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: Saigon

  • Random disasters

    I have randomly collected disasters: monk burning, war evacuation, nuclear melt-down, boat people exodus, LA riot and earthquake, 9/11, Katrina relief and lately, my Penn State. Living in disaster zones. Affected by but not addicted to them. So I cherish a quiet Sunday morning…until the Euro soccer game starts. There will only be one winning team.…

  • Saigon vs Little Saigon

    Burger King near the heart of Little Saigon, Westminster, CA is now closed. Burger King at Tan Son Nhut Airport is now opened. Just one of the many striking contrasts e.g. scooters vs wheels nation. Skin coffee vs alley coffee, homeless folks vs lottery-ticket sellers. On and on. People in Saigon have a vague notion of…

  • Saigon siesta

    We used to lie on the floor (absorbing the coolness from the tiles) and listen to “Y0ur Song” , theme of that time’s radio broadcast. That’s my siesta as I can recall. Older brother used Hit Parade, with Elvis Presley  on the cover. My friend, meanwhile, laminated his vinyl album (James Taylor). We have just met over…

  • Joy of randomness

    We move between chaos and control. For those who experience Saigon traffic, the dance takes it to another level: randomness. A tour bus made its final stop in front of a hotel. Tourists stepped down, immediately, with cameras (little did they know, traffic like this is all too common). Rain and randomness. Control and chaos, coexist. That’s just one aspect…

  • Saigon’s nearest beach

    From Saigon, with Russian-made fast boat, you can be in Vung Tau (literally Ship Harbor) in an hour and a half. I made that trip yesterday. Poor man’s vacation. Peace-time R&R. The neighborhood used to be a hang-out place for GI’s, Australian, and every major news agents and double agents. Now the fight has moved on to…

  • Saigon alley

    I left W Palm Beach where some called “paradise” for Saigon alley. Going from beach to bunker, I got a bump up in  the Happiness index. Costa Rica for example has led this chart for quite sometime. Vietnam, according to latest survey, ranked behind Costa Rica. In fact, having moved up on the Happiness  Index, it is de-listed…

  • Saigon Central (Ga Saigon)

    The track is still there. So is the prominent display of coal locomotive. Hard to get there though, tuck in the back of winding District 3 streets. I checked out the logistic and lay-out: upstairs for ticketing, and downstairs with hamburger stores. My sister loves to take train to Hanoi. She grew up reading the Hunchback of…

  • Unlikely place

    Ugliness and evil exist in unlikely places. So are beauty and goodness. A vulnerable butterfly dancing in rush-hour traffic, an innocent child on the way home from periodic check-ups. Life offers us not an a-la-cart menu, but a buffet. Fill up not with french fries and jello. Yet at the same time, eat not in…

  • Saigon Skyline

    Like a scene from Cinema Paradiso (when the film producer returned to his village just to find out his beloved movie house demolished for a parking lot) I too start seeing the skyline of Saigon rising, blocking the old bank where my sister used to work. Another one is being planned next to cho Ben Thanh…

  • Stress and songs

    The audience sang along, occasionally to the shared mike. We will we will rock you. Tonight gonna be a good good night. Even Top of the World which was a relic from the 70’s. A night at Acoustic, Saigon. A night to release the stress. A night to see Rock rules in a whole new generation. The…