Thang Nguyen 555

Cultures on Collision Course

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With some short-term relief work in Asia/Africa and long stint in Telecom, Thang also earned a B.A. at Pennsylvania State University. M.A. in Communication at Wheaton Graduate School, M.A. in Cross-Cultural Communication at Gordon-Conwell Seminary, Boston. In addition, he earned a CELTA – classes taken in Hanoi for cultural re-immersion.

Tag: Ho Chi Minh City

  • Jazzy Saigon

    I attended Quyen Thien Dac and the Nilsson Trio (Jazz) performance a while ago. Cultural exchange. But “fant” or on-the-dime invention is not new here.  Saigon traffic has already been jazzy, zigzagging at every turn. I was with friends. He himself brought an ensemble of jazz men to Vietnam a while back. Mighty proud of my friend…

  • torn between two places

    Yahoo News had a piece about Diaspora, the return. It features Mrs Nguyen Cao Ky, who is now a proud owner of a Pho restaurant in former Saigon.  She said to have spent a few months in the US, and the rest in Vietnam. Other Viet Kieu expressed similar sentiment: “when I am here, I…

  • The Vietnam that could and will

    You can feel it. The energy, aspiration and action. I haven’t seen an idle person here in Saigon. Even people with great disabilities crawl on their hands and knees, through rough and uneven gutters to sell lottery tickets or variety of snacks. Everybody is proud of their native son: Ngo Bao Chau, math genius. The country is…

  • Saigon heat

    Rain and heat, the yin and yan of Saigon. I saw sugar donuts on sale, so I thought of my niece who used to love those melted brown sugar donuts. I tried one. It chipped away my tooth, which happened to be the base  for neighbouring crown. So I had to plant back all three. Costly…

  • Flamencing Vietnam

    The rhythm. The ambience. And the audience at Carmen. Different breed. Different beat. The Vietnamese singer tried hard at rolling her Latin “R”‘s, just like her predecessors at the French “un”, or the English “you”. Vietnam, and Saigon in particular, has  always been a mix of culture: Cuban band on Caravelle terrace or Carmen Club nearby.…

  • butterfly in the sky

    Amidst traffic and smog, a black/yellow butterfly dances its way through the intersection, bouncing from motor bike to motor bike. I shouldn’t have paid too much attention to the creature. I need to worry about my safety. But it struck me as odd. All concrete in the city with only few trees left in old…

  • Saigon in motion

    A couch floats down the river right pass Bong Bridge a while ago. As of this edit, there was a “hot” clip about police trying to stop a girl from jumping to her death on another bridge. Vietnam still has to battle with forces of nature, (typhoon Utor) and economic pressures  (bad debt). Here, before…

  • India + 1 cafeteria

    I ordered an iced coffee with milk, this time not in the to-go cup. I just want to sit down, and take it all in. No I am not in India. But close. I am in formerly known as Saigon. On the  8th floor. REBOOT CAFE. The LogiGear building. Offshore software testing center. Young engineers…

  • Saigon upgrade

    In 2000, I was sitting at Cadillac, a semi-enclosed bar, whose band played Hotel California and I Will Survive. In 2010, I found myself at Rolls Royce, which also played Hotel California and I Will Survive. 2013, at Van’s Cafe, its band plays Bon Jovi’s number lacing with Santana’s classics. Nouveaux riches, yetl good oldies. The expats…

  • Et pourtant, I think of French bread

    This guy, Thomas Huang, went searching for a chocolate eclaire in Saigon, and ended up having his article in the Dallas Morning News http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/fea/travel/thisweek/stories/DN-vietbread_0711tra.ART.State.Edition1.4fb9c7b.html I sat next to a business man from Dallas on my recent trip to Vietnam. He and his partners were into real estate. And the amazing thing was, while his partner…