The Art of Stepping Aside If you missed Part 1 I usually fly back to South Africa every second year to see my parents. It’s the longest break I get, long enough to feel like time actually stretches instead of just pausing. Vietnam has public holidays scattered through the calendar, but most of them only…
Between two new years in Vietnam I woke up on January 1st with ”Xuân Đã Về”, a popular Tết song, playing at full blast in the coffee shop next to my house in Sóc Trăng, and for a moment I forgot what year it was. Not hungover. Stranger than that. As if the year itself…
Photographing Vietnam: Regions and Seasons I learned fairly quickly that Vietnam doesn’t offer a single “best time” to photograph it. The country stretches far enough north to south that weather at one end often has little to do with the other. That sounds obvious until you try to plan around it and realize there is…
Your camera and you. Navigating the Social Rules of Vietnam I’m not a professional photographer, and I didn’t arrive in Vietnam with a project in mind. I learned by walking, by watching, and by keeping my camera down more often than I lifted it. At first, the rules felt obvious and invisible at the same…
A few things 8 years in Vietnam has taught me. The first time I crossed into Vietnam, I didn’t land at some shiny terminal in Da Nang or Saigon. I literally walked across the Mộc Bài land border in April 2018, dragging my entire life in a suitcase from Cambodia. The heat hit me first….
What I Learned the Hard Way About Moving To Vietnam. Here’s how I actually arrived in Vietnam, and yeah, it wasn’t pretty. In April 2018 I crossed the border at Mộc Bài from Cambodia at a time when everything in my life felt like it was coming apart. I had just been hit with a…
The Stone and the Spirit If you missed Part 1 Con Dao is a place of haunting beauty and unbroken spirit. In Part 2 of my cycling journey, I park the bike to face the island’s stone history—from the French “Tiger Cages” to the American era. This is a story of resilience, respect, and the…
These are the moments between destinations. Small, quiet scenes that don’t announce themselves, but linger long after the ride ends. Tet on Two Wheels: The Con Dao Run The Mission: Escape the mainland for Tet 2025. No motorbike rentals. No taxis. Just a mountain bike, a desire for open roads, and quiet beaches. The Vibe…
When the River Becomes the Destination While most travelers in Vietnam instinctively point themselves toward the coast, something quieter has been unfolding inland. In 2025, An Giang unexpectedly climbed to the #2 spot on Google’s Year in Search for domestic travel, drawing attention away from familiar beach names and toward the waterways, forests, and sacred…
Chaos & Calm: A Local’s Guide to the Ok Om Bok Festival in Sóc Trăng My first year in Sóc Trăng, a local friend turned to me in late October and said, “Let’s go look at boats.” I pictured something modest—wooden canoes drifting down the river, maybe a few families watching from the shade. Instead,…
