Wandering through Vietnamese culture with Huu Ngoc

"Cơm bụi" (literally "dust meal") is a recent coinage adopted by Hanoians. It means to have a meal at one of those many popular eateries that have invaded almost all sidewalks in the city.

Many foreign friends of mine prefer Ha Noi to Sai Gon (Ho Chi Minh City). They find the latter too mordernised, almost another Bangkok. Its cosmopolitan character does not please them as does the historical ...

In the midst of a vast expanse of emerald water a small island emerges, made up of big blocks of limestone which look as if they had been piled up by a giant. The site ...

It is traditional in Viet Nam that women do not drink alcohol as it is considered to be a man’s domain. One Sino-Vietnamese proverb claims: “A man who does not drink is like a flag ...

An old Vietnamese folk song reads: "The first month is given to Tết at home, the second to gambling, the third to festivities, etc." (The third month in the lunar calendar usually corresponds to April ...

Hoang Dao Thuy, the father of the boy-scout movement in Vietnam and the Signal Corps of the Vietnam People’s Army, died at the ripe old age of 97. He knew Ha Noi like the back ...

"I have never seen in the world a festival as popular as the Vietnamese Tet and with a more humanistic character," writes culturologist Huu Ngoc.

In few weeks' time, Tết will usher in the Year of the Dog. To regard Tết simply as New Year's Day, as one would in the West, would betray a poor knowledge of the people ...

The village in the swampy lowlands extends between the major stream and its effluence, is built on raised ground for in the flood season the fields are under water.

The juvenile public - aged between 3 and 14 - applauded wildly when on the stage the Forces of Evil, sea monsters led by the Water God, were routed by the Forces of Good, forest ...

One day, as we were enjoying together some nem meat rolls in a Vietnamese restaurant in Paris, my friend Francoise C., reminded me of this wise saying by Brilliant Savarin: “La découverte d’un mets nouveau ...

Back from an excursion to Mount Yen Tu our group of Swedes and Vietnamese returned to Ha Noi in the evening, tired but satisfied about having completed the itinerary followed by Buddhist pilgrims over the ...

In his beautiful album “Ha Noi Eternelle”, Renault-Hoang noted: “With its islets of verdure, its lakes with lotus in their banks, its boulevards lined with tamarind and flame trees which cast their appeasing shade on ...

Much of the charm of Paris is owed to La Rotonde and La Closerie des Lilas in Montpamasse, Café de Flore and Deux Magots Saint Germain-des-Prées, and the innumerable small coffee shops along the pavements ...

Visitors to the ancient citadel of Ha Noi, with its stunning artifacts, delightful architecture and heroic history, would be surprised to know that some of the most beautiful palaces and monuments were long ago demolished ...