Howie-n-Karen: Asia

Flew over from Singapore on Tiger Air, a discounter. Met by two young Vietnamese women, one of whom is a sister-in-law to our East Meets West coordinator, Min. They took us to breakfast at the airport restaurant, the best airport food we’d ever eaten; wouldn’t let us pay. The young lady translator was very eager to converse, not at all shy. They put us in a taxi and directed it to take us to the Ho Chi Minh train station, where we waited for our overnight train to Danang.

The train ride was long but we saw a bit of the countryside and several locals came into our compartment and made themselves comfortable practicing their English. No one spoke very well but we all made ourselves understood. Many just passed by and checked us out. There was a door we could shut and lock, which we did later, after dinner, which a waiter brought. At around 11 pm there was a knock and the door was opened by the porter and 2 people came in.

We thought we were home free, that the upper berths were going to remain empty for the whole ride, but no. The two were part of a group of 19 high school kids and one leader from Scotland. We showed them where to step to ascend to the top bunks and all went to sleep. The kids were all Glaswegian and the leader was from Edinburgh. They fund-raised for the trip and were doing some community work as well as having a holiday. Everyone got off in Danang.

Once again, we were met at the station by two women, Min and Ha. Min is the coordinator at the clinic and Ha is a dentist. They got us to our hotel, where I sat on the bed in a large room connected to the world through wifi: very plush for $23 a day. They told us to relax and not help with the setup at the village school where the group was doing dental outreach for a week. So we had breakfast together and wandered up the street 5 blocks until we came to the river, where the locals stroll on Sundays and take their evening exercise walks.

We found Danang to be quite built up. Not much old stuff left. I suppose much of it was destroyed during the American war. Buildings are very narrow, some tall and narrow, which harkens back to the days when houses were built long with a small courtyard in the middle and no windows on the sides (for another long house would be on either side). Later I found out that they are taxed by the width of their property. Danang bustled with commerce all around. Unfortunately, foreigners are charged 2x the regular rates when shops/vendors can get away with it. Most people do not understand English but can say hello when they see us walking by. Those who study English, try to converse.

That evening the whole staff at the clinic took us out to dinner. The crew of volunteers included Amanda and Jocelyn from Manitoba (starting their 3rd year in dental school), Heather, from Scotland (going into her 5th and final year of dental school), Jenna, a 20-year old dental assistant from Brisbane, and the two of us. There were 8 from the clinic. It was a 7-course meal and delicious — a great way to get to know everyone.

The next five days were spent working on school children from a village 45 minutes away from Danang. A majority (99%) of the kids had never seen a dentist and came from very humble homes. Most were patient patients, well-behaved and compliant. A handful gave us a hard time and we had to send them off without care. All came back later in the day after a talking-to by a parent and sat through treatment. Some were as young as 3 or 4 and they were not necessarily the difficult ones. A few were in their teens.

Dr. Hoa examined each child and I (K) would show them to where they were to wait to be administered anesthetic. Then I would show them where to wait to be either prepped for filling or for an extraction. Most of the kid required both, so they would get the filling first then the extraction. Afterwards I would direct them where to sit until the bleeding was under control, then release them. All Howie did was to cut cavity preparations, drilling all day long – on an awful chair that hurt his bum, which his assistant, Hien, kept mentioning. The two Canadians were allowed to fill cavities. Heather could fill and do extractions. Sometimes Dr. Hoa would prep, if Howie’s line got too long. Dr. Long, who mostly administered the anesthesia, would also do extractions and sometimes fillings.

We saw over 500 children in a week. Everyone worked very hard. Three assistants (dental nurses here) helped the practitioners, running around getting liners, amalgam, whatever the docs called for. I assisted Howie will a filling, sucking saliva and retracting the cheek. We all helped clean up at the end of each day, usually not leaving the place until after 6.

East Meets West Foundation [http://www.eastmeetswest.org/] has a dental clinic in Danang where they see disadvantaged children. The foundation accepts the help of volunteers but provides no lodging support. I suppose most volunteers have on-going practices and can write off their trip expenses. I’m sure they don’t get a lot of dentists who have no income (like us) so they are not set up to provide housing, like other volunteer situations where we have worked (ie. St. Luke’s hospital in St. Lucia or the orphanage in Mindanao).

Howie decided to stay and work an extra week here, as there is a need. We have also been invited to join the whole EMWF crew in Vietnam at their annual retreat in China Beach on the 29th, which was fun and we met more people involved in development work.

