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28 stories connected by this topic.
Environment
Compared to the average Vietnamese, I might be thinking about trashcans a smidgen too much — not just any trashcan, but the infamous penguin-shaped trashcans that are ubiquitous at every corner of our public spaces.
Environment
Everywhere I go in Vietnam, I keep my eyes peeled for the incredible birds that call this country home. Sometimes I don’t even realize that I’m doing it. I scan the horizon above low hills for migratory hawks. I stare into breaks in the foliage for passing buttonquail. I peer into rice paddies, fingers crossed for a cryptic snipe. And, of course, there’s Facebook. I refresh Facebook over and over again, waiting for the arrival of the mandarin duck. Its scientific name is Aix galericulata , which one assumes means “prettiest goddamn duck in the world.”
Natural Selection
I was a teenage cliché. No matter how much I try to rack my brain to find any other personal connection to the incandescently red tree that is phượng vĩ, I keep going back to my middle school crush and that one tree in the front yard of our school.
In Plain Sight
Has Vietnam outgrown Suối Tiên Theme Park?
Travel
I never pass up an opportunity to reflect on chò nâu and its dipterocarp relative, cây sao. The massive trees that gracefully drag bare limbs upwards to unfurl canopies far above our heads were brought from their native highland terrains by the French in the 19 th century and grown in Thảo Cầm Viên Sài Gòn . From there, they were distributed throughout colonial developments, including Trà Vinh. Today, they not only provide shade and beauty but invite ruminations on legacies of nature's place in subjugation and self-determination.
Environment
Curiosity drove me downstairs into the downpour. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the municipal workers — clad in orange-and-green uniforms, their clothes soaked — gathering around a crane. Their attention was focused upward. Following their gaze, I looked up, and froze.
In Plain Sight
Shallow shrub and fern roots tussle to send shoots, tendrils and stalks up and outwards, sprawling across uneven ground and grasping at patches of light. A musky, funky, fetid soil stink emanates from crooks, crevices, and holes ungoverned by grubs, spiders, snails, beetles, and flies. Flowers bloom in vibrant bursts of color amongst vines, the collapsing pulp of decomposing logs and uncompromising boulders; birds trill, cicadas whine, and the air offers its inexhaustible exhale of droplet-rich molecules. We live in the tropics. Often, we forget this. Tao Đàn Park allows us to remember.
Saigon
For years now, the verdant pine green pavilion in the heart of Hòa Bình Park in District 5 has been a familiar landmark for denizens of Chợ Lớn.
Environment
Almost everywhere we go in the world, birdsong abounds.
Travel
An overnight stay in Xuân Thủy National Park, Nam Định Province means potential bug bites, snake encounters and pungent ocean air, but also a rewarding quest into the wild wetlands of northern Vietnam’s coastline.
Vietnam
Authorities are planning to turn the long-abandoned Hồ Thủy Tiên Waterpark into a public space with the construction of a walking path, lighting, drainage system and water supply.
