I'm back at home and back to work--that is, grading and lesson planning. Here are a few photos from Ha Noi. Nothing was damaged in transit and my iPod failure seems to be related to a software incompatibility issue and I think it's fixed. Initial follow-up tasks after travel should include *Changing passwords for anything you opened on line, and arguably for your ATM card. *Checking your bank account and credit card report periodically to be sure they weren't compromised. *Putting your passport and other important cards and documents back where you normally keep them. *Not wea [View Full Entry]

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TravelBlog is still acting up, so a series of maps seems more likely to stick than one large giant map. My flights yesterday were smooth, including the tedious 11.5-12 hour crossing. I was originally seated in a 3-person row with two people who were quite large, had bad breath, coughed continuously without covering their mouths, hung into my space, and wiggled constantly as they tried to get comfortable and stow their many coats, bags, pillows, etc. I'm assuming from their difficulty with seatbelts and such that they were first-time fliers. We didn't have a language in common, but they made [View Full Entry]

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(Hey, TravelBlog, Hong Kong isn't a country.) I'm in Hong Kong, at the airport, enjoying a little quiet time before the next flight. Min picked me up at a little after 7 AM and now it's 13 hours later. My route takes me up the East Asian coast, across the top of the Pacific, and down, with today's (tomorrow's, I guess) terminus being Vancouver, BC, Canada. Not much to say other than that I took my World Bank friends to dinner last night, feeding the three of us handsomely for $40, and that I've already finished 3 books on this trip [View Full Entry]

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Awakened as usual at 6:00 AM by construction and the shouts of "chi ui!" which means "Hey/attention/alert sister/lady!" In the alley. I had some fruit, then decided to walk since it was already warm and humid and I figured I'd better get my exercise in early. I tried to find a Trung Nguyen cafe, which are supposed to be ubiquitous and as evil as Starbucks, but I was directed only to cafes that served their coffee but had no selection or (via Google) to other Nguyen businesses that had nothing to do with Trung Nguyen. Next time. The cardinal's actual funeral [View Full Entry]

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I'm watching Johnny Bravo on Cartoon Network. Can Courage, the Cowardly Dog be far behind? Some of you have asked about the Mekhong Whiskey. It helps to think of it as rum, because it's just bad rum, whereas it's terrible whiskey. It has heavy banana esters, but not in a good way. It's got no complexity or depth, and is sour. Mixing it with Diet Dr. Pepper was okay, but it really couldn't be drunk straight, so after a few attempts I left it at the hotel in Siem Reap. I hope it made someone very happy--it is a sort of [View Full Entry]

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My friend Frederic would sometimes remark that it was turtles all the way down. Here's how Stephen Hawking explains the origin of this phrase: A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat [View Full Entry]

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Last night I wrapped some gifts in red paper schlepped from Oregon. I also cleaned and polished my Tevas, which is not easy when you don't want to touch the soles. I intend my last act in the hotel to be scrubbing them with a toothbrush. The morning began with some typical Vietnamese events: 1. Construction two buildings down began at 6:10 AM. This makes the hotel shake, since all of the structures are attached. 2. Awakened by construction, I thought I might as well go downstairs, use the computer, and maybe go for a walk. Instead, I walked down to [View Full Entry]

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Actually, Vietnamese ripped off my cash! But that comes later in this account. Yesterday my friend and I went for a long walk around his neighborhood, through both urban and functionally rural agricultural areas. In no particular order, we saw bonzai fruit trees, water buffalo, common kingfishers, ossuaries, cyclos, whole fried dogs, and much burning of paper money. As we walked, we talked about our families and former classmates, as well as his work for the World Bank. He has a son with autism, so we spent a long time talking about how his transition to adulthood has been going. The [View Full Entry]

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My travel to Ha Noi yesterday was uneventful. The planes were smaller and dirtier than on the routes from Bangkok and Hong Kong, but both routes were short. Ho Chi Minh City is an international port and you can't fly on directly to other points in Viet Nam, but must collect your luggage, clear passport control and customs, and walk to the domestic terminal. Nonetheless, the clerk at the domestic terminal was deeply confused about where I had come from, the fact that I have only one small suitcase and one backpack, and that I was flying from Phnom Penh, not [View Full Entry]

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My route today takes me from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Sai Gon) to Ha Noi, where I'll be picked up by Min, a graduate of my university and our primary Viet Nam contact at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities. I was there in August, 2007 and a member of my faculty recently visited. One of the things I'll be doing is following up on their relationship-building work. I'll be giving 6 lectures (and, perhaps, more) and have several consultations and meetings scheduled, including with some people I met last time. I have the weekend to [View Full Entry]

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