Blogs from Asia - page 15993

1964 Diary Entry "The next day Mr Sung once again picked us up. This time he was taking us out to the New Territories. This trip was to take five hours. First of all we went to the Dragon Inn which looks right out over the bay. I took a picture of this wonderful sight. Then we got in the car and drove on. For 1/4 of an hour we drove through nothing but rice fields and soon after that we stopped at another restaurant where we all had something to drink. After drinking we drove on. Again we drove through ricefeilds (sic). After about 1/4 of an hour we stopped at the walled city. As you can guess this means that it's a city with a wall around it. People still live inside this city ... read more

1964 Diary Entry "The next morning we got up and got dressed and then we went down and had breakfast. We then went shopping and Mum and Dad bought quite a few things. After shopping we went back to the hotel for lunch. After lunch Dad took me over to Hong Kong island on a ferry. Over at Hong Kong I took my first photo on the trip. When we were walking up one street we saw some street musicians. One was playing a xylophone and the other one was playing a mandolin. The one with the mandolin came over to us and Dad gave him twenty cents. We walked halfway back to the ferry and the rest of the way we went in a rickshaw. We then went back to Kowloon where we caught a ... read more

Hong Kong was the third stop on the 1963 Around-The-World trip. Arrival from Taipei was at the old Kai-Tak Airport via Civil Air Transport's Mandarin Jet. The hotel was a fairly modern one in in Kowloon. I confess I made the mistake of ordering a hamburger for lunch. It was on the restaurant menu, but of course was nothing like an American hamburger. It was simply a meat patty in a bun. I recall a there was a terrific rainstorm on the second night. The first day consisted of Hong Kong sightseeing in Kowloon and Hong Kong island. We took a ferry from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island. We rode the Peak Tram funicular to Victoria Peak for the scenic view over Hong Kong and Kowloon. Quite a panoramic view it was! There was the classic ... read more

Dalat School was beginning a major transformation. A new boys’ dorm was constructed to the left of the old boys’ dorm which was now the administrative building with an expanded dining hall. The lower piece of property to the left of the girls’ dorm was bulldozed for a track and playing fields. U.S. Army advisors were assigned to teach at the Vietnamese Military Academy, and they brought their families with them. U.S. Army dependants from Saigon also came to Dalat School for their education. We had children whose parents were with foreign embassies and foreign aid organizations; including a boy from Egypt. So the student population was becoming quite cosmopolitan. My dorm parents for this five year period were Uncle John and Aunt Esther. Until about 1960, driving from Saigon to Dalat was safe, but after ... read more

My parents were assigned to Nakhon Ratchsima (Korat), Thailand for language training, which would last two years. While learning Thai, my Dad also taught English to the cadets who were learning to fly F-86 jets at the Korat Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) Base. My Dad had a knack for names and remembered all of his students; even years later when they became the top officers in the military, and one became governor of Bangkok (then the owner of the Rose Gardens, a popular tourist attraction an hour west of Bangkok). When Mom was pregnant with me, she needed a doctor who turned out to be Dr. Supoch, an army doctor from the local base. Dr. Supoch eventually rose in rank to become the Surgeon General and one of the King's doctors. When my parents retired ... read more