We left HCMC, (always reminds me of Hennepin County Medical Center), and headed North by plane via Da Nang to Hoi An. This is a very walkable, smaller but busy, town. The weather is much cooler and it sprinkles rain daily. I’m freezing so we bought puffer jackets for around 25$ as we will need […]
One of our goals in visiting Vietnam has been to better understand what happened during the Vietnam war (called the American War here). To this end, we decided to take a tour of the Cu Chi tunnels. Vietnam has done an amazing job of turning these tunnels, 20 years of war in the making, into […]
Saigon is the second largest city we’ve visited so far, behind only Bangkok. It seems we prefer somewhat smaller cities, perhaps from having spent so much time in Saint Paul. At any rate, it took some getting used to, but we were reasonably successful. I’ve already talked about the motorcycles. Traffic, in general, is intense. […]
We decided to check out the Mekong Delta a little bit. In searching for tours, we found what looked like something a little bit different, maybe less touristy – the Lung Ngoc Hoang Nature Reserve. Lung Ngoc Hoang is a 28 km2 wetland located in Hau Giang Province, Vietnam. According to legend, the name “Lung Ngoc Hoang” comes […]
Ho Chi Minh City had over 8.4 million vehicles – 819,000 cars and 7.6 million motorbikes – by the end of 2021. There are around 79 cars and 309 motorbikes newly registered every day. By my accounting, that makes about 350,000 more by now, or close to 8 million. It is nearly impossible to describe […]
After Koh Chang and Siem Reap, Phnom Penh has been a bit of a shock to our systems. It is a fast-growing metropolis of about 2.4 million. Before the Khmer Rouge, it was about 2 million. It was less than 100 thousand after. Phnom Penh After Dark – We met up with Sherri and Marty […]
Due to the somber nature of these spots, we have decided to write this post differently. There will be far fewer photos, with focus on more beautiful scenes and important monuments. We will also share our personal experiences. Steve – Although numbers are unclear there were between 2 and 3 million people killed by the […]
Postcard from Ellen – January, 2025 Hello everyone, I haven’t been blogging as much this trip. I realized it’s partly because there are so many followers I have been feeling self conscious. But also because, like many of you the craziness around the USA has gotten me very down at times and I wanted the […]
Tonle Sap is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia. It is very near Siem Reap, so there are a bunch of tours to various fishing villages. We’ve been told that the closest one is a tourist trap, full of scams. Kompong Khleang is the furthest from Siem Reap, and the most authentic. We signed […]
Angkor Thom was the last and most enduring capital city of the Khner Empire. It was established in the late twelfth century and covers an area of 9 km². At the centre of the city is the Bayon state temple, with the other major sites clustered around the Victory Square immediately to the north including the Elephant […]
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