I hope you enjoy the teaser for my first self-guided audio walking experience of Ho Chi Minh City. The full episode is still in production, but should be ready to go pretty soon! Please give it a listen and I invite you to comment, share, like and give feedback so that I can incorporate your ideas into the first episode before I publish it. Thanks in advance – and keep walking! Matt
Apr 21, 2022•3 min•Season 1Ep. 1
This sporty episode is on-location at Baseball Cage in District 7, a bar with four batting cages, beers and fun vibes. We talk Vietnamese sports and our own tragic sporting careers, followed by an interesting interview with Australian pro-triathlete, Tim Van Berkel, who is one of the world's top athletes in the sport of triathlon. All that and more on Vietnam's award-winning podcast. Also on: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebureauasia Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebureauasia Webs...
Nov 20, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Vietnam's Civil Aviation Authority has submitted a 4-phase plan for the resumption of international flights to Vietnam, and in the meantime, recommends travellers from 15 countries be allowed to holiday here, including those from China, Russia, Cambodia and Thailand, among others. So our China expert, Andy, reveals what Chinese travellers will be looking for in their travel experience to Vietnam, while Mel, our...err..cough...cough...Russia "expert" tells us the hotspots our friends from Moscow ...
Nov 11, 2021•49 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Bars and restaurants are beginning to reopen in Ho Chi Minh City, so Matt, Mel & Andy discuss what it will take for establishments to entice them out of their homes. Also, Facebook and Instagram are tweaking vanity metrics, so what does this mean for influencers and content creators? Then, food trends in Ho Chi Minh City over the past couple of years – which ones are legit and which ones are simply taking the piss?! All that and more on Vietnam's award-winning podcast. Also on: Facebook: htt...
Oct 24, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Season 2Ep. 10
Now that Ho Chi Minh City has slowly begun to open up allowing double-vaxed citizens to leave their homes and travel across districts, we finally get to have co-host Andy Tran in the room for the first time ever! We talk about Ho Chi Minh City's remarkable Covid-19 turnaround that's seen it go from hard lockdown with a 24/7 curfew one week, to bars and restaurants being allowed to open in District 7 the next. In a slightly controversial segment, we call out some headlines and social media update...
Oct 10, 2021•59 min•Season 2Ep. 9
The hard social distancing measures that have kept Ho Chi Minh City residents confined to their homes for the past two months have finally been lifted. Matt, Mel and Andy talk about what they can and can't do until the next directive. Meanwhile, the private company that manages Saigon Zoo has asked both the public and the local government for funding to keep one of the world's oldest zoos open. Then they have a go at creating a short ad each in an attempt to entice foreigners to come to Vietnam ...
Oct 02, 2021•47 min•Season 2Ep. 8
A recent online magazine ranking of the best cities in the world inspires Matt, Mel & Andy to come up with a list of 9 Best Streets in Ho Chi Minh City to visit, which is then followed by a wide-ranging discussion on the value of backpackers in Vietnam and whether they should be encouraged to return as soon as travel restrictions ease. A highlight is the expert comments and opinion by Dr Nuno Ribeiro, a senior lecturer and leading researcher in tourism and hospitality at RMIT Vietnam in Ho C...
Sep 20, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Season 2Ep. 7
Our resident Milliennial Andy gives Gen-Xers Matt and Mel a quick lesson on language they're clearly too old for in a lighthearted segment that includes their suggestions for 2021's Word of the Year before they tone things down to remember the tragedy of 9/11 – 20 years on since the terrorist attacks in the US that shook the world. In this segment they recall what they were doing at the very moment the World Trade Centre twin towers collapsed, which is followed by a quiz featuring some of the wo...
Sep 12, 2021•59 min•Season 2Ep. 6
Vietnam remains under 24/7 curfew, and with caseloads increasing, there appears to be no end in sight for the pandemic. Yet, amid this gloomy forecast, some hope for those of us confined to our homes has emerged as the Prime Minister implies via the media that lockdowns can't go on forever and that the country needs to move on. We also interview Dr Nuno Ribeiro, a senior lecturer and leading researcher in tourism and hospitality at RMIT Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City, about the devastating impact C...
Sep 05, 2021•53 min•Season 2Ep. 5
While US Vice President Kamala Harris visited Hanoi this week with very little fanfare, the same can't be said of Vietnam's military who landed in Ho Chi Minh City to manage the city's Covid-19 crisis. In a true act of winning the hearts and minds of the citizens – especially the hearts – the boys in green lit up social media in Vietnam's biggest town with steaming images of them topless sorting out rations on the streets and in warehouses. Tiktokers, both straight and not, city-wide hoped that ...
