Laos really has been a gift of our travel agent…probably would not have come here otherwise. We will always be grateful to her for recommending these extra three (3) days. Even though I’m ready to start winging it back to my beloved homeland, leaving this idyllic part of the world is not easy. It has […]

This will be a relatively short note…primarily to let you know that we have arrived in Siem Reap in northern Cambodia. The journey out of Phnom Penh was eventful as it was morning rush hour — the Guide had made sure we had lots of time, because the roads were clogged. That city has more […]

Sometimes I think I should have read more, or at least read the books that were assigned to me in my formative days at school (note to Grandkids — make sure you actually read the entire books that you are told to read in school, most teachers actually know what they’re doing when they give […]

Before I start talking about Cambodia, it is important to wrap-up the journey through Vietnam. When I last was chatting about the tour, we had arrived at a charming hotel in Can Tho. This place was opulent to the French core and if I’d known about it sooner I would have asked to stay there […]

Today the real economic engine of Vietnam met me with searing heat and Ontario-like humidity. This city rocks! Skyscrapers abound (including one [1] that is about sixty [60] stories high). The port is beginning to look a lot like Vancouver’s. There are six million [6,000,000] motorbikes for the ten million [10,000,000] residents. It’s rumoured that […]

Sometimes one really ought to take time to walk through a Buddhist Pagoda (in Vietnam that includes the tower & the temple & all the grounds surrounding) whether or not one happens to even understand Buddhism. And after such an experience it isn’t necessarily a bad thing to listen to Paul McCartney sing “Long & […]

Well it has finally happened…I’ve reached that perfect age that the Old Testament prophets first identified as three score years and ten…and it happened in the interesting city of Hue — the ancient capital of Vietnam. Now for those of you who might wonder why I would pick this city for such a momentous occasion, […]