June 18, 2005
A Harley in Viet Nam
June 10, 2004 While I was in Bangkok Bob flew to Vietnam. He wrote to say he had difficulties accessing the web today and spent most of the day...Read this update
June 12, 2005
Perfect Memories
What A Perfect Day...It's Such A Perfect Day...And Then We Go Home Have been re-reading a book that I have been dragging around with me for the last year....Read this update
April 01, 2005
Familiar Old Quarter Hanoi
I had to check out of Thailand...thought my visa was 90 days that I got in Kunming in December but it was only 60 days. So at the end of...Read this update
October 20, 2002
The Communist Party
People everywhere in Viet Nam confided in me, as a foreigner who would not know who to tell anyway, that they hated the corrupt officials in the Communist Party that...Read this update
Catholics In Vietnam
Catholics have never had an easy time of it in Vietnam beginning with the Confucian elite who opposd the intrusions of missionaries among whom was Alexandre de Rhodes who devised...Read this update
'Peaceful Evolution'
In Viet Nam, the enemies of the Communist Party, in the absence of conflict, has become the democracy and human rights promoted by the forces of 'peaceful evolution.' Enemy jets...Read this update
October 17, 2002
The Myth of "Nam"
The male fantasy of Saigon that was nurtured in Graham Greene's "The Quiet American" written in the 1950's is recreated superficially in bars in Saigon with names like Apocalypse...Read this update
October 16, 2002
Tourism Vietnamese Style
From the 200 kilometers of the Cu Chi tunnels, six layers deep just outside Saigon, the Viet Cong (South Vietnamese communist fighters) planned their campaigns on the South Vietnamese...Read this update
October 14, 2002
Saigon
I wrote this in the Cambodian Foreign Correspondent's Club. Most countries have them...It's a good place to get away from the moto taxis, the cyclos and beggars, the heat...Read this update
October 12, 2002
Making Friends in Lang Co
spent the night in a backpacker hotel before boarding an air conditioned tour bus the next morning for Danang. On the way to Danang though, we pass through Lang...Read this update
October 11, 2002
To Hue On A Sack Of Rice
My motorcycle taxi drivr, Mr. Binh, takes me to a small cafe by the side of the road leading out of Quang Tri where we wait to wave down...Read this update
October 08, 2002
Quang Tri
The next morning in Dong Ha, Mr. Binh picks me up at 8:00 and the hotel owner toasts us with tea before we motorcycle about 25 km south to...Read this update
October 06, 2002
Vinh Moc Tunnels
I freak in the 2.5 km of tunnels at Vinh Moc just a few kilometers north of Dang Ha and beg to be led out of the nearest exit....Read this update
October 05, 2002
Viet Kiew
In Dong Ha, my motorcycle taxi driver and I talk about Vietnam and America and the Viet Kiew, the Vietnamese Americans that return to visit. He greatly resents these...Read this update
October 04, 2002
Dong Ha and the DMZ
October 4, 2002 Stumbled off the night train from Hanoi at 6am and found a seat at the outdoor railroad station cafe to dump my bags and have a...Read this update
October 03, 2002
Getting Blessed
Getting into Hanoi late on the train after visiting Sapa, I walked into a hotel down the street from the train station because I was going to leave again the...Read this update
October 01, 2002
Sapa
Tuesday October 1-3, 2002 Took the narrow gauge train to Lao Cai on the Chinese border and then traveled an hour by 4-wheel drive over a torturously slow single...Read this update
September 25, 2002
Hanoi City Tour
Wasn’t excited by the city bus tours so spent an entire day riding behind a motorcycle taxi guy to visit the One Pillar Pagoda, Temple of Literature and the Martyrs’...Read this update
Hanoi
September 24 2002 Bob left Hanoi right away on the train for Sapa near the Chinese border to do some trekking among the colorful minority villages and then to...Read this update