Aug 28, 2021•52 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Matt, Mel & Andy provide fresh updates on Ho Chi Minh City's increasing Covid-19 caseload, how the current curfew from 6pm to 6am is affecting the city, and what can be expected with the latest announcement that from August 23, the city will be under curfew 24/7 indefinitely with the military in place to ensure everything goes to plan. Despite arguably the strictest lockdown on the planet, Vietnam is still playing with the idea of a travel bubble agreement with other countries and has earmar...
Aug 21, 2021•54 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Join Matt, Mel & Andy talking superstitions, Pizza Hut and Vietnam's own Pizza 4Ps in Cambodia, the Nas Daily backlash in the Philippines, and what it's like trying to make a living in Vietnam as an influencer or content creator. All that and more on Vietnam's award-winning podcast. Also on: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebureauasia Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheBureauGroup Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebureauasia Website: https://thebureauasia.com Join ...
Aug 14, 2021•57 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Some restaurants and bars in Ho Chi Minh City are offering vouchers as an alternative form of cash flow during forced closures - good idea or not? Meanwhile, one of our favourite neighbourhoods in District 1 is but a shadow of its former self. Our new co-host AT has flip flops on the ground there and he provides a grim-looking snapshot of the alleyway in which he lives. As this is all going on, Aussies in Vietnam are divided over the Australian Embassy's stance on accessibility to Covid-19 vacci...
Aug 07, 2021•50 min•Season 2Ep. 1
The history of Vietnam's largest city has had as many twists and turns as a best-selling thriller. The truth it seems really is stranger than fiction. How did a small group of river pirates led by a man who would become a national hero, emerge from the swamps south of Saigon to become a fully-fledged army fighting for independence against the French? For more information and stories about Vietnam, visit thebureauasia.com
Jun 18, 2021•1 min•Season 1Ep. 27
The history of Vietnam's largest city has had as many twists and turns as a best-selling thriller. The truth it seems really is stranger than fiction. How did a small group of river pirates led by a man who would become a national hero, emerge from the swamps south of Saigon to become a fully-fledged army fighting for independence against the French? For more information and stories about Vietnam, visit thebureauasia.com
Jun 17, 2021•25 min•Season 1Ep. 27
This is my entry for the 2021 My RODE Cast competition! It's a 2-minute teaser for my Blood Debt episode about the legend of a small neighbourhood in central Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Give it a listen, and if you like it, support me by voting for it at myrodecast.com/listen The full episode can be found HERE Wish me luck!...
Jun 05, 2021•2 min•Season 1Ep. 27
1975 and Vietnam was finally at peace and reunified after centuries of fighting for its independence. The victors set about renaming every street and neighbourhood in the former South after national heroes and significant others who helped create and defend the nation. This is how Ho Chi Minh City got its name. Today, in the city centre, there's a small neighbourhood named after a young South Vietnamese university student from the Mekong Delta called Nguyen Thai Binh who at the height of ant-war...
Jun 03, 2021•29 min•Season 1Ep. 26
The charming seaside town of Vung Tau is just a 2-hour drive or ferry ride from Ho Chi Minh City and is typically regarded as a place just to get away from the city for the weekend to enjoy the fresh sea breeze and ocean views. But, in fact, it's little known that Vung Tau is actually one of the best destinations in Vietnam for foodies. In this episode, your host, Matt, introduces you to 5 of the best 'no name' joints to eat local Vietnamese food that you can only find if you're "in the know!" B...
May 30, 2021•13 min•Season 1Ep. 25
Vũng Tàu, a beachside town approximately 100km southeast of Hồ Chí Minh City (Vietnam's biggest city), is often left off the itineraries of international travellers and dismissed by expats as a seedy getaway for men wanting to escape the city to get up to no good behind closed doors. But as Matt and Mel discuss, Vũng Tàu deserves more respect. It's long been loved by the Vietnamese for beach holidays and has arguably one of Vietnam's tastiest foodie scenes, after all, it's regarded as the home o...
Feb 15, 2021•42 min•Season 2Ep. 1
In this long-awaited return of The Bureau Podcast after a lengthy hiatus, The Chief (Matt Cowan) gets Harper’s Bazaar Vietnam editor-at-large Chris Thompson on the blower who tells us whether or not his predictions came true for Vietnam hospitality trends during this weird and unpredictable era of COVID-19. Chris also reveals what F&B trends are emerging and are likely to become a “thing” moving into 2021, and he tells us about one place Saigoners really must visit, especially while internat...
