The Final Journal I am ready to be home--The ultimate DeMilitarized Zone. This journey has been a physical, mental and emotional rollercoaster. I am glad I took the ride, but I am ready to disembark. I am reminded of a scene in Bram Stroker's Dracula (1992), where Mina asks Dracula to "Take me away from all this death!” I too have been around it long enough. How fortunate that I am able to hop on a plane and make it all go away. Five weeks ago, I set out to explore the effects of war, and each day they became me. I have seen and heard such horror and found myself sinking into the dark corners of my mind. As I re-read my own travel journals, I see how the heaviness was building and weighing down ... read more

CAMBODIA Sihanoukville (8/16 +8/17/10) Phnom Penh (8/18 +8/19/10) For my final four days in Cambodia, I stayed in two different cities, the first of which was a beach city called Sihanoukville. I wanted to stop here because it was the last official U.S. battle of the Vietnam War (even though it was in Cambodia). I learned three things in Sihanoukville : 1) There is no memorial or museum to commemorate the last battle (or any battle) of the Vietnam War 2) I am not the oldest solo male traveler. There are a whole slew of them here; all white and middle-aged or beyond and... oh yah... 3) They're pretty much all paedophiles. I have renamed Sihanoukville--paedophile beach. John and I sat on the beach the first day and were unable to relax and enjoy the surrounding ... read more

August 9-10 My journey as a whole is more than halfway over, while my time in Vietnam has come to a close. In my final couple days, I got the heck out of Dong Ha to spend my last full day in Hue. Hue has SO much culture and even better food, so I took a bus there right after my DMZ tour. I learned some smaller bus stations do not sell tickets to foreigners, which allows the operators to charge six times what everyone else pays. I threw a bit of a fit and almost used my two favorite Viet sentences ("I am crazy" and "I am Satan Hooker") but was able to get the price down to only double the normal value without going there. I was comfortable in my seat with the luggage ... read more

8/6/10 and 8/7/10 Hoi An and My Lai I have a two-fold purpose in Hoi An; one is to meet with Phong, a Vietnamese war veteran, the other is to visit My Lai, site of a village massacre during the war. Mr. Phong 8/6/10 I learned about Phong during my Mekong Delta trip in Saigon. Two British girls recommended him to me and I tracked him down at a restaurant in Hoi An. I visited Phong's home along with a young German couple and an even younger Polish couple. Phong and his wife were quite sweet and gracious; very hospitable. He gave us a lot of history about Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh and his own experiences relating to communism and life in Vietnam before and after the war. Like many families, his was divided, with uncles ... read more

8/2/10-Dalat The night bus dropped us off in the middle of Dalat at 5 am. We expected forests or jungles in the hillside, instead we were in a sleepy city without any green in sight. Our initial response was disappointment. We parked ourselves at the only open tea stand and waited until the hotels opened. Once established, we considered our gameplan. Our hotel was the hangout of "the Easy Riders", a group of vets who serve as motorcycle guides to the forest/jungle areas of Dalat. On my first trip to Vietnam, I was both a driver and passenger on motorcycles across the northern countryside. But something was telling me NOT to do this excursion. I don't know if it was the weather, or my weariness from the night bus, but I had a gut instinct that ... read more