VIETNAM | Sunday, 18 Apr 2010 | Views [365]
I spent my Sunday morning in Hanoi visiting Hoan Kiem Lake for walking, practicing my T’ai Chi form and just observing the locals in their morning activities. I saw a lot of Chi Gong, a little bit of jogging and one man pooping in the bushes. The temperature ... Read more >
VIETNAM | Saturday, 17 Apr 2010 | Views [417]
There is no freeway in Vietnam. The buses and trucks have to drive along two-lane blacktops. Sometimes the bus driver will accelerate to get around a truck or another bus and if there is oncoming traffic, he will have to slam on the brakes and pull ... Read more >
VIETNAM | Friday, 16 Apr 2010 | Views [538]
I beat the tourist crowds to the Purple Forbidden City in the Citadel today. I didn’t know that Vietnam had a Forbidden City. I thought that was distinctly Chinese, but, then again, Vietnam had a rough time not being assimilated by the Chinese. The ... Read more >
VIETNAM | Friday, 16 Apr 2010 | Photo Gallery
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VIETNAM | Thursday, 15 Apr 2010 | Views [330]
I really like Hue. I really like my hotel room, even though I have a hard time remembering the name of the place where I am staying. (Binh Duong) This high-speed tour of Vietnam is breaking my heart. I wish I had more time to savor my visit. I haven’t ... Read more >
VIETNAM | Tuesday, 13 Apr 2010 | Views [872]
When I crept downstairs at 4:40 this morning I saw that several motorbikes had been brought in the lobby and there was a man sleeping on the floor under a pop-up mosquito screen. I was wondering if the tour that I booked to My Son for 5:00am was really ... Read more >
VIETNAM | Monday, 12 Apr 2010 | Views [400]
The overnight bus trip to Hoi An was much better than the one to Nha Trang. No movies, no music, no card games. They turned all of the lights out and told us that they would wake us when we got there. There wasn’t much that I had wanted to see in Nha ... Read more >
VIETNAM | Sunday, 11 Apr 2010 | Views [344]
I enjoyed my walk along the beach this morning. I was surprised to see how busy it was at 7:00am. When I took a closer look, I saw that the majority of the beachgoers were Vietnamese. I was one of only a few westerners out there, but they didn’t seem ... Read more >
VIETNAM | Saturday, 10 Apr 2010 | Views [491]
The overnight bus trip from HCMC left me very weary. The bus was set up in three rows of bunks and I got a small “bed” towards the back. I was feeling under the weather with a sore throat and all I wanted to do was sleep, but a group of Vietnamese guys ... Read more >
VIETNAM | Friday, 9 Apr 2010 | Views [351]
Some people come to Vietnam for the warm weather and beaches. Others come for the hand-tailored clothes that can be purchased for very little money. As a history buff, I was most excited about my trip to the tunnels of Cu Chi. A coworker at Gateway ... Read more >
VIETNAM | Thursday, 8 Apr 2010 | Views [432]
I was so disappointed to find out that overnight train travel in Vietnam is out of my price range. Even a short stretch overnight runs about $24. I have only been in Ho Chi Minh City for 15 hours, but I can’t afford to stay too long. I got up early ... Read more >
VIETNAM | Wednesday, 7 Apr 2010 | Views [350]
We were instructed to get up at 6:00am so that we could have breakfast and be packed up by 7:00am, but the recorded voice over the loudspeaker started at 5:00am. I imagined that it was Socialist propaganda encouraging every Vietnamese within earshot ... Read more >
VIETNAM | Tuesday, 6 Apr 2010 | Views [371]
As a perfect way to wrap up my Mekong adventure, I chose the river route to Vietnam. This involved taking a “tour“ through Chau Doc, but it was only two days and one night. We took a minibus about an hour and a half southwest out of Phnom Penh where ... Read more >
CAMBODIA | Monday, 5 Apr 2010 | Views [345]
How is this for bitchy? I decided to have breakfast at a riverside restaurant, and as soon as I sat down a young boy tried to sell me a local English-language newspaper. I could see that the price on the newspaper has been altered with ink so when he ... Read more >
CAMBODIA | Sunday, 4 Apr 2010 | Views [426]
The unintentional theme for today was contributing to the disabled or less fortunate in Cambodia. On my way to get a shot of Wat Phnom in the morning sun, I saw two fellows collecting money from walkers-by. I didn’t understand what the fuss was until ... Read more >
CAMBODIA | Saturday, 3 Apr 2010 | Views [381]
I was a fool to look for kindness in a friendly conversation with a Cambodian. The kindnesses are subtle and unspoken, but they are there. It is there when I sit down at a café and someone comes to set a fan next to my table. It is there when the fellow ... Read more >
CAMBODIA | Friday, 2 Apr 2010 | Views [496]
I was supposed to leave Siem Reap this morning, but a last-minute e-mail from my friend Kathryn sent me running to the bus ticket agency to change my date of departure. Because of a booking conflict with her hotel in Bangkok she had decided to hop on ... Read more >
CAMBODIA | Friday, 2 Apr 2010 | Photo Gallery
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CAMBODIA | Wednesday, 31 Mar 2010 | Views [474]
The Temples at Angkor--Day 3 I made it for the sunrise just to say that I have done it which is a good thing because it was cloudy this morning and that greatly decreases the dramatic effect. I was joined by about a million other tourists who dragged ... Read more >
CAMBODIA | Monday, 29 Mar 2010 | Views [570]
The Temples of Angkor--Day 2 Still didn’t catch the sunrise, although I was around before most of the tourists. I get strange looks from the groundskeepers as I pedal past, and there are a lot of them. Even in the heat they stay covered head to ... Read more >
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