I always wondered what you did with coconut shells once you had drank the juice or scraped the inside. During my travels across Asia, you would often see mounds of the shells stacked up in some courtyard and I just assumed they would get picked up and chucked in the garbage pile. I finally got my answers…

Longitude 80 explores northern vietnam hill tribes looking for great hikes and village markets.

One of the most iconic buildings in Saigon is the Central Post Office, on what I call the “Cathedral Square”. Many of the tour guides attribute the building design to Gustave Eiffel which must have really pissed off the actual real designer, Alfred Foulhoux. Eiffel had all the prestige and his company had indeed designed some of the bridges in Saigon but Foulhoux oversaw the overall construction and design mixing gothic and renaissance details in vogue at the time of construction between 1886-1891…

Like so many hotels across Asia, arriving into La Résidence driveway is like coming home. This is one of my favorite hotels in Vietnam and how I wished one day I could come here on holidays. What strikes our guest upon arrival is the “mansion feel”, this is not like a hotel. The ground floor is huge with many alcoves, a great bar area and superb boutique gift shop where I have witnessed some serious amount of money spent upon check out….