I’ve written before about how the live music scene in Hanoi has improved since my arrival here in 2010: new venues, active promoters and high profile events have helped with this growth, not to mention more and more local and expat musicians wanting to share their talents with the masses. One such artist is Zippy. … read the full post

Nalini Sadai started work for Britain’s Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO) 10 years ago. She started off in London and then, in 2007, moved to Jamaica as Vice-Consul. She’s now the Consular Regional Operations Manager for Vietnam and Burma. I met with her to discuss her consular work and to find out what advice and help … read the full post

Tracey Lister, co-owner of Hanoi Cooking Centre, first came to Hanoi in 2000. Hoping to find voluntary work she was rebuffed by NGOs who didn’t “need chefs” but she came anyway, accompanying her husband, Andreas Pohl, who was working on an AusAid project. When she arrived in Hanoi she met Jimmy Pham, founder of Koto … read the full post

As a way to bring you an insight plus some useful information about Hanoi, I’ve been interviewing people who can offer different perspectives on the city. Given that travel agents get a lot of negative press, I met with Lai, a travel agent well known and trusted within the expat community. Lai is from a … read the full post

In my quest to bring you alternative perspectives on Hanoi, I met with Ian Paynton, deputy editor-in-chief of Word magazine. Word is two bilingual publications aimed at foreign residents and locals in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City and is available free at various locations around town as well as online. We met one drizzly … read the full post