-
Travelling and Remembering
After thirty-five hours of travelling, I reached Vancouver and my cozy home. The trip took so long due to an 11-hour layover in Seoul. I couldn’t see wasting good sight-seeing time, so I took a five-hour city tour while there. I nearly froze! My smart phone is not as smart as it thinks it is…
-
Browsing and Waiting
The group left early this morning leaving behind Mel and Claire and me who are flying out at midnight (ouch!) and Claudia who is continuing on to another Road Scholar tour through Myanmar. The four stragglers headed out in a taxi to visit a new high-end shopping mall. I thought it was probably built to…
-
Drifting and Caving
We drove for four hours this morning from Ha Noi to Ha Long Bay, and the drive was certainly worth the while. Along the way we saw farmers planting rice in the traditional way. Occasionally we also saw a mechanized plow but there was no sign of any automated planting.
-
Learning and Puppet-ting II
Rice – who would have thought there was so much to learn about rice? Varieties, planting seasons, length of time to germination, seed formation and harvesting, yields, and so on. We met with Professor Pham Van Cuong of the Hanoi University of Agriculture who waxed eloquent on all of the above. He made a point…
-
Respecting and Cyclo-ing
Hanoi – what a place! It pulsates and buzzes and weaves and blares. Twelve million people live here who collectively own 30 million scooters. Traffic rules seem non-existent – drive on either side of the street and on the sidewalk if that is faster, and weave in and out and just make your way willy-nilly…
-
Cruising and Considering
Our last day in Cambodia has been the highlight of this tour for me and for many of my colleagues. We left the hotel at 7 am and drove for about 45 minutes to Tonle (pronounced Ton-lee) Sap, “Great Ocean Lake.” In the dry season – now – the Tonle Sap drains into the Mekong…