Went to Hoi An after the week of outreach. That’s where all the tourist go – don’t see many in Danang at all. So many Vietnamese in that town speak English. Many speak to you to try and lure you into their shops or restaurants. We did a tour of the old village one day, a tour of My Son, an old Cham ruin where we could do a bit of birding another day and sat on a beautiful white beach on the third. The kids selling fruits on the beach were a kick and spoke the best English, picking up all the slang from the visitors. Water was refreshing. Sunday noon was empty but by the late afternoon it was a mob scene, filled with locals who know better than to be in the sun during the heat of the day. The sand was scorching and one had to dash in and out of the water.

Another outing was to the local beach here in Danang. The clinic had no patients on Thursday so we spent the day at My Keh, a 4 k hike from our hotel and across the river. Hot walk. Sat under an umbrella and read our books. Water was warmer than at Hoi An but the breezes were cooling once we got wet. Got really brown just sitting in the shade. Had a nice lunch of fresh grilled prawns and a huge cuttlefish salad.

Rode with 2 easy riders to Bach Ma NP. Quite a racket getting up into the park – had to use the park van, which cost an arm and a leg. We stayed at the bottom of the park, by the gate the first night and birded around there. It was hot and all uphill. At the top was a different story. There were several lodging options and all seemed to be booked for the weekend with mostly Vietnamese. Come Monday, everyone left but a handful of foreigners. They fed us too well, meaning too much food, albeit not very imaginative dishes. Upon entering the restaurant the first night, we had to share a table, as the place was packed and jumping. As I (H) made my way across the room, I was requested to join in a toast of rice wine at a table of noisy locals. Easy enough. Then the next guy wanted to toast. Eight shots later, I had worked my way around the table and could join K. Good buzz that night.

We had the trails to ourselves. Yes, there were leeches there too. And it rained every afternoon. But mornings are when you find the best birds anyway. In the jungle, no matter what, the birds are hard to find. Prizes included short-tailed scimitar-babbler, rufous-throated partridge, silver-eared mesia, and loads of slaty-backed forktails.

And there were ruins from when the French used Bach Ma as a hill station, old villas and old hotels. Signs of the American war abounded, where the site was used as a helicopter base. I (K)enjoyed exploring the side trails and got a bit of exercise in walking to the summit and back a few times a day. Views of the coast from up in the mountain were spectacular!

Our bikers came to pick us up and take us back to Danang. We had to stop at the pass because the rain caught us. There were some remnants of the war, which we checked out.

The last week in Danang was work for Howie at the clinic. There we met Loan and Luan, the former a Viet Kiew dentist who just finished dental school, the latter her husband. Loan’s little brother Ut was with them. They love to travel and have been all over Asia: they come every other summer. We had a great dinner by the beach; Danang is famous for its seafood.

We partied and said our good-byes, heading for the central highland town of Da Lat, Vietnam’s honeymoon capital. Travel by bus is easy and cheap here, as are the hotels. We were referred to a great little place, Dreams, run by a stereotypical Vietnamese woman, Dung (no, it’s pronounced Yung) – she was cany, ambitious and able to arrange everything. I asked about birding and she had a fellow in the lobby 20 minutes later. We quickly made plans to visit sites renowned for endemic birds.

Our first site, the Ta Nung valley held only a small remnant patch of hill forest, but in it resides one of SE Asia’s rarest birds, the grey-crowned crocias. It was disheartening to realize how little forest remains, but once in the forest, perspective changes and you are once again engulfed by the verdant growth, the chatter of bird flocks and a dripping humidity. Our moto guides knew the area, but rainy season had blocked the forest entrance with 10 foot high elephant grass. So, we thrashed around in that a while before entering the forest. The trail we found was quickly abandoned when we heard a group of crocias upslope. The next hour was spent trying to glimpse the crocias, as they fed in the canopy. They had us slogging up and down the hillside, through leech infested thickets and thorny tangles. Rain was intermittent. I was having a blast, but looking at K, I knew I was testing her limits. Beside the brief flashes of crocia, we saw hardly any other birds.

