Everyone in Saigon still calls it “Saigon.” So much more melodic and fitting than the clunky “Ho Chi Minh City.” You can really tell the French had a hand in this place. Wide boulevards, lots of green space — an open and pretty city filled incongruously with billions and billions of crazed and overloaded motorbikes….
Month: July 2014
Snapshots from Cambodia
[Another delayed post. Spotty internet. Going to try this without pix.] From our perch in the bow of the boat we can hear the shriek of the anchor and feel the deep shudder of the vessel as they crank up for our departure from Phnom Penh. We make no further stops on land today; we…
Mind, Boggled
This trip is such a kaleidoscope of texture and color and emotion that I can’t get my thoughts to settle down long enough to write about it. There have been awe-inspiring moments. Two days ago we rose early for a predawn departure to see the sun come up behind Angkor Wat. It was breathtakingly lovely,…
The Inestimable Value of a Good Tour Guide (or Two!)
[Delayed post, sorry. Written July 11] No Internet on the refurbished junk we are on so I can’t look up the origin of this kind of wooden boat that we spent the night on in Ha Long Bay, but I am pretty sure the average passenger experience wasn’t air conditioned cabins with marble baths and…
Civilized, Scmivilized
Today we head out to Ha Long Bay. A little late in reporting yesterday’s food adventures because truth to tell, there weren’t any. Got up way early (hello World Cup, on at 3 am Hanoi time) and had breakfast with the slow-rising tour group. Breakfast was fine. Jer had another fantastic pho and I had…
Dinner by the River
Sitting in the Bangkok airport, WAY too early for our flight to Hanoi. They won’t even let us check in for another hour and a half and the business lounge is located on the far side of security. So, to entertain myself I can count all the bug bites on my legs that are starting…
Bangkok Food Tour!
Food tours are a brilliant idea — there is no better way to get a window into how other people live than to see what’s on their plates. Often we are do-it-yourself food tourists, hanging out in grocery stores and markets, but sometimes it’s a bit more organized than that. On our trip to Israel…
One Night in Bangkok
On the flight into Bangkok from Tokyo, having food fantasies. Food memories are funny things — like dreams they sometimes have a blazing intensity that can make real life feel like it’s the ephemeral shadow. One of my best food memories of all time was many years ago, arriving in Bangkok in the middle of…
My Plate or Yours 