Wat?

Hi from Siam Reap, neighborhood to AngkorWat. We blew out of Ho Chi Minh City, Saigon to us geezers, and rattled around the Mekong Delta and took a neat boat ride to get to Phnom Penh yesterday.
This is getting a bit frayed out at the edges, changing locales so often but there’s so much to [...]

Oh, My

… blah, blah, blah heat and humidity.
…yak, yak, yak, currency conversion, shopping, diner with pals.
And then to walk through the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh city, dedicated to the American War. So much pain and deep, deep sadness.
So much sadness.
How hot must the fires of hell be to properly welcome those evil, evil [...]

Millionaire, Me

Being a millionaire in Hoi An is not enough. In this lovely riverside town you can buy all sorts of things — a premium for us millionaires. But it won’t buy cool, being rich.
The exchange rate is 16,000 dong to the dollar. I cashed in $200 days ago for some 3 million dong and am [...]

Oasis

HUE. After the explosive, glorious rattletrap of Bangkok, the almost-too-easy charms of Chiang Mai, the zippy fascination of Hanoi or the serene lazy beauties of Halong Bay comes Hue. How lovely. How elegant. How green. How mangeable in its size and welcoming spirit.
It doesn’t hurt to be staying at the astonishing La Residence on the [...]

She Didn’t Ask ME!

“Are you married?,” the waitress, flower-pretty as is everyone here in Hanoi, asked my son, Tim, serving dinner tonight.
“How old are you?,” she asked him, too. It’s part of the legend charm, people tell us, that folks will ask questions like that. Expressing curiousity with an openness that is disarming. Neat.
Hanoi and northern Vietnam [...]

Thai Tails & Tall Tales

If this blogging is uneven it’s because, frankly, I somehow find enjoying the glories of Southeast Asia more fun than writing about them.
What a place. In Thailand where the cats have broken tails (“Why?” “I don’t know.”) we had an earthquake although mostly we didn’t even feel it. Oddly, a friend was showing us a [...]

Real world? What Real World?

So I’m sitting up here in the loveliness of Chiang Mai in the deep north of Thailand and they come and tell me that I have a phone call. No phones in the rooms. Hooray.
So I answer the phone and there’s Michael Ryan on the “line” — a link that extends back more than 35 [...]

Sights and Sites

The Webmaster was kind enough to include a picture of a Thai International attendant, which gives something of a flavor of how hard it is concentrate in this place. They are such a handsome people, the Thai — their cheery spirit illuminating from within the great natural beauty.
Also this is one of the few places [...]

Climate Control

Here in Bangkok, there’s little doubt about global warming. Of course it’s always warm here but the seasons this year — vital on so many critical counts — are off kilter. The monsoon winds are here early, rain arrives sooner than the country is ready to plant; the bugs, used to coming out in June, [...]

Home Sweet

Of course you can go home again. There are so many “homes” to choose among; one has to be open, always.
Home is where you grew up or live today or will hang out tomorrow. It’s also the office where you know without thinking where the clocks are, where the rest rooms may be, which paths [...]