We had 2 bikes and 2 drivers, so in a flash of inspiration, I suggested K bail out. Governor’s pardon and off she went. I remained in the clearing, where we parked the bikes and started seeing birds. In the half hour after K’s departure (I wouldn’t have minded birding on the road!), I found over 2 dozen species. The kicker was finding crocias feeding in lantana bushes along the road, giving luxurious, point-blank views. These are the moments one searches for, and sadly I was unable to share them with Karen. I returned a few days later and failed to find them and sent a Dutch couple there with no success either. The clearing also produced 4 Vietnamese greenfinch, another endemic.

The following day rain kept us in town touristing. We spent a good portion of a rainy afternoon at this bizarre hotel/art project, Hang Nga guest house, built by the daughter of Ho Chi Minh’s successor,Truong Chinh. Reminiscent of Gaudi’s projects in Barcelona, this place could only have escaped the western-decadent label by the creator’s political connection’s during the austerities of Vietnam’s recent past. It is a hoot, with each room built around a different theme: ants, peacock, tiger. No right angles or flat walls or ceilings. Given Vietnam’s struggles over the last 50 years, it comes as a nice surprise to find something so quirky and unexpected.

I arranged an early start for Lang Bian NP for the next morning. Weather threatened again and given the last outing’s challenges, K opted for more rack time and a day in town. A five am start had me leaving town on the back of a motorcycle in a steady drizzle in the dark. My target for the day: collared laughingthrush, another VN endemic and perhaps the most beautiful of this family. My driver told the park gatekeeper we would pay fees upon returning and negotiating permission to take the bike up vs the expensive park transport that would not start running for a couple hours.

Much of the park is under assault from local woodcutters, with harvesting altering the forest canopy height and density. How long this can continue without completely ruining the woods can’t be debated much longer. The mountain’s lower level is degraded pine forest. We needed to reach the ecotone between the pines and the temperate evergreen forest above. As we approached the desired elevation, we hiked our way into clouds, mist and wind. Shit conditions for seeing oncoming traffic let alone birds. But birds there were, ghosts flitting in and out of the greyness. Things are tamer under these conditions, but you have to get very close to identify anything. Although the laughing thrush eluded us, we accepted the conditions and enjoyed what the forest revealed, including my first red crossbills for Asia and a lifer brown-throated creeper. Heavy rain chased us off the mountain by 10 am.

A noontime bus to Cat Tien NP kept the adventure rolling along, getting dumped on the highway at the junction for the park, 24 kms away. Our hostess in Da Lat arranged our park stay, as well as a taxi to the park. Would be much cheaper on a moto, but we were lugging too much crap, including computer, telescope, dental gear, bird books and tape recorder. Fear of rain an issue as well.

At road’s end, one pays entrance fees and arranges a launch to ferry you across. Park HQ is quite developed with a variety of lodgings, a couple of restaurants, empty pool, weed- covered tennis court, Karaoke bar and massage parlour. Needless to say, I spent all my time elsewhere, as there are some nice forest trails to disappear onto. I hired a guide on the first morning, to help suss out the place. He knew many vocalizations and we quickly were on to bar-bellied pittas. Subsequent walks were done alone or with Karen.

Our final night in the park was spent at Crocodile Lake. This required a three-mile walk thru primary lowland forest, which gave us sightings of black-shanked langurs, Siamese fireback, scaly-breasted partridge and more pittas. We stayed at a ranger/research station on the lake’s edge. Spending the remainder of the day scanning, this lush rainy season vista. Winter would yield many migrants, but it was still alive with avian life, not to mention Siamese crocs and Sambar deer.

The star of the show was the green peafowl, commonly called peacock. Seeing these huge, elaborately plumaged pheasants strolling through the grassland at lake’s edge transported me to an earlier time: one where man had not come to dominate, eliminating and reducing numbers of wild creatures from virtually every habitat on the face of the earth. Jacanas, swamphens and water hens, all with young, kept themselves busy gleaning thru the marsh grasses below us. Herons, bitterns and egrets were always in sight at water’s edge. Cotton pygmy geese and lesser whistling-duck would lift off the water, make a few circles, then land in a new patch. A couple endangered lesser adjutant storks surveyed the scene from the top of upland trees. At dusk the patrolling of harrier-like great-eared nightjars would begin, huge insectivores gliding silently about.

A word of warning: Cat Tien has leeches in the rainy season. My knee length leech socks no doubt helped, but I was finding them continually. Sustaining 30 or so bites during our stay. Worst are the under-watchband sneakers, as I never noticed them until they had there fill. Twice I felt the urge to scratch my privates, only to find uninvited companions already gorging themselves. Living in the Maine woods has hardened me to things that bite, so I actually prefer leeches to black flies.

