What's over there?
HANOI, VIETNAM – OK, I’ll admit that title isn’t entirely accurate. Not everyone hates me, and I’m sure there must be a couple people who actually like me… at least a little. And I know my wife likes me (most of the time anyway).
But I did eat a grub the other day. Several of them, in fact.
Continue reading “Nobody likes me, everybody hates me. Guess I’ll just eat… grubs”
HANOI, VIETNAM – John and I “never” travel with a tour, except for those rare occasions when we do…
Tours tend to hustle you along from point A to point B to point C with a limited amount of time at each one. We, however, might want to spend a little more time at point A, don’t really care about point B, and think point C looks like it should take a whole day.
Continue reading “Why we prefer independent travel”
HANOI, VIETNAM – As slow travelers, John and I always try to connect with the local culture, so we were thrilled to be invited recently to join a family for their traditional Tet (Lunar New Year) family lunch in a rural village just outside of Hanoi.
We really did not know what to expect, besides lots of food, so we saved the entire day for the experience, and brought a box of chocolates for our host, Khai, the number two son in the family.
Continue reading “Our traditional Tet lunch experience”
HANOI, VIETNAM – Our Christmas and New Year’s celebrations were certainly a bit different this year. We don’t usually do much, sometimes go to a movie, usually fix ourselves a nice dinner, but we’re not big gift-givers.
We both hate that in the U.S. the “Christmas season” seems to start even before summer ends. Continue reading “Christmas and New Year’s in Hanoi”
HANOI, VIETNAM – Brrr, it’s chilly here in Hanoi today. Especially after spending the last three days in Bangkok, where it was sunny and 80-plus degrees (27 degrees Celsius) and we could bring our shorts and sunscreen out of hiding for a change.
Now it’s back to wearing silk long underwear and a sweater, with the hope that it might get up to 60 by the afternoon.
Three days is not nearly enough time to explore anyplace the way Melanie and I like to, but we needed to leave Vietnam because our tourist visas were about to expire.
Continue reading “Bangkok for the weekend? Yeah, that just happened…”