August felt like one of those months that perfectly illustrates what our life in Vietnam has become.

There were wonderful meals, familiar faces, renewed connections, a few health concerns that fortunately ended with reassuring news, and some exciting personal projects quietly moving forward in the background.

And as we approach the first anniversary of our move to Vietnam, September is already promising to be very different — because Belgium is calling us back for three weeks.

Back to Rotary – Friendship and Service

After a little break, I resumed my visits to Rotary Club Saigon International⁠ this month.

It was particularly enjoyable to reconnect while celebrating the excellent results achieved during the previous Rotary year and welcoming newly inducted members into the club. Rotary has always been about much more than meetings for me. It is the combination of friendship, international connections and the opportunity to contribute to the community that makes it special.

That spirit is certainly present in Saigon. The club describes itself around precisely those two pillars — friendship and community service — while bringing together people from different backgrounds who share the desire to give something back. 

Having been involved with Rotary in different countries over the years, there is something very familiar about walking into a Rotary gathering on the other side of the world. Different city, different members, different projects — but very much the same spirit.

SORAE – Japanese Delicacy Above Saigon

One of August’s gastronomic highlights took us very high above the streets of Ho Chi Minh City — literally.

We enjoyed both a great lunch and dinner at SORAE – The most spectacular Japanese restaurant⁠, located on the 51st floor of Bitexco Financial Tower — or, as I still prefer to call it, the “Avengers Tower” 😉.

The location alone makes the experience special. SORAE’s name translates into the idea of being “above the sky”, and the restaurant certainly makes the most of its position overlooking Saigon. 

But a spectacular view is not enough to make a restaurant memorable.

Fortunately, the food followed.

The Japanese cuisine was delicate, beautifully presented and prepared with the precision you expect from a good Japanese restaurant. SORAE’s menu focuses on classics including sushi, sashimi and yakitori, with seafood sourced locally as well as from Japanese markets. 

Add a great atmosphere and, most importantly, great company, and both visits became exactly what dining out should be about: not simply eating excellent food, but sharing a genuinely enjoyable moment.

Definitely an address worth remembering — although perhaps not one for anyone afraid of heights!

The Refinery – A Little Bit of France in Saigon

Another very pleasant discovery this month was lunch at The Refinery – A French Brasserie & Wine Bar⁠.

Hidden away in a courtyard on Hai Ba Trung in District 1, The Refinery has the atmosphere of a traditional French brasserie transplanted into the middle of tropical Saigon.

And there is quite a history behind the location.

The restaurant occupies part of Saigon’s former Manufacture d’Opium, built in 1881. Some original architectural elements remain, while the restaurant itself was designed in the tradition of a Parisian bistro. 

That combination creates a very particular atmosphere: relaxed, slightly nostalgic and unmistakably French.

Most importantly, though, we simply loved the food.

Quality dishes, good ingredients and the type of straightforward brasserie cooking where you don’t necessarily need culinary fireworks on every plate. Sometimes excellent ingredients, proper cooking and a pleasant environment are exactly enough.

It was a really enjoyable lunch and another reminder of just how extraordinarily diverse Saigon’s restaurant scene is.

Margherí – Have We Found the Best Pizza in Saigon?

Then came perhaps the biggest culinary surprise of August.

Dinner at Margherí – Authentic Napolitan Pizza⁠ in District 7.

After almost twelve months living in Saigon and quite a few pizzas along the way, I can comfortably say this:

It was the best pizza I have had in Saigon so far.

And there is apparently a good reason.

Chef Ciro Sorrentino’s approach at Margherí is seriously Italian. The dough uses sourdough with around 48 hours of fermentation, high hydration and a mixture of Italian flours, while ingredients are imported regularly from Italy and fresh pasta is made in-house. 

All those technical details are interesting, of course, but ultimately a pizza has to pass a much simpler test.

Does it taste fantastic?

This one did.

Beautiful dough, excellent ingredients, proper Italian flavours and that wonderful Neapolitan combination of softness, lightness and slightly charred crust.