Sep 06, 2020•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 11
With the biggest public health crisis we’ve confronted this century playing out, it's forced us indoors for the foreseeable future. Governments are demanding that we stay home and leave only for essential purposes like grocery shopping or medical checkups. Schools have been closed for most of the year in Vietnam, students aren’t likely to return until at least June and workers in non-essential industries have either been stood down or are required to work from home until further notice. As this ...
Apr 16, 2020•10 min•Season 1Ep. 22
When you think of Italy, you think of great food and wine and great cities like Milan and Venice. In 2018, over 60 million tourists visited Italy, making it the 5th most visited country in the world behind France, Spain, the US and China. Meanwhile, Venice is Italy’s most popular city for tourists with close to 28 million foreign visitors checking out its romantic canals and architecture in 2017. However, sadly, Italy has become the epicentre of the COVID-19 spread, with the highest number of re...
Apr 13, 2020•7 min•Season 1Ep. 21
In this episode of The Bureau Podcast, we're celebrating the first 10 Bureau Bites episodes, our new shortened "pod-bite" series in which we interview a whole bunch of interesting people with a connection to Vietnam. In this first part of two, we revisit the first five stories which delve into the impact COVID-19 is having on travel and hospitality in Vietnam. And for a little added extra fun, we mix it up with a playlist of songs befitting of the stories and the pandemic experience we're going ...
Apr 04, 2020•36 min•Season 1Ep. 10
Vietnam can be quite a perilous place to live. Traffic accidents remain the biggest single cause of fatalities in the country. While the number of fatalities has been steadily falling each year from around 14,000 deaths in 2010 to around 7,600 in 2019, there were still 48 reported traffic accidents that claimed 21 lives per day last year on our roads. Meanwhile, drownings remain the leading cause of death for children in Vietnam. A conservative estimate suggests that on average, 16 people drown ...
Mar 31, 2020•14 min•Season 1Ep. 19
Singapore has been widely praised internationally for its efforts in containing COVID-19 and limiting fatalities to two people so far. But concern is afoot as the number of COVID-19 cases in the small island state has doubled over a 48-hour timespan, with an estimated 200,000 citizens yet to return home from overseas. Meanwhile, the livelihoods of just about everyone in every industry have been hard hit, no less so for people working in the entertainment and creative industries in Singapore. In ...
Mar 28, 2020•15 min•Season 1Ep. 18
As of March 25, the Vietnamese Government reported that there has been a total of 141 COVID-19 cases since the outbreak, with 17 of those having fully recovered already, which leaves 124 cases, with 93 of those being Vietnamese and the rest foreign. It's a very impressive result so far, indeed, although those numbers have risen since this recording. According to the Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister, “the virus is somewhere near everyone, thus anyone may contract it and transmit it to others if w...
Mar 27, 2020•7 min•Season 1Ep. 17
Bureau Bites is a regular "pod-bite" bringing you the latest news from Vietnam and the region. Episode Background The Australian Government has increased measures in its bid to stem the rise of COVID-19 infection rates across its states and territories. They include operating bans on pubs, gyms and indoor sporting venues, cinemas and nightclubs, restaurants and cafes, and places of worship, and include the avoidance of non-essential travel. While the Australian Government has acknowledged that t...
Mar 24, 2020•8 min•Season 1Ep. 16
Bureau Bites is a regular "pod-bite" bringing you the latest news from Vietnam and the region. Episode Background Walter Mason is an Australian author who has been visiting Vietnam since 1994 and since then has kept coming back. He has travelled the country with a Vietnamese-Australian monk, stayed in remote monasteries, and spent six months back in 1999 studying Vietnamese language at the Ho Chi Minh City Social Sciences University. Walter has a lifelong interest in Eastern spirituality (he's a...
Mar 23, 2020•8 min•Season 1Ep. 15
Bureau Bites is a regular "pod-bite" bringing you the latest news from Vietnam and the region. Episode Background The outbreak of COVID-19 worldwide has dominated the news for weeks now with stories of illness, death, economic hardship and isolation. This means there hasn’t been many positive, uplifting, feel-good stories at the top of local and international news feeds. However, recent stories like the reappearance of dolphins in Venice and the visibility of fish in its canals began to catch ou...
Mar 21, 2020•7 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Bureau Bites is a regular "pod-bite" bringing you the latest news from Vietnam and the region. Episode Background In a previous episode, we reported that bars and nightclubs in all of Saigon's 24 districts were to be closed from Sunday, March 15th from 6pm. However, a high-profile case has emerged since, where a British man unknowingly carrying COVID-19 visited a District 2 bar on multiple occasions after the supposed lockdown. It's created anxiety within the tight-knit community and has raised ...
Mar 21, 2020•10 min•Season 1Ep. 13
