The performance felt inauthentic. The dancers moved in mesmerising synchronicity beneath psychedelic red and green spotlights while the audience watched with phones raised. The dancers wore white traditional clothes and headdresses. The over-produced pre-recorded music clipped occasionally as it blared from the speakers. It was a well-polished cultural show. I felt that something was off …
Author Archives: Will Holland
Underwater Basket Weaving
The drill rig was put-putting in a field of sweet potatoes when Kevin picked up a cylinder of rock and handed it to me. It was surprisingly light, full of little air bubbles from the volcanic rock. A hired team were drilling for water deep below the surface. This July, I had wanted to escape …
Rhapsody of Fire and Water
Exploring the Ancient People and Geography of Tây Nguyên Six years ago this month, I first arrived in Pleiku during the summer break, fell in love with the city and quickly moved there. Now that I’ve moved away, I have summer holidays again, giving me an excuse to return. Having taught near Chu Đăng Ya, …
Cù lao Phố
Recently while surfing the web, I came across an ad for the “Saigon Model Show” and so I picked up my DSLR and went along. It was a great few hours looking at scale models made by locals and one guy from New Zealand. Mostly there were model kits of the Vietnam war which rekindled …
Lũy Bán Bích
You haven’t seen a bad school run until you’ve seen it in Tân Phú, Ho Chi Minh City. Each morning at seven the alleys clog with motorbikes pressing through like sheep herded through a narrow lane. I plan my commute to work to be very early to avoid this rush. Then I wait for school …
Beads in Jrai Culture
It’s been a while since I’ve written about the indigenous cultures around Pleiku, though I feel there is still a lot more to uncover. At the time of writing, I’m in Sarawak, Borneo for Tết holiday. One of the first things that stuck me here as a tourist is the beads. Among indigenous Bidayuh communities …
Saigon’s Tombs of the Tay Son War
Regular readers know the Vietnamese civil wars of the 18th century known as the Tây Sơn wars are one of my favorite topics. Now that I’m back living in Hồ Chí Minh City, it’s interesting to learn how many connections there are between this place and those wars, which it turns out is quite a …
Lương Văn Chánh: Phú Yên’s Founding Father
When I first came to Tuy Hòa, I had vague ideas about funding my travels by writing online. This was before ChatGPT, when copywriter might have been a viable option. I used this blog to practise, read a few guides, and produced some quite bad content including a piece about “hidden gems in Vietnam”, which …
Continue reading “Lương Văn Chánh: Phú Yên’s Founding Father”
Bình Định
Three days after the typhoon, I wandered down to The Social in Quy Nhơn, an expat hangout I’d assumed would still be closed—the street had been pitch black the night before—but it was suddenly lit up like a Christmas tree. We hauled wooden armchairs onto the pavement and sat there in the warm, dry evening, …
Chà Citadel
When I went out of Quy Nhơn city again, this time to visit Chà citadel, I had the most idyllic drive through the Vietnam countryside I’ve had to date. There was not a cloud in sight. The Côn river sluggishly drifted by. Cows grazed at its edge, bamboo leant over the water as if it’s nodding …
