A Ben Abroad

My Tho is just a short distance from HCMC (less than 40 miles) but it feels like another world. It takes the bus -  Hung Hieu from District ...

David Owen’s amazingly prescient and clear-eyed book from 2009, The Green Metropolis , deconstructs exactly what city planners...

The Reunification Palace is one of the most historically and architecturally interesting sights in HCMC, and it shows. It might not off...

In my last post we heard a bedtime story about the origins of the Vietnamese people (TL;DR: Viets are spawn of a fairy and a dragon, who ...

A re-creation of an apothecary's cupboard, above the stairs. One of the last days of my roommate Elena's time in Vietnam (as a m...

[NOTE: This post goes out to my friend Jenny, who asked me about architecture in July 2013. Excitingly, it's a much more interesting to...

Lisa's Butt in her New Pants approaching the second spire of Crazy House by cement ivy walkway. It makes sense... trust me. Note: T...

Beaches, textiles, cacti, seafood, and old, old, old buildings are just a few of the pieces of the puzzle called Hội An - one of the olde...

Ah, Cambodge! What can I say about you that hasn't been said a thousand times before?! Well, maybe a few words. If you insist, Internet,...

Recently, I visited a place I told myself I'd never go again. On my previous excursion, it was the most depressing zoo outside of Minnes...

The revamped main canal. Ho Chi Minh City's canals are two different stories, which diverge significantly (ha), with many accidenta...

The Buddha statue in Nha Trang Growing up as a pastor's son, I've always found religion and its effects to be interesting and...

It took me a while, but I eventually found this beautiful building - the home of the Central Office of the Vietnam Post. View Larg...

[Note: While I'm processing my first week teaching in HCMC's public primary schools, please enjoy some pictures of a fancy chur...