Lunar new year stamps

In an alleyway off Bui Dinh Tuy Street in Saigon's Binh Thanh District, a coffee shop transports customers back to the 1980s in Hanoi with remarkable authenticity "Eighty percent of the café‘s interiors reflect the architectural characteristics of my family in Hanoi in the 1980s. We collected some more antique items to bring the nostalgia and calmness of Hanoi to parkling Sai Gon," said Huong Ly, one of the founders of Lane 160 The café is designed to resemble an alley with several houses and yards, and it does it with a great degree of success. "When we opened the café, we decided to do it for passion, just to create a place for everyone to rest and recharge their energies for the day," Ly said. The handwritten signboard hung in front of the gate says: “Please leave your worries outside the threshold, we only have peace inside.” The café has a green space, and the owners say they are growing typical northern plants there. The traditional Hanoi … [Read more...] about Saigon café takes you to a stress-free, yesteryear Hanoi

Duc Hoang, a journalist The Vietnamese debate on dog consumption has lasted for over a decade now. There is no way we can reach a mutually agreeable conclusion to it, unless, maybe, we look at this “problem” from a different perspective. So far our arguments and counter-arguments have been based on a cultural standpoint. That’s why we’re stuck, authorities included. Hanoi recently issued a statement suggesting that residents stop eating cats and dogs to “preserve the city’s image.” But that was it. That statement failed to address the most important aspect of this discussion: the origins of dog meat sold in public and the health concerns associated with its consumption. Take a chicken egg for example. In Vietnam, even an egg, which isn’t yet a living creature, is subjected to stringent food quality checks and has to be approved by veterinary departments. But that has never been the case for dog meat. Some time ago I took part in a … [Read more...] about Do the civilized eat dogs? That’s a stupid question

Recalling and recounting the attributes that he saw up close as an economist assistant to Do Muoi, Le Duc Thuy, 70, said the former Party leader was key to the success of the economic renovation program called doi moi launched in 1986. While he was working as deputy head of Vietnam Institute of Economics in 1988, Thuy was invited to work as assistant for Do Muoi, who was then Chairman of the Council of Ministers, in effect the Prime Minister, for one month. Later, Thuy learned that he got the invitation thanks to a suggestion by Le Xuan Tung, personal assistant to then Party General Secretary Nguyen Van Linh. Do Muoi, born Nguyen Duy Cong, had asked Tung to find him someone good in economics. Thuy had returned after completing a postgraduate course from the Soviet Union and made up his mind to continue working as a researcher for the rest of his life, he told VnExpress Tuesday. But Do Muoi told him: “It’s up to you. But if I let you sit in a position … [Read more...] about Do Muoi was crucial to doi moi’s success: economist