Sometimes I Manage to Find an Entire Country Closed For The Day

We strolled along the footbridge as the waters of the Saône swooshed by below, serenaded by the wind running its invisible bowstrings across the great twisted steel cables, sounding a low pitched hum that reverberated through the railing and into my fingertips. Across the river is the old city, and above us stands the Notre […]

A Trip Deferred

If years ago you would have told me that I would travel to 24 other countries before visiting France, I would have been dubious, not just of the overall number, but of the sequence. Somehow, however, that’s how things have worked out, and now this is country number 25, and my fifth new country to […]

Vietnam: Final Musings From The Journey Home

I’m on my way home now, suspended somewhere over the Pacific as I write this. And what a trip this has been. Sometimes these wrap-up posts (when I write them) are compilations of tips and minor stories, but this one is more ruminative. I’m trying to assemble my thoughts and feelings into something coherent, and […]

Winding Things Up In Hanoi

Last night’s dinner was followed by karaoke. The food on the boat is OK – but not what I’ve had in Hanoi (I’m still haunted by the memory of that green papaya salad from the first night) or even on the trail in SaPa. Anyway, some time after Hotel California, I excused myself to my […]

In Which I Embrace My Anxieties

The overnight train pulled into Hanoi at 430 AM and I climbed out in search of the hotel where I was to spend the next few hours. The travel agent booked it as the only real option near the train station given the scenario, but I just didn’t have a good feeling about the place, […]

Some Values Are Universal

There was some sort of animal living the ceiling of my bedroom last night. I don’t think it was a large creature, but rather a small one. Perhaps a burrowing insect of some sort – maybe even a family of termites or carpenter ants – I’m assuming they have some variety of both here. Whatever […]