Hanoi Coming from a very clean country where littering falls into reals of anti social behaviour and is subject to fines I am used to throwing rubbish in the rubbish bin and not on the street. But here in Hanoi there are very few rubbish bins and this is perhaps why most people throw just about everything which is of no use on the street or into the gutter. At times, if I have a larger item I may place my rubbish on a rubbish pile but feel uneasy about it. T...

2014 Aug 6 Saigon-Ho Chi Min City I don't know what it is, or the reason why, but Vietnam has some kind of magnetic influence on me. Again I am spending some time in Saigon and enjoyed the chaos of the traffic. The traffic looks dangerous but is not really- there are almost no rules so everyone is aware of everyone else. They drive on the right hand side of the road but if you need to turn left somewhere it is ok if you cut across 12 lanes of scooter traffic a...

8 March 2014 Oh yes! When leaving a place I usually look back and like to reflect on the things I have learned or noticed. The difference between one's homeland (s) are often vast but over time when you get used to the sights, sounds and smell of a place seem to ebb away. So what are the obvious differences? I suppose it depends on your interests somewhat. Architecture shapes a city, so I guess just about everyone is interested in some degree of architecture. M...

2014-03-14 Phu Quoc Even if you don't know Vietnamese you can’t help but notice that the way they speak in the south a very different than the north although they speak the same language . In Hanoi they pronounce Phu Quoc as Fuh Kwok. In the south they say Fuhwock. Anyway I am on the island of Phu Quoc, The cold is long gone; here it is tropical and 30 degrees. I almost feel like I am at home. Phu Quoc is claimed by Cambodia as their island. When you c...

2014-02-28 Sapa-Tavan (far northern Vietnam) The House A bit of a long story but bear with me… Building regulations are not invented to make things difficult but have mainly to do with structural design and safety. In Vietnam, no doubt larger buildings in cities and industrial complexes are subject to these costly rules. Creating an architectural drawing from sketches and having someone to Project Manage it to ensure that everything is constructed ...