Discussing - Ola88

Three Regions' Specialties & Country Gifts - Part 3: Southern Specialties

15/08/2026
4,959

Culture & Cuisine - Regional specialties - Ola88's cross-Vietnam specialty discovery journey has finally reached its destination. The final region we visit is the South; Saigon and the Southwestern provinces are not only ideal tourist destin ..

5 Routes Every Backpacker Should Experience at Least Once in Vietnam

03/09/2026
5,139

Marketplace & Classifieds - Tours - Young people are becoming increasingly passionate about backpacking, because the further you travel, the more captivated you become—discovering the sheer beauty of the country, meeting kind-hearted ..

Discover 6 Characteristic Traditional Craft Villages of Quang Nam Province

03/09/2026
4,915

Travel & Backpacking - Tips & sharing - Hoi An is an ancient town in Quang Nam Province recognized as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site in 1999. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Hoi An was one of the busiest trading ports in Vietnam, w ..

Rohonc Codex: The Strange Manuscript with Hundreds of Unidentified Symbols

09/09/2026
4,942

World - Mysteries & the bizarre - An illustrated book transferred to the library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1838 contains a dense, unidentified system of symbols, with its author, language, or reading direction still un ..

How to cook pho bo at home: a clear broth, fragrant and sweet from the bones

15/09/2026
4,889

Culture & Cuisine - Cooking guides - A good bowl of pho bo does not need an over-rich broth or a heavy hand with the sugar. What you want is a clear liquid with a deep sweetness drawn from bones and meat, the scent of charred onion and ..

How to cook thit kho tau: tender rich pork, a clear sauce and eggs that stay soft

13/09/2026
4,639

Culture & Cuisine - Cooking guides - A good thit kho tau has square pieces of pork that keep their shape, tender lean meat and fat that has turned translucent without being cloying; the eggs take on colour outside while the yolks stay ..

How to cook ca kho to: deep flavour, whole pieces of fish and a glossy sauce

12/09/2026
4,749

Culture & Cuisine - Cooking guides - A good ca kho to is more than fish with an attractive brown colour. The pieces have to stay whole, the flesh just cooked and still moist, the sauce lightly glossy but not thick and gluey, and the ba ..

Staying and eating in Tam Coc: how to choose a base that fits your Ninh Binh trip

15/09/2026
4,758

Travel & Backpacking - Restaurant & hotel reviews - Tam Coc offers many kinds of accommodation, from guesthouses inside residential areas to homestays looking out over the fields and resorts with everything self-contained. This piece does not promote ..

The Tay table in north-east Vietnam: five-coloured sticky rice, khau nhuc and stilt-house memory

16/09/2026
4,934

Culture & Cuisine - Regional culture - The Tay table in north-east Vietnam is built from sticky rice, forest greens, meat, stream fish, local seasonings and the rhythm of the farming year. Five-coloured sticky rice and khau nhuc are the ..

The southern Vietnamese table: open-handed flavour from sour soup, braised fish and a basket of garden greens

20/09/2026
4,796

Culture & Cuisine - Regional culture - The southern Vietnamese table tends to impress through its openness: a pot of sour soup, braised fish, a plate of greens and a bowl of dipping sauce set in the middle for everyone to share. The swee ..

From a greeting to a liveable neighbourhood: connecting with neighbours while keeping your privacy

21/09/2026
4,939

Miscellany - Life around us - Relationships with neighbours rarely begin with something big. A regular greeting, a heads-up before building work, or taking in a parcel can build a thin but important layer of trust. Closeness tha ..

Japanese washoku: a philosophy of the seasons and the art of balance at the table

15/09/2026
4,944

World - World food culture - Washoku is not simply a list of familiar Japanese dishes. It is a way of watching the seasons, choosing ingredients, combining colours and arranging a meal so that it feels harmonious. A tray that l ..

Mezze culture in the eastern Mediterranean: when the table becomes a space for sharing

19/09/2026
5,043

World - World food culture - Mezze is a way of eating built from many small plates set in the middle of the table, where the conversation and everyone's presence matter as much as the food. From hummus and dressed vegetables to ..

Nam Dinh's grandest hotel of the 1920s, as it stands today

18/06/2026
4,876

Miscellany - Life around us - Few people know that in the middle of Nam Dinh there still stand the traces of a Vietnamese-owned hotel, the most luxurious in the city during the 1920s. Hotel Nam Viet on Tong Van Tran street was o ..

What can you eat in Hanoi for a day on a budget of about 300,000 dong?

17/09/2026
5,130

Culture & Cuisine - Regional specialties - Three hundred thousand dong is not a fixed figure for every occasion, but it is enough to plan a day of eating in Hanoi with breakfast, lunch, a light bite and dinner — provided you pick modest plac ..

Tuong Ban of Hung Yen: from soybeans and toasted glutinous rice to the taste of the northern delta

18/09/2026
4,976

Culture & Cuisine - Regional specialties - Tuong Ban is a thick amber-brown sauce, salty and sweet at once, with the fermented aroma characteristic of Ban Yen Nhan in Hung Yen. From soybeans, glutinous rice, salt and water, the makers build ..

Ninh Binh in two days and one night: an itinerary that is enough for a first visit

18/09/2026
5,059

Travel & Backpacking - Tips & sharing - Two days and one night are enough for a first-time visitor to take in the limestone landscape, one boat trip and the historical depth of Ninh Binh — as long as you do not try to fit Trang An, Tam Co ..

How do you review a hotel to tell whether it is really worth the money?

19/09/2026
4,772

Travel & Backpacking - Restaurant & hotel reviews - A hotel worth the money is not necessarily the cheapest or the one with the most stars. Value appears when the location, the sleep, the cleanliness, the service and the booking terms all match what ..

The stories from grandparents that families should record while they still can

20/09/2026
4,921

Miscellany - Life around us - One day the old photograph will still be there, but no one will remember who is standing in it. Recording what grandparents have to say is not a grand project; it is a way of keeping names, voices a ..

Yum cha in Hong Kong: drinking tea, eating dim sum and keeping the rhythm of morning meetings

21/09/2026
4,936

World - World food culture - Yum cha means, plainly enough, going out for tea, but the experience has long included baskets of dim sum, the sound of conversation and the rhythm of families and friends meeting. The meal is remem ..

Following a Saigon breakfast: from banh mi to cloth-filter coffee

21/09/2026
4,996

Culture & Cuisine - Regional specialties - Breakfast in Saigon happens fast but is not careless: a banh mi finished in a few minutes, a cup of cloth-filter coffee dripping from years of practised rhythm, and a low stool that is enough for a ..