Author Archives: Darren

Mr Pizza is Korean and has just arrived on Nguyen Du street. 4 minutes’ walk from Apollo, Mr Pizza stands where the “Smile” Vietnamese restaurant used to be. Inside, the staff are keen to help, Korean pop TV caresses your … Continue reading →

A visit to Nha Trang seemed like a good idea. Unfortunately, our dreams of lying on the beach, reading a book, dipping our toes in the sea, were shattered by by the stormy weather. Fortunately, drizzle is better than baking … Continue reading →

You may know that when we were in Moscow, I knocked on the doors of the Kremlin and asked: “Is Len in?” In Hanoi, they also didn’t understand when I asked: “Is Ho Chi M… in?” Since our last visit … Continue reading →

When our Russian friends – Natasha and Katya – visited, it was a good excuse to take a week off work and do something we hadn’t done for quite a while in Hanoi… be tourists. In between bouts of shopping, … Continue reading →

On Sunday night I had another award duty to perform – this time to collect a “Golden Dragon” award for Apollo at the Hanoi Opera House. I was quite excited by the fact that I received a flower garland to … Continue reading →

For the past few weeks, Vietnamese have been crowding round their TVs on a Saturday night for one reason only – to see if Mai Huong or Uyen Linh will come out on top of this year’s Vietnam Idol. While … Continue reading →

On Sunday, I thought I’d look at this blog. Nothing published for a bit, but I like to check. And there it was… GONE! Nothing there, couldn’t even log on to my ISP host – passwords all changed. Hostroute were … Continue reading →

Summertime is here already in Hanoi. For me and Jo, summer brings many things. For a start, our school doubles the number of hours teaching kids, so everything gets really manic for about 10 weeks with extra teachers, extra hours … Continue reading →