We were greeted by the delightful Miss Audrey Tran and her warm smile when we stumbled upon her groovy shop, Saigon Kitsch, when I was scouting for fashion boutiques and cool new shops for a magazine story we were working on about the renaissance of Vietnam’s southern capital, Ho Chi Minh City. The 26 year-old … Read more
A tall glass of traditional Vietnamese iced coffee is the quickest way to beat the heat in Vietnam. We’re espresso people: we like our coffee short, black, strong, and hot, Italian-style. Yet when we’re in sultry Vietnam we do as locals do, stopping often for icy-cold glasses of sweet and creamy traditional Vietnamese iced coffee … Read more
Interestingly, the subject that seems to most inspire Saigon’s contemporary designers is the past – the tumultuous historic events of the 1960s and 1970s, along with Vietnam’s traditional culture, heritage, arts, and crafts. The story of Vietnamese-Australian designer, artist and entrepreneur Mai Lam is similar to other returning Vietnamese we met in Saigon: after losing … Read more
Saigon has undergone a style revolution in recent years, so much so, that for Asian-based travellers who think nothing of hopping on a flight for a weekend break (or visa run), Saigon shopping, along with its stylish restaurants and bars, are proving as alluring as the historical sights and street life. The Saigon shopping scene is … Read more
Perhaps for the same nostalgic reasons that Mumbai’s locals prefer to call their city Bombay, Ho Chi Minh City, as it was renamed in 1975 after the fall of Saigon, is, we quickly discovered, still fondly referred to as Saigon by the locals. We don’t care what it’s called – we loved it. Although I’m not … Read more