Adventures in Fruit

The fruit in Southeast Asia seems like it might have come from an imaginative science fiction writer. Forget apples, oranges and pears. Bananas come in multitudes of sizes and colors and flavors. I know this might seem like a silly topic, but I have really enjoyed the crazy variety of strange and exotic fruit in

Vietnam Wrap Up Post

I liked Vietnam. Bizarre American War experiences aside, Vietnam has a lot to intrigue a tourist – good food, friendly people, beautiful natural landscapes, interesting history, beaches (although we didn’t see any), and more. Like the Philippines, our time in Vietnam felt rushed, and when we left, a great deal remained on my Vietnam to-see

Ha Long Bay

I’d never heard of Ha Long Bay before and in our initial plan for Vietnam, we weren’t going to have time to see it (even after we figured out that it existed and was awesome).  But after talking to travelers for 2 weeks, it became clear that Ha Long Bay was not to be missed. 

Socialist Hero Postalwoman

After our maybe-a-little-overboard custom-tailoring adventures in Hoi An, I was quite nervous about the reality of getting our newly-purchased goods safely home to Texas.  Every tailor shop has a list showing their shipping prices, but we had acquired stuff from 4 different tailoring shops plus we wanted to ship some stuff from Singapore and the

You get what you pay for (relatively)

Hoi An is probably the biggest backpacker hotspot in Vietam.  And the reason for that is the 500+ tailoring shops there.  Everywhere you walk in Hoi An, tailors (actually, salespeople for tailoring shops, as the tailors are all busy sewing stuff, I guess) are asking to make you a suit, a coat, a dress, shoes

Vietnam Cooking Class

In Hoi An, I signed up for a Vietnamese cooking class. While I can make a mean chili and a tasty roast chicken, Pho and the like are a mystery to me. I was eager to learn the underlying theory and to learn a few dishes I could replicate at home. Many of the restaurants

History is Written by the Victors, or the American War

Visiting the Cu Chi Tunnels so soon after visiting Corregidor Island (in the Philippines – a World War II site highlighting Filipino and American involvement in WWII) really made an impact. The contrast in attitude was stark. Of course, American influence in the Philippines is not all good (a legacy of sex tourism and KFC