Monday, February 27, 2006

Our Transportation

This is what our "trusty steed" is going to look like that we pedal throughout Vietnam and Cambodia.
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I'm Learning How to Post Photos

These are a few pictures from recent trips.

The view from Black Dragon Pool Park in Lijiang, Yunnan Province, China.
A closer view of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain outside of Lijiang.
Closeup of a chedi from the Grand Palace in Bangkok, Thailand.
Driving an ox cart to the "five-day" market outside Indein near Inle Lake in Shan Province, Myanmar
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And here is a brief slideshow of photos from recent trips to Myanmar, Thailand, China, Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands, and now Vietnam and Cambodia.

Friday, February 24, 2006

Newspapers, websites, and blogs

Today, I came across a newspaper article from Toronto's Globe and Mail, in which the writer reviewed a portion of the trip we are about to embark on. She did the Vietnam part of our tour. The article is kind of interesting.

Here's a link to it: Toronto Globe and Mail

I also spent some time looking at a great food blog - http://www.noodlepie.com

The blogger (a British journalist temporarily living in Vietnam) has a lot of fascinating and witty reviews of the entire spectrum of the culinary scene in Ho Chi Minh City - from street carts to food stalls to exquisite Vietnamese cuisine. Even includes suggestions on where in HCMC to find everything else you may have a craving for, including pizza, sushi, burgers, and Mexican food.

Noodlepie also helped a writer from Bon Appetit magazine write a recent article about restaurants in HCMC. The blogger escorted him around the city from dawn until well after midnight to sample all the "must try" delicacies. HCMC sounds like a lot of other Southeast Asian cities we've visited - people eat constantly ALL DAY AND NIGHT.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Preparing for our next trip

We're getting ready for our next trip - this time to Vietnam and Cambodia for three weeks in March. We'll be bicycling with a small tour group, staying at some magnificent hotels, and visiting all the major sites.

The weather forecast looks favorable, but it's supposed to be HOT and HUMID. It can't be any worse than when we visited Singapore many years ago and actually tried to play golf. That was the absolute hottest I can recall.

We've made a few 25+ mile training rides, secured our travel visas, and are preparing to pack our bags. I've got my iPod nano loaded up for the long flights and am trying to decide which books to take along to read. Not sure whether to take light reading (golf fiction), something worldly (Tom Friedman's book "The World is Flat"), something about Vietnam history ("The Sacred Willow"), or the new Amy Tan book ("Saving Fish From Drowning").

"The boys" (Winston and Spencer) will miss us, but they'll be well taken care of. I don't think we'll see many English Springer Spaniels where we're going.

The birds could be an issue. Two of our cockatiels recently mated and we have four eggs. This has happened several times in recent months and the eggs weren't fertile. This time they could be and would be scheduled to hatch while we're away.

We'll post on this blog some of the pictures we take and upload the rest onto Flickr or Shutterfly. Stay tuned. I've got half a dozen SD cards for our digital cameras, and if need be, I can always find someplace to copy one of the cards to a blank CD.

I even got a mobile phone with local SIM card so we can conveniently make calls in Vietnam. Incoming calls are free, so I'll pass on the number to some of our friends. Just remember that Vietnam is 15 hours ahead of LA and 12 hours ahead of New York and Washington. Don't call us in the middle of the night in Vietnam.

Time to time on this blog, we'll also post some pictures and narrative describing our other recent trips to China, Thailand, Myanmar, Hong Kong, Ecuador (and the Galapagos Islands), Mexico, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Morocco, New Zealand, and Australia.