“When you live in it, you don’t see it.”My friend said this with a wry smile as she navigated the busy streets of Ho Chi Minh City. I sat beside her, wide-eyed, taking in the sweeping changes of a city I hadn't seen since 2018. I was gobsmacked by the transformation – the brand new bridges, highways, skyscrapers – and I couldn’t help exclaiming and repeating myself everytime we turned a corner into a new district, “Wow, it’s changed so much.”

Amused, she said, “I suppose you notice it because you’ve been away for so long. I live here, so it’s just grown around me, and I’ve grown into it.”

On this WiT Stories, Siew Hoon (Founder, WiT) chronicles her recent trip to Vietnam and how Ho Chi Minh City is barely recognisable since her last trip there.