2017 - our year of travel in video

Future Saigon

We started the year considering the big Saigon questions - Is this a necessary period of congestion and chaos after which a modern, attractive and functional city will emerge? Or is Saigon facing ongoing planning chaos, increased pollution and congestion with losses of public space and falling liveability?

The jury’s still out. But the heritage losses continued to mount in 2017.





A heritage resort that may never be

We travelled to Ninh Binh in Vietnam’s north. By chance, we found the makings of a remarkable heritage resort - that may never see the light of day.

Life along the Hanoi railway

We’re not sure, but this video may have started something. It seems that Hanoi’s railway tracks have become something of a tourist attraction in 2017. It’s not hard to see why.

The colonial era cemetery

I’ve been a cemetery chaser for as long as I’ve been a traveller. This has to be one of the most fascinating cemeteries in Vietnam. Outside of Danang on the Son Tra Peninsula, it holds the graves of French and Spanish soldiers killed in the failed attempt to capture Danang in 1858. Most foreign graves were removed from Vietnamese soil after 1975. But the foreign casualties from the first serious French attack on Vietnamese soil, the precursor to colonisation, remain undisturbed here.

Vietnam’s coolest ruin

I first stumbled across this incredible ruined monastery in Dalat. It's one of the most amazing ruins I've come across in Vietnam.

Street food in Hanoi - random street, random dishes

Took a walk down a random Hanoi street to feast on its culinary delights. Was a great time. The beautiful couple at the end stole the show.

Craft beer in Saigon

Saigon’s craft beer thing continues to go mad. We went to a packed craft beer festival to try and work out whether the craft beer contagion has spread to the local population yet?

Two Banh Mi stalls in Hanoi

I checked out two banh mi stalls in Hanoi's old quarter. One is among the oldest in the city. The other, a new arrival, is armed with a high TripAdvisor ranking.

Saigon’s historic rooftop

During the Vietnam War it was known as the Pittman apartments - a CIA residence in downtown Saigon. On 29 April 1975, as the US war in Vietnam came to a humiliating close, war photographer Hugh van Es captured a shot of the chaotic helicopter evacuation featuring the Pittman apartments rooftop. The photo went on to become a symbol of the panicked US evacuation and a decade-long military catastrophe. I returned to the Pittman rooftop with US author and academic Larry Berman. In 42 years, it has barely changed.