Sapa! Mais quel decor epoustouflant! Le trajet en train pour venir ici fut penible, meme dans un wagon “sleepers”, mais une fois ici on oublie tout. Ces paysages de montagnes toutes aussi verdoyantes qu’acerees, parsemes de rizieres et parcourus par la riviere et ses chutes en son fonds, avec ses brouillards qui ne quittent jamais [...]

It’s an act of faith!  Crossing the street in the city of Hanoi in Vietnam is an experience I will never forget. The roads are literally wall to wall traffic. Motorcycles, bicycles, rickshaws, cars, hand carts, buses, cars, mopeds, taxis and trucks whiz by in a blur of color and motion. There are very few [...]

9:11 pm, June 25, 2007 John Olsen called and asked if I would like to return to Vietnam to help place a memorial plaque on Hill 362.  This is like a bolt from the sky and I’m momentarily speechless. Finally, I say I will need to discuss it with my wife but I absolutely want [...]

Saigon, Vietnam- We landed in Ho Chi Minh City last Tuesday after flying for a total travel time of approximately 12 light years. Between our exhaustion from such a long trip, the relief of finding our baggage, visas verified, and the time adjustment, we were lucky enough to have had a fine young man offer [...]

On April 30, 2009 at 8am, I was one of the 12 passengers packed into a van heading towards the highway to the scenic spot— Perfume Pagoda near Hanoi, Vietnam.  Today was the national holiday— the Liberation Day.  So everybody was out going somewhere.  There were millions of motorbikes and big buses overflowing with people [...]

Saturday 21 November 2009 – Some friends visited Hanoi, so we rented a taxi and traveled 40km to two villages in Thanh Oai commune. The first village we visited was the Vác village where the locals make bird cages and paper fans. We visited 3 houses and saw the locals drying fans in the sun [...]

If you thought the hideout in the James Bond film “The Man with the Golden Gun” was spectacular, imagine a place where there are 3,000 such limestone islands clustered together in the East Sea of Halong Bay. Paddle through caves into secret lagoons, drift down channels surrounded by cliffs and forest and sail out into [...]

From Saigon we decided to try and make an effort to do things our way, away from the tours if possible. All started well when we got a bus out to the main bus station, with a sniggering bus conductor who told us to get off way too early….we didn’t quite get the joke, but [...]

For the Vietnamese people, Tet is the most sacred time of the year. On lunar New Year’s Eve, each member of a family and of society exchange sincere good wishes, strengthening common cultural ties. Tet is also time to reflect on the spiritual life. In Hanoi, on the stroke of midnight, the whole family sits [...]

We have been only a day in Phan Thiet, and frankly, I’d like to stay another two at least. The links at the Novotel Ocean Dunes & Golf Resort are superb (good enough to warrant another go-round) and only a fool would beg off one fully flaked-out day on the hotel’s quiet stretch of beach. [...]