It’s been a while since I’ve posted, mostly because we’re traveling to many different cities and Tom’s been on the computer confirming travel plans and doing business with US companies (including the Navy Exchange, unfortunately) that can’t comprehend that someone might travel outside the US and not be able to just pick up a phone and call during their business hours. Skype has been very useful, but those companies who say “just mail us a copy of …” should be disestablished. I tease Tom that the reason he likes Japan so much is that it’s pathologically organized. We breezed through immigration and customs at Tokyo’s Haneda airport and were in our taxi within 25 minutes – and almost immediately were tangled in traffic resulting from an overturned truck on the elevated highway. In our hotels, there ... read more

We were sitting on the balcony of our hotel in Hue, when Tom said, "Look at that man!" He was repairing a window on a building a few blocks away. This was not the only time we saw such daring, but usually the worker wore some sort of safety harness. Not this guy.... read more

So I’m sitting in the Quy Nhon train station, which is actually in Dieu Tri, when I spot a familiar logo on a new or freshly pressed T-shirt. I don’t think the older man sitting across the way from me really understood my interest, but he politely allowed me to take these photos. Bunker, would you please notify the Ford dealer?... read more

The Mekong is Asia’s international river, starting in Tibet and flowing through China’s Yunnan province, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia before it gets to Vietnam. Issues of water conservation and environmental impacts of dams are the same here as on the Rio Grande or Colorado in the States. South of Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh City or HCMC), the river breaks into a delta, much like the Mississippi. We traveled on a teak boat south from the town of Cai Be to Ha Tien on the west coast of Vietnam, which borders the Gulf of Thailand. A working river, the Mekong carries everything from huge barges to tourist boats to small boats and canoes carrying produce, fish or people . We boarded one day and floated overnight, then transferred to a car to drive across “dancing ... read more

Today, we’ll fly to Vietnam after a wonderful few days in Hong Kong. The weather here is usually foggy and cool this time of year, but they’re apparently having the same kind of winter as east Tennessee. We’ve had three days of blue sky, blue water, and temps in the 70s and 80s, and spent two days exploring two of the 263 (I did not count) outer islands: Lamma Island and Cheung Chau Island. You can’t do anything in Hong Kong without crossing water, and dozens of boats and ships are moving through Victoria Harbor between Kowloon and Hong Kong at any time. We took one ferry to get to the central piers, changing to other ferries to the outer islands. Lamma was highly recommended as a place to hike and eat seafood, so we planned ... read more