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 […]

A visit to Chan Mae included stops at Hoi An, Dan Nang and China Beach. It is officially dubbed Marble Beach, but the official name is ignored in favor of China Beach. Here are some photos that include the bustling market in Hoi An’s Chinatown, the jungle in My Son (pronounced Mee Sun), and China […]

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 […]

We took a long (7 hour) trip out to the Mekong Delta, which is about a 90-minute drive from Saigon. As usual, motorbikes were everywhere on the roads.   In Viet Nam, traffic lights (a rarity) and Stop signs are mere suggestions so the drive was took us through the usual chaotic traffic. When we arrived […]

Saigon is now officially Ho Chi Minh City but the locals call it Saigon anyway. It very much resembles Paris; not too surprising since much of the architecture is from the French colonial period. It is a study in contrasts: an old city, filled with young people, ancient traditions and unbelievably chaotic traffic mostly led […]

Quite a few photos here including street scenes, outdoor markets, and of course, Temples and Pagodas. Cambodia and Thailand are studies in contrast. The beach resorts we visited are first rate. Not so much the villages and small cities outside the upmarket tourist areas. Joe

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. […]