Mark Barnes 
This article first appeared in the Earth Island Journal. In Vietnam’s Red River, navigating the space between environmental conservation and cultural preservation can be trickier than it first appears. On a chilly, gray January morning in Hanoi, Vietnam, a local development worker named Anh Ngoc Thi Nguyen volunteered at a river clean-up at the Red … Read more
This article was first published in Tricycle Magazine Thich Tinh Giac wants to educate his Vietnamese neighbors about the ecological impact of religious rites. Not far from Hanoi, Vietnam, off a long road that winds through plush green rice fields and banana plantations, sits Chua Phuc Son, a small pagoda in a quaint district called Gia … Read more
This article was publish in the Hanoi Times. Short stools have been scattered haphazardly facing a microphone on a stand on what would normally be a step, but tonight will double as a stage. The bar to the side, with its assorted beers and bottled spirits, is brightly lit but the lights at the back … Read more
This article first appeared in Tuoi Tre It’s just after 11:00 pm in Hanoi’s Old Quarter. The steady rhythm of plastic being stacked on plastic, of cheap tables and chairs being hastily packed away, echoes through the dark and crowded streets. In the distance, the red and blue lights of a police truck throw silhouettes … Read more
This article first appeared in the Hanoi Times The blue and yellow logo of the Vietnam Post building basks peacefully in the glow of the slowly lowering Sunday afternoon sun, on the eastern side of Hoan Kiem Lake, the heart of Hanoi. On the forecourt, before it, however, energy levels are high. A crowd is … Read more
This article was published in Tuoi Tre On a rooftop in Hanoi’s old quarter a handful of lanterns, strung above a small makeshift dais, burn bright against the dark of a Hanoian summer night. Beneath them, a tender-brown, acoustic guitar sits idle against a small wooden chair. Beside it a chalkboard advertises the night’s headliners, … Read more