Kuan Yin's Guestbook

I went to school in Dalat, Vietnam...
from 1956 to 1964 and experienced the war expanding from just the Viet Cong to include the Viet Minh. Our school was evacuated by the U.S. Air Force with several C-123's in 1965. I returned with my wife after college and served as acting design director for the U.S. Navy's design and construction office in Oct/Nov 1973, the year the peace treaty was signed. I was still in Thailand when Vietnam fell on 30 April 1975, and saw the many evacuees. I returned to Dalat with my son in 2009 and was graciously received by the Director of the school which was now a communist cadre training center for district and provincial officers. Pictures of Ho Chi Minh were in every room. It was wonderful to have access to the entire school and was able to show my son my dorm rooms and class rooms. in one class students called us in to sing a song. Then they sang a song. I learned that the Vietnamese do not hold grudges as we were welcomed by everyone we met. It's a wonderful country!

Hello from Carlsbad!
Hello Karen, I see you're out globe trotting again! Be safe and have a wonderful Christmas whevever you may be! And that Star Alliance lounge is gorgeous! Drink some bubbly for me. :)

Annoying but a bit sad too...
The hardest working carpet pusher we met in Istanbul followed us around for a while and then sat in the park with us for about an hour - all in the hope that we would suddenly change our minds and check out his 'family' shop. The next morning, by chance, we saw him walking off the 6am ferry from the Asian side...to spend his day pushing carpets. A hard gig.