Cricket song. You read the words and immediately hear the chirping. That thrilling trill of strummed air. Humans have been hearing the quivering echo of tiếng dế since we first came into existence. And over time, we’ve attached a variety of meanings to it and the creature that makes it.

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Written by Paul Christiansen.

Read the full article here: https://saigoneer.com/natural-selection/26694-crickets-are-more-than-just-chirpy-reminders-of-our-childhood

“Asian parents are notorious for their struggle to express love using words, but one only needs to look at their actions to feel that tangible tenderness. A plate of neatly peeled and sliced mango is just as effective as a whispered ‘I love you’ at the end of a call. In Saigon, where enunciated ‘I love you’ are scarce and fruit is abundant, if you don’t have access to lovingly home-cut fruits, I think cart-bought should suffice.”

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Written by Khôi Phạm.

Read the full article here: https://saigoneer.com/saigon-culture/27099-xe-trái-cây-if-you-can-t-find-lovingly-sliced-fruit-at-home,-cart-bought-is-fine

For Vietnamese millennials, our existence on Earth somewhat overlaps that bizarre timeline spanning the two extremes from “what is the inter-web?” to “every minutia of life is online,” so, of the multitudes of sounds from our formative years, many have been lost forever or now can only be found in random videos on YouTube.

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Written by Khôi Phạm.

Read the full article here: https://saigoneer.com/saigon-culture/28199-an-homage-to-the-sounds-of-saigon-past-that-are-going-extinct

The iconic image of cô Mía, whose real identity remains a mystery, was once on virtually every nước mía cart in Saigon. In the past year, however, generic, mass-produced design has taken over local sugarcane juice shops in place of the hand-painted smirk of cô Mía. Is it time yet to add cô Mía to the growing list of endangered species of Vietnam?

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Written by Paul Christiansen.

Read the full article here: https://saigoneer.com/saigon-culture/27249-are-we-living-in-the-final-days-of-cô-mía

In a handful of Southeast Asian countries, including Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar, scientists have discovered fossilized remains of various species of dinosaurs, but not Vietnam — not for lack of trying. Are we just really unlucky diggers or were our prehistoric plains and jungles so inhospitable that dinosaurs said “bo xì bo”?

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Written by Paul Christiansen and Khôi Nguyễn.

Read the full article here: https://saigoneer.com/saigon-environment/28291-the-hunt-for-vietnam-s-dinosaurs-has-found-nothing-yet,-but-there-is-hope

“To a child of a provincial town, newspapers and magazines were the most valuable source of information I could get my hands on. They were my windows to the big wild world out there, unveiling the events happening beyond my tiny town, things that at times I couldn’t quite fully understand, but have helped me learn about the interesting complexities of our society. Those papers nurtured my soul, and have no doubt inspired me in my own endeavors in writing today.”

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Written by Minh Phát.

Read the full article here: https://saigoneer.com/in-plain-sight/28195-i-grew-up-with-print-newspapers-and-magazines-now,-they-re-disappearing

“District 7 is both foreign and familiar to me after five years studying and working here, but stopping by a sidewalk to have a southwestern bowl of bún riêu is not the only thing that makes me miss home.

Here and there, I can sense fragments of my hometown in the accent of the servers, in the way they call out orders, in how they banter with regulars, how they joke around during downtime, the stainless steel tables, the plastic stools, and the giant plastic mugs filled with iced tea. It’s as if my tiny street at home is materializing around me. I see my mom’s figure carrying a bowl of bún from the market home to my dad in the way the server carries orders to our tables.

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Written by Minh Phát.

Read the full article here: https://saigoneer.com/saigon-street-food-restaurants/28117-hẻm-gems-a-humble-bún-riêu-that-reminds-a-child-of-the-mekong-of-home

To explore Nhiêu Lộc Canal, there are two directions curious Saigoneers can take: you can choose to delve into the history behind its founding, as a waterway established in the 19th century to connect with the Mekong Delta, for travel, trade and help control floods; or you can take a short drive upstream to Út Tịch Street in Tân Bình, where the water begins. We chose the second option.

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Written by Paul Christiansen.

Read the full article here: https://saigoneer.com/saigon-environment/26905-charting-the-flow-of-the-nhiêu-lộc-canal-from-start-to-historical-start

In the past, võng was a mark of prestige reserved for court mandarins and rich nobles who could afford to be carried around by servants. In today’s Vietnam, however, it’s often associated with cheap rest stops and countryside homes, which is a shame because the hammock, our writer argues, is one of the most comfortable places to take a nap out there.

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Written by Paul Christiansen.

Read the full article here: https://saigoneer.com/saigon-culture/27366-an-argument-for-why-võng-should-be-a-staple-amenity-in-every-home.

“Piercing through the teardrop monument is a heart-shaped hole. It exists because we are all incomplete alone, incomplete without the care and labor of and for one another, a reciprocity so often unfulfilled. Standing before the droplet, I observe what it reflects. I’m there, tiny amidst it all. And above me, the bright blue sky, still looming large, still looming high.”___Listen to the full article at:

YouTube: https://youtu.be/O5cP4onL_5Q

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7ANeCJeYMqOGvxQezomHv0?si=gYfpQIezTS-1djMLvnqvDQ

Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/vn/podcast/saigoneer/id1879690733?i=1000769811514