When Walter Mason spends the night in a beachside monastery, he wonders if some early rising monks might think him an apparition of Di Lac, the fat, smiling Buddha of the future. This is an apt description of my own impression of Mr. Mason after reading the personal and amusing account of his voyages in Vietnam as a festively plump foreigner.

Possessed of a fluid and receptive engagement with spirituality, Mr Mason directs his exploratory trip into the religious practices and beliefs of individuals and groups in contemporary Vietnamese society, finding charisma in all facets of Vietnamese life. I became more and more engaged with Mr Mason’s comical and touching stories, related in the sort of personal, unpolished style that heightens humour and forgives gentle moralising.