Page 5 of David Horvitz aka Pops Travel Blog Posts


Asia » Vietnam » Mekong River Delta February 3rd 2015

This first photo is the last one Fran took before her phone was stolen. It's an add-in. Except for the accident it was a terrific day. We drove about 2 hours south of Saigon to the Mekong Delta. This is a big geographic area covering about 15% of Vietnam. Where we went there were small towns and smaller hamlets; farmers, fishermen and fish growers. We got off the bus at a local market where the girls shopped and Gary and I followed the confusing narrative of the last 2 minutes of the Superbowl. A little further along we stopped and got on a small boat. We motored down the fast flowing muddy river, past jungle covered dikes, fish traps, water hyacinth, and past small vessels docked against the shore. I thought about how dangerous it must ... read more
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Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City February 2nd 2015

Ho Chi Minh City, f/k/a Saigon, still called Saigon by everyone in Saigon, is very different from and has a very different vibe from Hanoi. It's more prosperous, has more positive energy, has better infrastructure, and it feels more modern and western. A lot of the older people living in Saigon were on the side of the South Vietnamese government, though a significant number were Viet Cong. The younger people, according to our guide, Thang, only know Americans as business people and tourists. We really felt welcomed here. We've felt no lingering hostility. In Hanoi, there was a different feel, the people were nice but reserved and maybe still resentful. But maybe that’s just my imagination. Hanoi feels 40 years behind Saigon and that's either charming or not, depending on your perspective. We took a walking ... read more
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Asia » Vietnam » Red River Delta » Hanoi January 31st 2015

Yesterday (now two days ago - last night we were in Halong Bay without internet so I'm sending this on Saturday) was a full day in Hanoi, with an early morning exercise observation, a walk with a chef through the street markets and sampling of street food, lunch at a local restaurant, a visit to the Hanoi Hilton, then to a factory where they made lacquer products, then to a local contemporary art gallery, and then back to the hotel for dinner. Whew. It was all memorable but I decided to focus this entry on two experiences; 1) street markets and street foods, and 2) the Hanoi Hilton. After breakfast we met a local sous chef, a very nice woman named Li, who took su through the markets. People in Hanoi are always cooking on the ... read more
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Asia » Vietnam » Red River Delta » Hanoi January 29th 2015

Jane Fonda and Joan Baez. We all know what they have in common. They were great looking when they were younger, they went to Hanoi during what the Vietnamese call the American War. They both came back to a lot of derision in the US. They both stayed in our hotel at different times in the early 1970s during the bombings and they both are revered in Hanoi. There is a bunker under our hotel and last night we took a tour. Interesting. Cozy. Not a place you’d like to spend much time. But Joan Baez did spend some time there and she did go to the roof of the hotel and record the sounds of the B52s and the explosions. And she did write a song about it, "Where Are You Now My Son?” and ... read more

Asia » Vietnam » Red River Delta » Hanoi January 28th 2015

Hanoi Day 2 Being on a tour with a full-time guide means that one has a full day and misses none of the “important” sites. On the other hand, the guide's important sites may not be ours, but being that we didn't research this trip at all, we were at his mercy. Our day today started with a visit to Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum. This is a really big thing here. There is quite a cult of personality and our guide, Tang, spouted the party line quite well. Apparently, Ho Chi Minh wanted to be cremated but since he founded communism int Vietnam, his body was the property of the state, just like everything else and they had other ideas. Communist countries liked their big mausoleums. They learned from Lenin’s and Mao’s that it’s a good ... read more
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Asia » Vietnam » Red River Delta » Hanoi January 28th 2015

Hanoi day 1. In the Cathay Pacific lounge, waiting for the Dragon Air flight to Hanoi, I round a corner and run into Michael and Joni Marek, good friends friends from Hollywood.They are on their way to Saigon. Pretty good small world story. Who wudda thought? Lots of travel stuff, none of it unexpected and while memorable to us, probably not very interesting to others, but I’ll quickly summarize; brand new airport, lots of men and women in Vietnamese military garb (green uniforms with hats with the red stripe), but not carrying guns, evidence that this is a poor country as we rode from the airport to the hotel, and extraordinarily interesting traffic and driving customs. Our tour isn’t starting until today so we had the afternoon at leisure. After lunch by the pool at our ... read more

Asia » Hong Kong » Hong Kong Island January 26th 2015

This is our afternoon siesta time on the second day of our visit to Hong Kong. In case you aren’t familiar with the word, siesta means rest or nap in Cantonese. When one wakes at 5 AM (jet lag issue) and walks all morning, the siesta after lunch time noodles is welcomed. We’ve been busy this last day and a half but you don't want me to detail our visits to the Ladies night market, the Temple night market, the Stanley market, the Peak, the tram ride down, the walk to Hollywood road and then the small streets off the main road that sell everything, I mean everything. You don’t want the details of our meals, Dim Sum, Peking Duck, noodles and more noodles, so I won’t write about any of it. Hong Kong is dense; ... read more
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Asia » Hong Kong January 24th 2015

I have been thinking. Plenty of time to do it. This flight is fourteen and a half hours long. How many dumb movies can one watch? I just watched one of the dumbest, “Nights in Rodathe” with Richard Gere and Dianne Lane. Even their pretty faces can’t save this badly written, badly acted bottle of artificially flavored syrup. I didn’t read the Nicholas Sparks novel (and wouldn’t admit it if I did - what pablum!) but I still knew everything that was going to happen in the movie and the sequence of these events before the initial credits were done being listed. Yes he dies. Sorry if I spoiled the ending. I’ve also been unable to read in the dark cabin as I keep falling instantly to sleep. I have been reduced to just thinking and ... read more

North America » United States » California January 22nd 2015

A pitifully small number of people have asked me to write a travel blog for the trip we are just starting; Hong Kong, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and Diem Reap, Cambodia. A subset of this pitifully small number of people have in the past indicated that they liked my self-depreciating writing style, my lyric use of language, and my incessant attempts, some successful, many not, at humor. Some of you might see evidence of these attributes in the previous two sentences. For those of you that do not, read no further. As I am usually an agreeable person, and really, mainly, because I enjoy writing, I’m going to take a shot at satisfying this request. If you’ve read parts of my previous travel blogs, you might be expecting a certain style. There may be ... read more

Europe » Netherlands » North Holland » Amsterdam September 1st 2010

We flew to Amsterdam and then flew home. It was a great trip. I enjoyed writing this blog. Hoped you enjoyed reading it. The End!... read more




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