Archives
Yesterday: Hoi An, tourist village extraordinaire…Let’s see…where were we? I know…yesterday evening in Hoi An. We are street walkers in a quaint village brimming over with tourists, that nevertheless manages to retain a low-key pleasantness that’s hard to match. Vietnamese people have a dignity about them that’s apparent in stores and restaurants and crowds—it’s something about the upright way they hold themselves and a politeness that’s half friendliness and half maintaining a… Read More
Back to yesterday in Ho Chi Minh City for another few paragraphs and more photos before traveling on: Up in the morning. Hit the streets by 7am with our bright young motorbike guides. That unplanned Sydney stopover sucked up some of our already-brief HCMC (also known as Saigon) hours but focus conquers time…we hope. I usually think China and/or India will run the world by sometime in the not-too-distant future. But then our… Read More
Later in Hoi An, Vietnam: Rainy day Writing Time. Teresa wanted sun and, as a kind and generous granny, I wanted sun for her, but now I accept that it’s raining because deep down I wanted a warm rainy day even more…sorry Lace, that was bad of me. Therefore I am looking forward to a day of reading and writing and Lace is doing a Vietnamese cooking class with a group of Israelis…. Read More
It’s 4am Monday in Hoi An, Vietnam; 3pm Sunday in Albuquerque. Thick warm air with a smoky overlay wafts in through the window by my bed. Rain moving in. The 36 or so hours since we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (which most people here still call Saigon) have been rich, dense, sensual…kind of exhausting…in a good way. First though there’s a travel side-story in the road here from Wellington, one… Read More
It is dark dawn at this moment in Wellington and here in what back-in-the-day would have been called a ‘boarding house’ most people are still asleep—only one young Italian woman busily tapping away at her lap top in the kitchen, and me tiptoeing around with a flashlight so I won’t wake Teresa I realize this is one of the things I actually like best about travel—the scoping out of and adaptation to… Read More
Just hanging out at home. Back to blogging. Some reading. Nap coming up. It is 8 pm, Monday, Oct. 23rd in New Mexico; 3 pm, Tuesday, Oct. 24th in New Zealand. A world of miles and attitudes apart. It feels very April-like today. Chilly sun. But big bright flowers and a lush maritime green. According to an organization called SafeAround, I’m in the 5th safest country in the world. The US is… Read More
Where to begin. Here in cloudy damp cool (it is, after all, spring here) Wellington, New Zealand…life is very good. Teresa is mostly off today, just a bit of morning work and I am determined to break my long blogging-block spell. We’ve just had a lovely breakfast of baguette, olive oil, coconut yogurt, kiwi and dark hot coffee. T. shares a house with four roommates from Italy, Spain, and Japan—an old cold… Read More
How many times do I proclaim my pleasure in travel preparation, in finding the right tickets (cheap), tights (warm), toothpaste (small), and texts (non-profound)? Many times. Now, with lift-off for the next big one less than a month away, all of these small decisions are looming large and, in some cases, demand corrective action. For example: With much guessing and groping and griping, I have learned to navigate the official website of… Read More
You already know what I did on my vacation, i.e. taking Ghost out for a 4000 mile trial run, refreshing my Minnesota DNA, bingeing on leaf photos…. What I’ve done since—well that is complicated. The holiday ended Saturday, September 16th. The Vietnam War took over Sunday, the 17th. The impact on me, a non-participant who lost neither family nor friends in the war, has nevertheless been powerful. In the days since Déjà… Read More