Our trip to Saigon was of note. We were able to find a van across the river. Due to our size, we were put in the front seat with the driver. The next hour was a slow crawl through all the towns and hamlets in search of passengers. Within 45 minutes, the vehicle was full, no crammed, as they fit and contorted people into every available space. Then things got interesting. With a full load, the driver was free to go. Vietnamese taxi drivers have a reputation as maniacs and from our ride it is well deserved. Reckless speed, blind passing and endless chicken with oncoming traffic had our stomachs in knots. And this is on a road with heavy lories, bicycles, cattle, old crones balancing their wares on their shoulder carriers, and with no rules of the road. After an hour of this flirtation with death and destruction, one of the passengers called out his stop. Our driver resumed his crawl for fares and fortunately never again had a full load, so the breakneck rush to town was never resumed. Enjoyed a night of wandering Saigon streets and returned to Cambodia the following day via plane.

Karen has now started her year-long project developing sustainable, community based ecotourism and I will be working for 2 months in Phnom Penh, before heading up to Siem Reap to train bird guides for K’s project. I’ll be working a few days a week at Ankor Children’s hospital as well.

Stay tuned… (this was lost when bootsnall crashed so photos will have to be reuploaded one day)

June 15 – July 8, 2006

Kota Kinabalu was bigger than expected and definitely more developed. It was drizzling when we arrived with no reservations for Mt. Kinabalu NP. But we had our ripped-off Lonely Planet (picked that up in Kolkata) which directed us to a particular building for the reservations office. The building was right but the office had changed names: no wonder we could not reach them via internet or by phone. That’ll teach us. There must be a more updated version of the Malaysia guide, as none of the phone numbers have worked so far.

Luckily for us the office merely changed names, not addresses and soon we were off, trudging down the road to the share mini bus stop, where we caught the bus to the park, no trouble. At Mt. Kinabalu NP we stayed at the Hill Lodge #5 and ate at the dining room in the Visitors’ Center, half a km away. The park had numerous trails off the main road up to the gate and power station. The trails ran along streams or the river, or climbed hills to a view. The temperate forests on the mountain were lush, subtly lit due to the canopy cover and held more species of oak than any other forest in the world.

The top of the mountain was visible only in the mornings until about 9 or 10, then it would cloud up. We experienced rain each afternoon. Kinabalu might peek out again in the evenings, after the rain, but all you could see of it would be the lights at Laban Rata, the hostel where all the climbers are required to stay on the first night of their ascent. We did not have reservations for that hostel so were not able to climb to the top, despite getting on the cancellation list. On the third day we climbed 3.5 km past the gate, almost up to Layang Layang, before the rain started, which made birding difficult. That’s when we started down.

Howie should have a bird list for the mountain. We tried staying an extra day but it was such a rigamarol that we decided to move on to Poring Hot Springs, which is also a part of the Mt. Kinabalu Park complex. Instead of 3 nights here we ended up staying 5. Howie says the forests here in Borneo are as interesting as the Amazon because of the variety and ease of observation of critters, not to mention the birds. We have to check out the light bulbs at night because the moth varieties are museum quality. Then there are the beetles, butterflies and many little mammals which we call squirrels, tree shrews and other rodents.

One day we took a walk outside the park and for RM 20 ($6+) a little boy led us through a private scrubby bamboo thicket and showed us a rafflesia in its 3^rd day, already starting to blacken. These parasitic blooms last about a week and smell of putrescent flesh to attract pollinating flies. It wasn’t the largest specimen on record (2 ft in diameter) but it is the largest flower in the world.

The hot springs are Japanese style, in groups of 4 tubs with a hot and cold tap each. Two people fit well in each tub. These are open 24/7. There are tubs in cottages that one can rent by the hour and there is a water slide area for the children. The Rock Pool is supplied by water from the falls nearby and very refreshingly cold. At first we thought we’d just do the trails as the hot tubs were always busy but once we felt the temperature of the water in the pool, we decided that a warm soak would be a good idea. This is where all the climbers end up after coming down from Kinabalu. They are awakened at 3 a.m. to climb to the peak in the dark and usually get down by 1 pm. Busloads show up around 2 so that’s when we avoid the tubs.

