Tet – The biggest festival for Vietnamese. It’s time for union, celebration and having fun. Tet also changes the people conversation, people often ask each other like ‘How are you preparing for Tet?’, ‘How big is your Tet?’ or ‘How many square cake will you make?’ or ‘How much do your children give to you?’. Those all express the excitement of Tet,…

Weird isn’t it? But that’s what local people call it here in Hanoi (Phở Quát). It arises a big concerning about service culture in Hanoi and some other parts in Vietnam.

Let me explain a bit for someone who has not been familar with life here in Hanoi, ‘Shouting Noodle Soup’ stands for noodle shops (very popular breakfast dish in all over Vietnam) that the owner treat their staffs and customers by shouting at them with different level of bad language (sometimes they really swear to…

Beauty is said to be ‘in the eye of the beholder”.  Someone from the West may think Julia Roberts is charming.  She certainly may be, but some of the older generation in Vietnam may think differently.

I have a friend who broke up with his girl just because of a comment from his Mum about his girl’s high cheekbones.  The Vietnamese think that a girl like that will bring bad luck to her husband – and may even bring death to him!  The round face shape represents…