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 […]
Cu Chi Tunnels (Ben Duoc)
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 […]
Ho Chi Min City
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. […]
Lung Ngoc Hoang Nature Reserve
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 […]
Angkor National Museum
I just noticed that we never published this post. Here it is a few weeks late. We had read that the Angkor National Museum was best seen prior to visiting the actual temples. Consequently, we ignored that advice and saw it after visiting Angkor Wat and Ta Proehm. This was a mistake. We took the […]
Food Tour on Scooter
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 […]
War Remnants Museum
I am chastened. They say that history is written by the victors. Clearly, the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Min City has a “pro-liberation” attitude. Even so, the evidence is pretty much undeniable. In hindsight, I was probably a bit “holier than thou” with my Killing Fields post. Having seen what we did in […]
Phnom Penh
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 […]
Killing Fields and Genocide Museum
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 […]
National Museum of Cambodia
After the fabulous Angkor National Museum in Siem Reap, we didn’t have high hopes for the National Museum of Cambodia. Nonetheless, our hotel is only a block away, so we walked over. After a bit of a mix-up about guides, we made it in, with an English-speaking guide. He, unfortunately, was sick with a cold. […]