Sometimes the best discoveries are almost on your doorstep. Margherí is in Phu My Hung in District 7, making this one particularly dangerous discovery for us!

We will definitely be back.

A Health Update – From Concern to Reassurance

August also brought two rather less gastronomic matters.

The first was relatively straightforward: getting my teeth fixed. Not exactly the most exciting way of spending part of the month, but sometimes maintenance applies to people as much as it does to everything else!

The second was considerably more worrying.

An earlier examination had identified what appeared to be a hypoechoic area in the body of my pancreas, together with a small lymph node near the pancreatic head. Understandably, when somebody mentions a lesion on the pancreas, your imagination can quickly start travelling in directions you would rather it didn’t.

So I underwent a contrast CT scan of my abdomen and pelvis on 27 August.

And the most important sentence in the report was also the one I most wanted to read:

“No focal pancreatic parenchymal lesion identified on CT.”

In other words, the CT did not identify the suspected pancreatic lesion. The pancreas was described as normal in size and morphology, with homogeneous enhancement and no surrounding inflammatory changes.

That was obviously an enormous relief.

The scan did identify a few unrelated things that will be discussed or followed up with the doctors: gallstones without CT evidence of acute cholecystitis, small cysts in both kidneys and a tiny non-obstructing stone in the right kidney, an enlarged prostate, and findings considered suspicious for mesenteric panniculitis.

So there are still a few items to understand and monitor with the medical team, but after several days of wondering what that pancreatic finding might mean, reading that no pancreatic lesion had been identified was very welcome news indeed.

Sometimes a medical report can contain a lot of complicated terminology.

This time, one sentence was enough to make the month considerably better.

Something Very Personal Is Taking Shape…

There has also been another project occupying quite a lot of my thoughts lately.

A book.

The People I Collected.

Over the years, I have written extensively about work, travel, health, food, family, challenges, recovery and the many unexpected turns life can take. But this project looks at life from a slightly different perspective.

It is about people.

The people we encounter throughout our lives. The ones who stay for decades and those who appear only briefly. The colleagues who become friends, the mentors who unknowingly change our direction, the people who challenge us, the people who help us when things become difficult — and sometimes the people whose importance we only understand years later.

I increasingly believe that a life can be told through the people we collect along the way.

That is the idea behind The People I Collected.

The manuscript is gradually turning into a real book, and I am now working through the less romantic but equally important questions around editing, publishing and how I want to bring it into the world.

I won’t say too much yet.

But this particular journey is getting very interesting.

More soon…

Next Stop: Belgium

September will temporarily interrupt our Vietnamese routine because we are heading back to Belgium for three weeks.

And it certainly won’t be three weeks sitting quietly at home!

There are plenty of appointments and practical things waiting for us, but more importantly there are two very good reasons for the trip.

First, a wedding — always a wonderful excuse to bring family and friends together.

And then something we have been looking forward to for several months: Yaël’s graduation.

After successfully defending his thesis earlier this year, September will finally bring the official celebration. Moments like these are important. They mark the end of one chapter and the beginning of another — not only for the graduate but somehow for the entire family.

Three weeks in Belgium will also give us an opportunity to reconnect with friends and family before returning to Vietnam and continuing this rather extraordinary adventure.

Because remarkably, we are now approaching one full year of living in Vietnam.

Where did those twelve months go?

Another Month in This Vietnamese Adventure

August wasn’t about one spectacular trip or one defining event.

Instead, it was about all the different pieces that gradually turn an expatriate assignment into a life.

Rotary friendships. Japanese food fifty-one floors above Saigon. A French brasserie hidden inside a historic courtyard. Possibly the best pizza we’ve discovered in the city. A health scare followed by very reassuring news. A book slowly becoming real. And a family celebration waiting for us back in Belgium.

Almost twelve months ago, Vietnam was still our new home.

Today it simply feels like home.

And perhaps that is the biggest change of all.

Next month: Belgium, a wedding, a graduation — and one year since our Vietnamese adventure truly began.