I live in Viet Nam and are married into a large Vietnamese family. There are a few things that I dislike no matter where I am but there are really only a couple of things I dislike that seem to be Vietnamese.
Food
I know everyone raves about Vietnamese food. Tourists eat in the five star restaurants and love the food. They are eating Vietnamese food that has been prepared to suit Western tastes. It’s almost impossible for us local carnivores to buy decent beef, at least here in Nha Trang. The hotels get it all. I swear the beef in the markets comes from water buffalo that have died after pulling a plow for 20 years. Both the street and supermarket butchers feel their role is simply to chop big pieces up into small pieces. Even large chain stores like Lotte and Big C don’t have a choice of steaks or roasts. The reason is simple. There is only one way to cook the beef so it is edible and that’s boil it for a couple of hours.
Of course you can always try Vietnamese specialty foods:-
Garbage
I live on an island in the Cai River which seems to be used as a garbage dump for plastic refuse. The river that is, not the island. At no time is there not garbage floating down the river past my house and the Mekong is way worse. I clean up around five garbage bags a week of garbage that floats up around my patio. I understand the government is starting to take steps to clean the mess up. Hopefully their efforts will be successful. I think it embarrassed a few officials when tiny Viet Nam was identified as one of the five countries that contribute over 60% of the trash in the oceans of the world.
I am an attorney in the Washington DC area, with a Doctor of Law in the US, attended the master program at the National School of Administration of Việt Nam, and graduated from Sài Gòn University Law School. I aso studied philosophy at the School of Letters in Sài Gòn.
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I have worked as an anti-trust attorney for Federal Trade Commission and a litigator for a fortune-100 telecom company in Washington DC.
I have taught law courses for legal professionals in Việt Nam and still counsel VN government agencies on legal matters.
I have founded and managed businesses for me and my family, both law and non-law.
I have published many articles on national newspapers and radio stations in Việt Nam.
In 1989 I was one of the founding members of US-VN Trade Council, working to re-establish US-VN relationship.
Since the early 90's, I have established and managed VNFORUM and VNBIZ forum on VN-related matters; these forums are the subject of a PhD thesis by Dr. Caroline Valverde at UC-Berkeley and her book Transnationalizing Viet Nam.
I translate poetry and my translation of "A Request at Đồng Lộc Cemetery" is now engraved on a stone memorial at Đồng Lộc National Shrine in VN.
I study and teach the Bible and Buddhism. In 2009 I founded and still manage dotchuoinon.com on positive thinking and two other blogs on Buddhism.
In 2015 a group of friends and I founded website CVD - Conversations on Vietnam Development (cvdvn.net).
I study the art of leadership with many friends who are religious, business and government leaders from many countries.
I have written these books, published by Phu Nu Publishing House in Hanoi:
"Positive Thinking to Change Your Life", in Vietnamese (TƯ DUY TÍCH CỰC Thay Đổi Cuộc Sống) (Oct. 2011)
"10 Core Values for Success" (10 Giá trị cốt lõi của thành công) (Dec. 2013)
"Live a Life Worth Living" (Sống Một Cuộc Đời Đáng Sống) (Oct. 2023)
I practice Jiu Jitsu and Tai Chi for health, and play guitar as a hobby, usually accompanying my wife Trần Lê Túy Phượng, aka singer Linh Phượng.
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CVD 