After Hanoi, we headed off to Hoi An, the ancient trading port city on the central coast (it's about 40 kilometers south of the famous Vietnam war era R&R area "China Beach"). It's a great place to relax, and the countryside is wonderfully bucolic.
Below is a Pacific Ocean sunrise (unusual for us; most of our colorful sun activities in California are sunsets). Those are fishing boats on the horizon.
This was also Wendy's birthday, and we celebrated all day long — capped off with two cakes. What a joyous time! Shown below are Wendy, me, and two Vietnamese friends.
Today we're off to Hong Kong to talk with our Ball of Whacks people.
Wondering if you are stopping over in Mumbai, India also .. ?
If you are, please lemme know. I would love to catch up with you.
Regards,
SG
P.S.: Off-topic comment but I thought this was the best way.
Posted by: Saurabh Garg | 05 March 2008 at 08:18 AM
Saurabh: Not this trip but later in the year.
Posted by: Roger von Oech | 05 March 2008 at 01:18 PM
What a gorgeous photograph. As a Marine I was once almost called to go over there to run communications for a joint task force searching for remains of the MIA. To my disappointment, a bureaucratic glitch nixed the trip.
It's so hard, as someone whose father was wounded there and whose uncle was killed there, to think of the country as being as sublime as the picture would suggest.
I guess it goes to show you just how small we -- and our problems and disagreements -- are to the grand scheme of things.
Posted by: Cam Beck | 06 March 2008 at 01:05 PM
Cam
nice comment!
Posted by: MK | 06 March 2008 at 02:41 PM
Cam: I came of age in the late 60s, and the Vietnam War was part of that experience (I wasn't in the military).
When I went to Vietnam for the first time in 2006, I amazed just how far things had moved along there. Their war for independence was over more than 30 years ago. Over half the population was born after 1982.
I enjoyed my second trip there immensely, and both my wife and I would love to return to Hoi An (on the central coast).
BTW: the dollar still does pretty well there.
Posted by: Roger von Oech | 06 March 2008 at 07:00 PM
I've had a life long love affair with the sea and being the optimist I am, I see sunrises as opportunities. What a way to greet the day!
Basking in the wisdom of Cam's comment right now. Thank you for sharing the photograph of your trip, Roger. What a gift to us. And happy birthday to Wendy.
Posted by: Valeria Maltoni | 09 March 2008 at 04:39 PM