All was going well. Made it to Amtrak on time thanks to Preston, jumped on BART and hit the airport. Everything was going fine until we went through security. It is not a good idea to have two cans of thick liquid wrapped in foil and an alarm clock in a backpack. I was pulled by TSA and they swabbed my pack for explosives. When that came out clear, the TSA agent asked me what was in the cans-I turned bright red and said I was trying to stick to my diet-SlimFast shakes. Not even the real SlimFast-the generic brand from Safeway. I had completely forgotten I had thrown the cans in my pack. Steven walked away. The TSA agent laughed and said I didn't need to be on a diet. Steven now calls me the ... read more

'tis true. Hanoi is trying to kill me. We thought the traffic in Saigon was the worst we had seen but Hanoi wins top prize. What Hanoi has that Saigon doesn't is young males on motorbikes that race through alleys, streets, sidewalks, and crowds. On our walk home last night we were really taking care of each other. I told Steven this morning I am not going down past the 2nd floor-that way they can't get me since they can't climb stairs. Well, at least I haven't seen them try to climb any stairs. But we are going to venture out again today-I have my Ganesh, The Remover of Obstacles in my backpack. I am hoping her powers extend to "Keeper of My Bottom from Bad Motorbikes from Behind". We are staying in the Old Quarter-it ... read more

We leave tomorrow morning at 6:30 am to fly from Hoi An to Hanoi. We have had the best time! Our sunburns are at least bearable at the moment, and it was actually 38 degrees-do the calculations-translates to your pants are soaked and it looks like you didn't quite make it to the bathroom. We have been lounging at our hotel Thien Than, Steven has been in the pool and I have been watching movies in the air conditioning. Oh, and watching the two little boys in their birthday suits get baths in front of their house-hard for Grandma to keep them contained. Today I wrote down directions for the breakfast buffet. The coffees are Vietnamese style and not so easy to figure out the first couple of times. Also, so many people from so many ... read more

Ahhhh..............Hoi An. Our favorite hotel, Thien Than, with our lovely hosts Bing and An, a breakfast buffet, and oh-but nothing worth having comes easy. I need to go back. We arranged the reservation on the phone for Thien Than back in Saigon. I was actually calling the wrong hotel-but I did say it, spell it, describe it, and named the owner. The hotel I was talking to said yes, yes, yes. We took a taxi to the airport and checked our flight. Cancelled. Ticket agent said we could have a refund. We ran to another airline and they had a flight leaving in 10 minutes-so we divided and conquered. Steven bought the new tickets and I ran to get the refund. (Not sure that was an even splitting of tasks). The refund was a bit difficult ... read more

Drove from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap-have been here two days. We stopped at Spidertown on the way-I bought black spider rings to give to the girls selling fried tarantuals-bit hit with all of them. We also have some lovely pictures to share-mostly with live tarantulas crawling on us. No worries-they are defanged, or at least that is what the girls promised. We visited the war museum (just for you Ed!) and we have some incredible pictures of death machines set in beautiful plumeria trees with butterflies. Kind of describes Cambodia in a nutshell. Here is our funny story of the day. We wanted to see Angkor Wat at sunset. It is supposedly the most stunning at sunrise but that would require me to get up before 10:00 am. So sunset it was. Our driver takes ... read more