My day counter is slow by three days, reading Day 363 when it should mark Day 366. So much to adjust at the end. A year and a day ago, I cut from the moorings of work. Tomorrow, I return to a different job for a new career. In between, …
My last day. We buy our last souvenirs, a stack of colorful dust masks motorscooter drivers wear in Vietnam. These masks shall make useful and fashionable gifts at Burning Man. We eat a last leisurely lunch at a cheap vegetarian restaurant. I shall miss bun. We drop off bags at …
No church bells ring on Easter Sunday in humid Ho Chi Minh City. Exactly a year ago, I wandered a similarly-sweaty Minneapolis, Minnesota. When planning this Asia trip, Greg insisted on a prudent buffer day before our international flight home in case of emergency or delayed connections, so we spend …
Trip fatigue sets in. We have been on the road for two full weeks. We forego a third day of temple raiding for a night out on the town followed by a leisurely hotel morning. To prepare, Greg sits in the heat by the hotel’s pool, while I lay in …
Like many international tourist destinations, Siem Reap proves more expensive than the rest of the region. A complete Vietnamese street food dinner cost $5, yet fancy Siem Reap dinners set us back $50 – not exorbitant for San Francisco, but ten times that of Vietnam. Poor kids at the Angkor …
Angkor Wat is hot, hot, hot. Twenty years ago, I followed ancient Khmer temples east through Thailand quite close to the Cambodian border, but never to the holiest of holies, the great Angkor Wat. On this trip to Vietnam with another brush of the Cambodian border, I did not want …
We survive a contest of sorts. Yesterday, we ate 23 courses of food. Over this fat day, we ate 3 courses for breakfast, 12 courses for lunch plus snacks, and another 8 courses for dinner. At the end of the long day, we slept victorious but bloated. We enrolled in …
The Beach. We venture into the remote with a decamp by taxi to An Bang beach, just north of Hoi An. Greg booked us two nights in a villa to get away from it all. This villa is not exactly remote as we are surrounded by Vietnamese families who pound …