Writing for a living

I added more links to 'My Other Stuff' -- mainly my most recently published articles on Travelfish. Currently I am working on a guide to Saigon, including where to eat & drink, how to get here, how to get away from here, how to get around when you're here, what to do when you're here, accommodation listings and suggested itineraries. So on Sunday afternoon I visited 12 guesthouses in the Pham Ngu Lao area, picking up cards, chatting with staff, viewing rooms and jotting down notes. Here's my hot tip for the year -- try the deluxe room on the 11th floor at Anan hotel (it's on Bui Vien). It's $40 and it has an amazing view over Saigon.

Once all the sections are complete they'll be packaged into an e-guide, a downloadable pdf. I think individual sections will still appear on the site anyway, for example my Dong Khoi area 'Eats' section. Tell me what you think of it. Of course, it's hard to narrow it down, there are so many places to eat...so I just went with the places that I like, and hope that I have good taste.....! Also recently added was my feature story on Con Dao island which complements the listings I wrote earlier. See the feature here.

Chi & I head to Malaysia on Saturday -- some shopping and R&R in KL. Once I return it'll be on the road to write and update more listings. Firstly, Mui Ne and Phan Thiet, mixing business with pleasure as we'll spend New Year there also. Then, off to Dalat for at least a week to write listings from scratch. After that, Nha Trang, again from scratch. Should be a very busy, but very fun few weeks. So blog direction for a few weeks after Christmas will be veering away from HCMC and focusing on some of the attractive tourist destinations near here -- Mui Ne, Dalat and Nha Trang -- if I get time to post anything at all!