out a chair and started telling. An unplugged speech. An honest approach. Just…
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Chuc Mung Nam Moi! Godt Nyttår! Happy New Year! …and congratulations to the birth of Saigon Creative Mornings
A new year and new opportunities. Back to Saigon after a Xmas break to Norway, images to come once the editing has been done. From wonderful Xmas food (extra kilos gained) and visits to friends and family it actually feels good to be back. After two weeks of enjoyment, boredom was setting in. Or, rather,…
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Finding inspiration and the desire to create.
Twitter and its “Tweets” can be addictive once you start following other interesting contributors. Inspirational quotes are just that, inspirational, and they are one of the bits I fished out of my Twitter stream. I started enjoying reading positive statements infrequently. Then I started wanting to keep some of them for reference and I emailed…
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Scandinavian design from the shores of Vietnam.
Asia, the heart of manufacturing these days. Ideas can be created anywhere, however, when the ideas are about to be realized and manufactured, then Asia is the place to be. One of my clients, Fronterra, have their designers in Scandinavia, or more precisely, Denmark. The Norwegians and the Danes have a good relationship. Denmark is…
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“Puppets that dance on water” – Múa rối nước
Showtime. Or so we hope. At the ticket counter they wouldn’t sell us tickets, instead they told us to take a seat and wait in hope. Hope that more than ten souls were willing to spend half an hour to watch an art form that dates all the way back to the 11th century. Welcome…
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“The ‘Net is a waste of time, and that’s exactly what’s right about it.” William Gibson
Spook country by William Gibson. Gibson has always been one of my favourite authors, mostly due to the way he incorporate technology into his novels. I cannot recall where I read it but someone once said that for immediate news read the papers but for future change, read contemporary novels. They are picking up the…