She Moved to Vietnam With 2 Cats, Now She Runs One of Hanoi’s Best Bakeries [Chills 265 ft Sheereen]

Shirin Amran, a Singaporean pastry chef, shares her transformative journey of leaving Singapore at 20 to build a life and business in Hanoi, Vietnam. What began as a spontaneous move with two cats and a long-distance relationship evolved into founding Baked & Friends, one of Hanoi’s most beloved bakeries. Despite initial struggles—ranging from racial bias in English teaching jobs to navigating Vietnam’s unstructured systems—Shirin found resilience and creativity during the pandemic, developing the bakery’s award-winning thick, gooey chocolate chip cookies while in lockdown. Her story is one of cultural adaptation, personal growth, and the quiet power of letting go of expectations. Now in her 30s, she balances a comfortable life in Hanoi with uncertainty about the future, considering a return to Singapore or the UK, but remains deeply attached to Vietnam’s spirit and the life she’s built there. The episode explores broader themes of identity, privilege, and the trade-offs of living abroad. Shirin reflects on how leaving Singapore’s rigid systems allowed her to grow personally and professionally, gaining adaptability and a broader worldview. She emphasizes the importance of humility, cultural respect, and rejecting the mindset of superiority that some expats bring. While financially less affluent than in Singapore, her quality of life—affordable luxuries, strong community bonds, and freedom to live authentically—is far richer. She now seeks partners to scale her bakery across Vietnam, not for profit alone, but as a meaningful legacy of her time in Hanoi. Her final advice: just go, drop your expectations, and absorb everything.