I love tennis. As a kid of 7 or 8, I remember our whole family going down to the local courts to hit the ball around. When we got home, I’d put the wooden racquets into their braces which had to be tightened with clamps. I’m not...
Vietnam
Iconic Saigon – The Caravelle Hotel
International media. Cocktails. The Opera House. Diplomats. Throw in a bomb scare against the backdrop of a war with an inexorably ominous ending for good measure. If it’s drama you wanted, the Caravelle Hotel in the 1960s was the place to be, home to various embassies and...
Phnom Penh, My Friend
There’s something to be said about old friends. Sure, new friends are great, too. There’s that whole period where you’re just getting to know each other and every new detail makes that person seem that much more awesome. Wow! Really? You’ve been to Antarctica? That’s just so...
The Birdmen of Saigon
I’ve always had pets, as far back as I can remember. My parents lovingly put up with a menagerie of animals, starting with me bringing home a guinea pig from 2nd grade (I didn’t like it) and various reincarnations of birds and fish. There was even the...
Vung Tau, Vietnam — How to go to the beach like a local
Saigon can be… frenetic. There’s so much to love about this city, including unexpected sights around every corner. But even for the most spasmodic, sometimes it can get a bit… much. According to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transportation’s 2010 stats, there are 320,000 cars...
Photo of the Week — Keys and Kids
I recently had house guests, dear friends who I’ve known for years. A sweet couple and their two little kids, aged 7 and 10, cute as a button. I knew the family from when we were all living in Cambodia. They’ve since relocated to the countryside of...
Photo of the Week — You Don’t Bring Me Flowers
There’s this sad love song by Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand called “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers”. Don’t ask me why I know it. Seriously. I don’t know. Probably too much karaoke in my wayward, misspent youth? In any case, the song opens with: You don’t bring...
Vietnamese Food On The Cheap — A Photo Essay
It’s the age old question that man has been asking since the dawn of time: What is the meaning of life? Where can I find a great meal for under a buck? While I’ve been fortunate enough to have eaten by my way through over 60 countries,...
It’s Report Card Time! Grading My First Three Months in Vietnam
As a true nerd, I always loved getting report cards as a kid. Some strange, twisted streak in me loved getting judged (and the inevitable praise that followed). Anything less than As were unacceptable. Even a B+ was the equivalent of an Asian F. To set the...
Photo of the Week — Good Things Come in Small (Banana Leaf) Packages
There’s something about unwrapping a package that reduces even the most “adult” of us into a giddy child. Maybe it’s the memories of better, more innocent times. Or just pure, unadulterated joy that seems so hard to come by in later life. Whatever the case, I loves...