Kipungit Waterfall is a 10 minute walk from the hot springs area but from there it’s an hour and a half climb to Langanan Falls. Of course it took us about 5 hours, birding along the way. To add an element of delay, we discovered leaches half-way there, so we needed to stop and check for the bloodsucking hitchhikers every time we looked for birds. Later in the soaking tub we found that I had 4 pricks and only one that bled on to my sock. Howie had 3 but no bleeders. There must have been at least 10 varieties of leaches. But the climb was worth it. We saw a beautiful trogon family bathing in the creek and the falls were majestic. We had the trail all to ourselves (wonder why).

We worried about getting the bus from Ranau to Lahad Datu, knowing that the shuttle we needed to catch left LD at 3:30. We caught the express bus for Tawau and after lunch switched to another bus that got us to the Danum Valley Field Center office in Lahad Datu by 2 pm, time enough to cash travelers checks and pick up batteries for the tape deck. On the way to the forest I saw an Orang Utang in a tree, about 2 miles from the compound.

We stay at the Resthouse (shouldn’t it be Guesthouse?) and there has been only one other birding couple here, from England, the Eatons (I think). The researchers and their students/assistants have their own quarters or stay at the hostel, where we could have bunked, too. We took a night drive with Sarah and Allan; saw mammals but no birds. Haven’t really birded together, which is okay as on our evening walk together, it turns out she was quite the chatterbox. Keen birders, though.

The trails have been jungly to the max: crawling w/ leeches, muddy from the frequent rains, quite hilly and most frustratingly, dense with lianas and trees that birds are difficult to see. Climbing up and down the hills, trying to avoid touching anything that might support a leech, getting clammy w/ sweat and Howie’s in heaven. On day one I had about 38 suckers, the next day almost 60. The forth day I had single numbers: it didn’t rain at all the day before. Got great looks at the pitta (black headed, I think) but didn’t have the scope, so alas no photos. Food’s plain and there’s plenty of it. Some of the time I opt to leave the hunt and take a proper hike, get the heart pumping. Getting extra pounds not working out enough (slow walking does not get my metabolism going).

A 45 minute drive away in the same forest complex brought us to the Borneo Rainforest Lodge, our big splurge (part of the silver anniversary celebration). It is still in the Danum Valley but in a different sector of the primary forest that has never been logged. There is research being done here, too, but it’s mostly for tourists. Saw Ron and DollyAnn’s name in the guest book: they were here at the end of May.

Birders will love the place and Howie would like to return with a bunch of his birding friends. We ran into the Tropical Birding group led by Sam Wood. They were a great bunch and we traded information. (We went with TB to Cameroon on a recce trip about 5 years ago.) There are canopy walkways and many trails. We saw the endemic bristlehead twice already. (This is the bird we were looking for 115 ft off the ground, in a tree at DVFC – Howie tried for 3 mornings and had no success.)

We have our own little unit, which is connected to the others by elevated boardwalks. We were supplies with a guide (whom we ditched after a day) and thrown in are morning walks, evening drives and tubing on the Danum River, which flows rapidly by the lodge. Did I say it is a 5-star resort? (Not at the level where they supply you with wifi and your own plush bathrobe, but great buffets and we have had our first g&t in weeks.) Everyone we know would love this place. I’d even suggest it for any of our numerous family or high school reunions! We actually saw a flying squirrel fly last night on our night drive.

Extreme weather made it impossible for the next connection to be made so our plans were up in the air for access to the Kinabatangan River basin. Fortunately, Howie bumped into Ian Sinclair while birding at Poring; he suggested we contact Robert Chong, who runs the Kinabatangan Jungle Lodge on the river. He’s the guy who can deliver the Bornean ground cuckoo. We successfully made contact with RC and stayed with him for 4 days (one at their Sepilok Labuk B&B) and Robert, who is a master of bird mimicry, and was able to call in the cuckoo, hooded pitta and rufous kingfisher, using a variety of hoots and whistles. (Jalscha Meisen Passant – cuckoo photo) I swear he was having more fun than we were.

This was a great area for primate observation. We twice found orangs in their nocturnal nest that is built fresh daily. Another prize was our first proboscis monkeys, a mature male sports a nose Jimmy Durante would have coveted. Gibbons, macaques and langurs were seen as well. A night float had us watching a hunting flat-headed cat on the river bank. We missed the elephant movement, but their signs were everywhere, including the electric fence needed around the camp.

