Blogs from Asia - page 15999

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

For the Chinese and many East Asian countries, a month after a baby is born the child is one year old; the point where the child is considered viable, having gone through the highest risk periods of infant mortality with life beginning with conception. As I was conceived in China, I am beginning this story of my life's journeys with the marriage of my parents on January 11, 1949. My parents William Donald (hereafter referred to as Dad) and Edna Dorothy (known simply as Bonnie since her college days, and hereafter referred to as Mom), were married at the mission station in Labrang, Gansu Province, China, in what is ethnographically Tibet. Labrang (Chinese name is Xiahe) is a major Tibetan religious center, with a monastery which at the time had over 5000 monks, but let's back ... read more

Vang Vieng is known for being a major tourist/party town in Laos, and it is. There's a "lazy" river tubing that you can do, it just isn't very lazy. The current rips and along the river are all these bars that offer free shots when you get in. The only trick is to get to them. They throw you life rings and pull you against the current, which in most cases you just feel like your going to flip over and keep going down the river. I had no such problems, luckily. So you get to the bars and each one has some attraction. It may be a 20-40 foot slide that launches you into the river or a 50 foot rope swing that inevitably some clown tries to do a backflip. Some actually succeed...most fail. ... read more