For Vietnamese, Ben Tre is famous for its coconut candy. For baby boomer western tourists, Ben Tre is the city that US troops "destroyed" to "save" in fierce conflict in 1968.
Happily, coconuts abound in modern day Ben Tre and there are few signs of the terrible battles that wrought such misery here four decades ago. Ben Tre is a great place for a short one night foray into the Mekong Delta, or a good starting point for an extended expedition to include other places like Tra Vinh, Vinh Long and Can Tho.
A new bridge across the Mekong River opened just a few years ago and brought Ben Tre within easy reach of Saigon for the first time. Travellers have been reasonably slow to discover Ben Tre and while there's not a lot happening here, it's a good spot for exploring the Mekong river, the surrounding orchards and it boasts a charming waterfront with some old Chinese shophouses and warehouses.
Not surprisingly, Vietnam is a nation of war memorials. What is surprising though is that Vietnam probably has fewer memorials than many countries that have suffered far less in war. On the banks of t...
While My Tho is at the epicentre of mass tourism to Vietnam's Mekong Delta, the smaller towns of Ben Tre and Tra Vinh retain a character long lost there. In this photoblog, we travel through these tow...
It's just possible that the good people behind the Hanoi Elegance 4, 3 and 2 hotels in Vietnam's capital have conquered the art of hotel management and have created as close to perfect an accommodatio...
Joel Brinkley, Pulitzer prize winner and former New York Times correspondent has created a stir with offensive comments about Vietnamese eating habits.
AO Show, currently running at Saigon's Opera House, fuses circus, dance and music in a refreshing and vibrant cultural performance. In this video, director Tuan Le discusses the show.
This week, 30 April marked the 38th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. Back then, thousands of Saigonese and foreigners fled the approaching Communist tanks. These days, a happier evac...
We take a look at the restrained commemoration of war in Vietnam, the surprising presence of memorials to the country's erstwhile invaders and ask who was Roy Thompson?
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