Miss Saigon?
Coming to central Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon, is especially disorienting for a new visitor. It’s one of the largest and densest of the cities in Southeast Asia and, despite wide boulevards designed by…
Footnotes from Cambodia
As we leave Cambodia, here are some observations we've made along the way. Mines During the civil wars of Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge filled the countryside with land mines, particularly near the ancient temples in…
Music: the sounds of travel in Cambodia
We’ve had the chance to hear authentic Lao music on our Mekong boat trip and sampled traditional Cambodian music played by musicians who were injured by the unexploded mines still dangerous in the countryside (see…
Toilet tips
It’s useful in every country to understand the accepted rules of hygiene. Turkish style toilets, those where one squats rather than sits, are predominant in many parts of the world, but they are often accompanied…
Peace that passeth understanding: camping at sacred sites in Cambodia
On the itinerary it seemed pretty exotic: camping amid ancient ruins and then with monks on a sacred mountain in northern Cambodia. The reality turned out to be, well, different, but perhaps a lot more…
From see to shining sea: the other face of Cambodia
Beyond the Khmer antiquities of Angkor and the recent atrocities of the Rouge there is another face of Cambodia. In the southwest lies the port city of Sihanoukville, named for its politically savvy king who,…
Other lives
What if your life took an entirely different direction...and you discovered options for living you never imagined before? This is the great question we've been pondering as we meet Americans and Europeans who have utterly…
Red and white: the tinctures of Cambodian sorrow
For a little over three years till early 1979, Cambodia's leaders savaged their own people. The numbers alone are chilling, with millions of Cambodians killed out of a population of perhaps 10 million, and at…
Ebb and flow: life along the Mekong, part 3
The city of Angkor was made possible because of its proximity to the waters of Tonle Sap. This lake is the largest in southeast Asia, in rainy season being as long as 100 miles and…
Khmer art: capturing spirit in stone (updated)
Here, in Siem Reap, it’s the looming temples of the roughly 700 year Khmer period of dominance in Southeast Asia. In Italy, it’s churches. In France or Germany, it’s castles. These are the endless number of…