Hanging High

Life at the top, washing windows At 7am Bao rides the freight elevator to the top of one of Saigon’s newest high- rises and unlocks the door to the rooftop. His partner is already there setting up the rig – stringing thick ropes around a pulley then across a wooden board, looping and double looping. After 20 minutes of

Read More >

My Life as… a construction worker

My name’s Quang and I’m 42 years old. I grew up in Hung Yen, and I’ve been doing this job for five years already. My first job was working as a motorbike taxi driver in Hanoi, but I changed to construction because there were too many motorbike taxi drivers already. Nowadays, people have their own cars and

Read More >

My Life as…

a bonsai enthusiast You see this tree here? I bought it for VND8 million. If I sell it now I can get VND600 million. If I wait another three years, I should get at least VND7 trillion. See that other tree? It’s almost 50 years old. I brought it home and transferred it onto that rock.

Read More >

The roach hunter

The unusual job of catching cockroaches to sell as fish bait… “I don’t talk about my job in polite company. Most people gag or stare at me in disbelief when I do,” says Nguyen Thi Kim Anh, on her unusual job. As bizarre as it sounds, Kim Anh has been catching and selling cockroaches for

Read More >

Our lives as… ball boys

Two teenagers open up about scoring their dream jobs, rich customers and Rafael Nadal Hoang: I’m 17 years old and I’ve been working here for four years. Duy: I’m also 17. I’ve been a ball boy for seven months. Hoang: Our job is pretty simple, we pick up tennis balls for customers who come to play

Read More >

My Life as… a shoe shine boy

My name is Son and my hometown is Nam Dinh Province. I’m 26 years old. After I finished secondary school back in my hometown, I went to Hanoi to work and I’ve been here for 10 years already. I work for the railway and when I’m not working for the railway, I shine shoes. There

Read More >

My Life as…

….a railway crossing guard MY name is Ky and I’m a railroad worker on the Ha-Hai line (Hanoi – Hai Phong). I’m 50 now and I’ve been working this job for 20 years. I was originally an army man, but then I retired and worked building railroads before changing to my current job. My main duties

Read More >

My life as… a pho cook

My name’s Quyen, and I’m 22-years-old. I’ve been selling pho for five years now. This is a traditional family business. My dad started the restaurant, and now my brothers and I are helping him run it. We’re from Dong Son Village, in Nam Dinh. Nam Dinh Province is known as the birthplace of pho, so

Read More >

MY LIFE AS… a gray hair plucker

Hello, sit down please! Oh, my name? My name is Hang. How old am I? I was born in 1987, so please don’t call me chi (older sister), it makes me sound so old! This is one of the first grey hair plucking shops in Hanoi. It’s been open for three years now. I’ve been working

Read More >

Fine Print

A day in the life of Oi’s managing editor I read recently that there are over 200 million blogs on the internet. Add to that online publications, news outlets and specialty websites and it’s obvious that there is no lack of reading material available at the click of a mouse or the swipe of a

Read More >