Global Gleanings: Finding Life-Fullness in Vietnam

Bridget, Charlie and the Garden Juju Collective and Gateway Farm staff, we’re all passionate, engaged, concerned and conscientious. Maybe you'd call us Eco-Geeks. ‘Look at that tree. How has it been pruned?’ ‘Oh what food are they eating at that stall?’ ‘Looks like it rains here a lot.’ ‘Wow, that plant must be a weed here in this place, growing in that roadside weedscape...’ etc. And that’s just us, Bridget and Charlie on the way from the airport to the hotel.

Life-Fullness & the Sensing Body

Our recent 3 week trip to Vietnam was everything we had hoped for. 

• Us being together after months apart.
• Somewhere we found both curious and engaging. 
• A place that was restful and affordable with good food and places to stay. Where there were easy ways to exercise and get massages allowing our nervous systems to restore. 
• We encountered situations that seemed so real, honest and life-full.
• Also places that were different, in which we understand almost nothing, forcing us to adapt, learn new things, be challenged, be uncomfortable, with a sense of being alive and in the moment. 
• Seeing how people do some of the things we do, and are interested in, but differently. 

Reading the Landscape: Intuition, Ecology & Place

It’s not just plants and landscapes, it’s all of it. The people, gardens, homes, shops, food places, the wild spaces, the temples, the Elder Trees—if there are any. Birds, bees, butterflies, unidentified beings. Does a place feel life-full? Does it look exploited, denuded, down-trodden? Does it feel weird, emptied, traumatized? Glimpses of magic, darkness, mystery and decay. Some places where living systems, and/ or people and communities are struggling, through poverty, or exploitation or misadventure. These things are often not literally known but intuited or sensed. 

We believe this is what most of us want. We want to know that we feel safe, in healthy places, that life in all its manifestations is going well. Of course much of it isn't all going well....

The Juju of a Place

What are the styles, patterns, aesthetics, arrangements in this part of unbelievable Planet Earth, in this time when humans are/were around? There’s so much to appreciate and learn. All the different/same ways to do things fire our imaginations, give us new perspectives, prompt us to reflect on ourselves, and ask us to learn, adapt, change and grow.

The sense of ‘life-fullness’ is the Juju, the juice, the playing, the rich dance of life. We, at this time of writing, ourselves, feel re-juiced, rested and rejuvenated. After years of developing Gateway Farm to the point that it could be sold, and then 18 months of searching for investors and the last 3 intense months of the sale process—we were so flat and exhausted. Beyond expended. This, apparently, is what it takes to defend amazing curated complex ecologically and socially rich places from the almost inexorable, never satisfied grind of 'development'. Now we’re recharged again ready to push ahead with passions, projects, and relationships. New global gleanings, learnings and curiosities help build our repertoire of ways to create what is possible. And as we often say there is so much more that we collectively can do. 

Glimpses of Magic, Mystery & Resilience

What were some of learning encounters on this trip?

• A very fresh coconut is a daily essential for nutrients, hydration and pleasure!
• My Son Sanctuary—Ancient Hindu Temple buildings much older than Angkor Wat, built to celebrate Hindu values of yoni/lingam sexual balance and dynamics. 
• So many plants in containers/pots—sacred trees, fields of bonsai, flowers, produce, miniature landscapes, water gardens. The containers seem appropriate to limited space, the need for good drainage in wet season, the ability to move them around according to season but simply the cultural aesthetic there. Many of the pots were unbelievably gorgeous—another layer of the artistry and care connecting people to the natural world. 
• Deeply cared for shrines, temples—art, sculpture, fruit, fire, water and incense as reverence, offerings and prayers. Does the life-fullness we speak of come from the reverence we observed? 
• Tri-coloured bougainvillea, lanterns, flowers, art, clothing—a rainbow of colours and vibrance everywhere—invoking and celebrating life-fullness.
• Big storms of late 2025 changing and challenging the coastal landscape—forcing the hand of innovation and resilient coastal design. Structures being installed, like massive sandbags, rock gabions and plantings to stabilise the shifting sand dunes. 
• The ever unique and inspiring—culturally traditional fishing, farming, perennial food systems, and skilled crafts still enfolded into the identity and way of life in some cities and bio-regions. Rice, water buffalo, silk, pottery, waving, embroidery, coconuts, wild fruits, fishing…
• Shade fabric and dried palm leaves used over freshly seeded veggie beds - we have seen technique used before with burlap but the pattern and system was very common in a way that makes you ask - why not? This helps protect the seed from birds, and retain moisture during germination in the hot sun. 
• Calabash tree (Crescentia cujete)—This was our first time meeting the Calabash Tree ‘the miracle tree.’ It took us a moment to identify, then we learnt about all its practical uses. Its leaves are eaten in soups and stews, the young fruit flesh can be carefully used medicinally and the mature fruits hard shells are used for bowls, ladles and instruments. It’s not native to Vietnam but has been there a long time and it is a celebrated and appreciated there. 
• Cabbage, herbs and veggies being used in border plantings, interwoven with the flowers and celebratory seasonal plantings. Practical, beautiful, and ordinary/everyday it seemed. 
• Nước Chấm sauce (fish sauce)—it's not just for dumplings and spring rolls! This complex in flavour and versatile sauce is great added to most dishes and wonderful for dipping your french fries into. We will certainly be keeping this easy recipe on hand—it’s Bridget’s new favourite flavour combination! 
• Pomelos, pomelo salad, passionfruit, candied ginger, refreshing basil seed drink, and plates full of garlic greens. Yum. These were a few of our favourite things to eat each day. Familiar foods often with a new twist. 

Carrying the Juju Forward

As (almost) always we come away from travel expanded, curious, inspired but also concerned for the future of these landscapes, cultures and ecosystems. This is a time in our human and planetary story to hold on to authentic and real experiences; a time to document, remember, learn and relearn. It’s time to care for the skills, recipes, and seeds of all places and cultures threatened by the ever expanding global greed systems and subsequent local assaults on life. 

We're deeply grateful for the pleasure and the privilege to travel and to be open to the amazing, beautiful, magical and unique planet we live on. We endeavour to carry these experiences with us in the work we do. We strive to acknowledge and remember the spirits of places, the smiles of people, as well as learnings, skills and stories that inspire us towards life-full ways of being in the world. 

Additional Resource

We came across a beautiful (free) digital book Voices of Resilience: Stories from Vietnam's Coastal Communities, from a collaboration between UNDP, the Green Climate Fund, and the Government of Viet Nam.

It shares real stories from coastal communities living with storms, floods and rising seas—highlighting grounded, culturally attuned approaches to resilience.

It felt deeply aligned with what we notice in landscapes: that life-fullness can persist, even under pressure.