Rhinocerous hb

While at at the KJL we ran into the Savage brothers from Vancouver; we had met them earlier at the Borneo Rainforest Lodge where they sent over a bottle of red when they found out we were still celebrating our anniversary (by going to the fancy lodge). They were 2 of the five people who floated down the river on innertubes at the lodge and Richard the Younger was the alligator boy: he connected 2 plastic garbage bags with duct tape and wore them as a sack so as not to get wet on the float. Naturally it didn’t work – he’s too tall (6’4”?) and it only succeeded in making him so unmaneuverable that he was capsized by the first little riffle and had to be ‘saved’ by their guide, Donny. Ian the Elder laughed so hard and so the rest of us (two guys from Holland and me) joined in; we were sorry no one brought a camera.

At KJL, the Savage bros were with us for the first day and as soon as they left it rained. They were a ray of sunshine, those two. After that, though, it was clear sailing. They missed THE cuckoo but saw a lot of birds (most birders would kill for) and maybe caught the bug (Ian, anyway).

Howie would walk in the surrounding secondary forest during lunch, which was always so hot, even thought it was right on the river. Mostly, we took the little motor boat to find the birds, crocks, primates and other wildlife. The water was café au lait brown and crocodiles would sometimes be sunning themselves on the shore but would slip into the drink as soon as we approached. Robert told stories about some Japanese tourists he had who witnesses a crock attack a bearded pig foraging on the shore – cut it in half. They didn’t understand why they could not collect the pig pieces to be roasted. A few days before we got there a man from the village was killed by a crocodile while fishing on the banks.

Flew back to Kota Kinabalu (business class for the first time and were treated royally – the cheap seats were sold out and we did not want to wait for the next flight and it was only RM 35 more anyway). Once we arrived we booked ourselves into the resort on Manukan Island and once again got the plushest accommodations there but what the hey, we were still celebrating the silver.

Our ‘room’ was like an apartment unit without a kitchen. The first floor had a sitting room, dining room and bathroom. The upstairs was the bedroom with a balcony. We watched Italy beat Germany in that room. The water of the South China Sea is easily 40 degrees warmer than the Gulf of Maine. Snorkeling didn’t require body suits, unless one needed sun protection. We swam around for a couple of hours in the morning after a quick walk (bird walk for Howie, which brought his trip list up to 200+ or -) on the jogging path.

That same day found us on a plane with Tony Fernandez, head of Air Asia, the budget airline we have been using whenever possible. Tony (we are on a first-name basis, yes) made his way down the aisle, talking to everyone, listening to complaints, accepting complements and trying to answer everyone’s questions. When he heard that we are living in Cambodia, he informed us that soon there will be a Cambodia Air Asia (they already fly to Phnom Penh), which can only mean cheap (like the $10 from PP to Bangkok) flights to many Asian cities.

Took a cab to the train station when we got to KL (though Tony suggested the bus: we were pressed for time). The train had comfortable berths and we slept through the night and woke up in Singapore, where Annie from the Backpacker Hotel approached us with a brochure. Her place was in Little Italy and convenient for the metro. We recommend her place but make sure you have earplugs.

We found Singapore to be the least Asian city, aside from the people all around. In the one day we spent there we visited the botanical gardens and shopped at our friend Bee Choo’s bookstore, Nature’s Niche. We were sad that she and Morten were out of town. Other friends we would have visited were away too, so we played tourist and walked all over Orchard Road and Chinatown. Found the Art Museum, which is free from 6 pm on Fridays. Early the next morning (July 8^th) we flew Tiger Air to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

12 – Lava and Samthar; train to Kolkata

Crowded share-jeep from Gangtok to Lava (5 ... [Continue reading this entry]

Gangtok

April 22^nd – return to Gangtok. Road a shared jeep with Matt Raue, whose schoolmate is a friend of Lianna’s from Maine. He directed us to the Modern Central ... [Continue reading this entry]

Bhutan images. Prayer flags on walking bridge in Paro...went in search of ibisbill. And there we found it. [Continue reading this entry]

Good Bye Phnom Penh

This afternoon we leave town on a big air-conditioned bus. We had not expected to stay this long in Phnom (you do pronounce the ‘p,’ ‘h’ indicates an expulsion ... [Continue reading this entry]

Wayne’s World, etc.

Saturday 2/18/06 we moved into Wayne’s penthouse apartment. It’s one of 3 on the 3^rd floor of a French colonial building ... [Continue reading this entry]