The Bureau Podcast

Vung Tau, a beachside town approximately 100km southeast of Ho Chi Minh City, is often left off the itineraries of international travellers & dismissed by expats as a seedy getaway for men wanting to escape & get up to no good. But Matt & Mel think the town deserves more respect.

With the biggest public health crisis we've confronted this century playing out, it's forced us indoors for the foreseeable future. As this existential threat to our health & livelihoods comes from beyond our four walls, what impact is it having within them? 

When you think of Italy, you think of great food & wine, including great cities like Milan & Venice. In 2018, over 60 million tourists visited Italy, making it the 5th most visited country in the world. But now it's become the epicentre of COVID-19.

We're celebrating the first 10 Bureau Bites episodes, a shortened "pod-bite" series, with a little bit of fun & a playlist of songs befitting of the stories & pandemic experience we're going through right now.

Vietnam can be a perilous place to live. Traffic accidents remain the single biggest cause of fatalities in the country, however, drownings in rivers, lakes, & oceans remain the leading cause of death for children.

To find out how Singaporeans are coping with COVID-19, we speak to Singaporean actor, host, environmental activist & Netflix Singapore Social star, Paul Foster.

Someone who's been keeping himself occupied during lockdown is Doru Tudose, a DJ by night, but by day, he's building his own car.

While the Australian Government has acknowledged that restrictions will change the way Australians live, what of Australians living & doing business overseas?

Walter Mason is an Australian author who has been visiting Vietnam since 1994. In 2010, he published his first book, an entertaining travel memoir called Destination Saigon, which he describes as a "love letter to Vietnam."

The outbreak of COVID-19 has dominated the news with stories of illness, death, economic hardship & isolation, made more difficult by the proliferation of incorrect information. Aren't there any positive, uplifting stories to come out of this?

We ask hospitality insider Richie Fawcett of The Studio Saigon his thoughts on the impact of COVID-19 on the hospitality industry in Saigon for the foreseeable future.

We talk to Stanley Boots, founder of 7 Bridges Brewing Co. in Danang, who, along with his 45 staff, has been under house quarantine for almost two weeks after it was discovered two patrons carrying COVID-19 had visited his taproom.

Vietnam's travel industry has been decimated with estimated losses starting at US$7 billion for the first quarter of 2020. We ask Linh Le, principal founder of Luxperia, an inbound travel company, what travellers & the travel industry can expect.

City officials have decided it's time to close bars & nightclubs in Saigon indefinitely in a bid to contain COVID-19. We ask Harper's Bazaar Vietnam editor-at-large, Chris Thompson, what immediate & long-term impacts it will have on the hospitality industry.

Naomi Skinner has spent the last 6 months running 2,000km from Hanoi to Saigon to raise money for charity, but as you can imagine, it hasn't been all cool runnings, she's had to confront the likes of roadside dogs who she says "chase to kill." 

Hien Tran called meat quits for veganism & hasn't looked back. He's passionate about sustainable food production, animal welfare, farming, cooking & eating & supports others making the transition to a plant-based diet.

Indonesian Imelda Van der Wulp has sambal in her blood, so when she launched Imelda's Kitchen, she quickly earned the crown of Queen of Spicy with her eye-wateringly fragrant batches of sambal made in Vietnam.

In this episode, we get excited by the arrival of food trucks in Saigon & we get the lowdown on the Harper's Bazaar Vietnam Star Awards night of nights the morning after with a couple of regulars from our show.

We get a rare taste of an Aussie meat pie while watching the AFL grand final & we get the lowdown on the best set lunches for business meetings as recommended by 5-star hotel concierges when we give them a cold-call.

District 7 bar Ruby Soho has long been a favourite for punters, not just because of its friendly atmosphere, but also because it's a shrine to popular culture & the love of music.

Our guests are "The Bartist" Richie Fawcett & renown local architect Dr Hoanh Tran who discuss Saigon's rapidly changing skyline & its gentrification, on location at The Studio Saigon.

We chat about what's got us excited in F&B in Saigon, we sink our teeth into Beyond Burgers & catch up with serial Saigon restaurateur Albin Deforges to talk about seafood sustainability. 

We get excited about Saigon's F&B scene & discuss whether we actually care if food is "authentic" or not, plus we wonder what ever happened to celebrity chef Bobby Chin.