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 […]
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 […]
Apologies to start. I don’t really remember the names of most of the foods we tasted. It’s more on me than on Hong, our wonderful guide. Hong grew up in a small agricultural village a ways away from Siem Reap. She regaled us with stories of how to catch baby frogs and rats to eat. […]
We’ve come to the end of our stay at Journey’s End on Koh Chang in the Gulf of Thailand. Every morning, I developed a routine that included: get up, threw on elephant pants, walk down to the beach, make myself a double cup of coffee, and do the NYT Wordle, Connections, Strands, Sudoku and the […]
By now it’s the 2nd of the new year, and you’re probably waking up. Nonetheless, Happy New Year! We started the evening with a sunset. It just doesn’t ever get boring. There is a tradition here at Journey’s End, that we are all (staff and guests) invited to the landlord’s place across the street for […]
Koh Chang (Elephant Island) is the third largest Thai island. It is on the eastern coast of the Gulf of Thailand. It is also not nearly as well known as Phuket or Koh Samui, between the western coast of the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea. For this reason, it is not as developed. […]
We flew from Vientiane to Don Muoang (the “Old”) Airport in Bangkok. Made our way to lodging, and it wasn’t much. But hey, $30 per night in Bangkok. Had dinner on a rooftop restaurant. The next day we took the MRT to Chatuchak Weekend Market and did some shopping. Pete and Lek showed up. We […]
It doesn’t take long to see why Luang Prabang is both a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the most visited tourist spot in Laos. It is one of the mellowest, slow-moving, unrushed places we’ve been. Even the motor scooters take it easy. We landed from our slow cruise down the Mekong and was taken to […]
All good things must come to an end, and it had become our last day in Chang Rai. Pete invited me to his weekly coffee with a few of his friends. The coffee was grown in the mountains by one of the hill tribes. It was delicious. The conversation was all over the place, as […]
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