Friday, March 25, 2016                                              South China Sea We spent the last 2 days in central and northern Vietnam – they are quite different from the southern visit to Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City.  Da […]

What a day it has been; We started the day with a lecture about ISIS from an excellent journalist, Stephen Cole, who could not have been more vocal about how serious the terrorism threat is. This afternoon we had a Purim Festival with our ship’s rabbi, with great rejoicing over the feat of Esther, saving […]

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam                                               March 22, 2016 Until this week, my gut reaction when hearing the word “Vietnam” was to cringe, recalling the 1970s and how our family sweated out the draft process, worried that brother Jim and his friends would wind up fighting a war. Thankfully our family was spared that […]

Happy St. Patrick’s Day from Cambodia!              March 17, 2016 7pm We’ve left Malaysia and have now seen parts of Thailand and Cambodia, on our way to Vietnam. What a contrast between Thailand and Cambodia – Thailand prospering, and Cambodia struggling to recover from the atrocities of the recent past. […]

Singapore                                                       Sunday, March 12, 2016 Joe has been to Singapore a few times while working, and always had favorable impressions of the city (it’s a city/State actually), so he was eager to return after 10 years away. Well, safe to say, Singapore has prospered and become even more enjoyable since his last visit. First a […]

Penang and Langkawi, Malaysia                             March 9, 2016 We’ve now spent two day in northern Malaysia, after our fun day in Kuala Lumpur, and we find this country to be even more diverse and interesting than we thought 2 days ago.   The substantial Chinese influence in Penang was evident – red and gold everywhere, pagodas, dragons, […]

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia                                          Monday, March 7, 2016 We have sailed through the Strait of Malacca and docked at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. One quarter of the world’s sea cargo goes through the Strait – it is the shortest sea route (621 miles) between 3 of the world’s most populous countries (India, China and Indonesia). Half of […]