Posted Nov. 9:
Starting today we have a 12 day sprint where we change hotels each day. It’ll be grueling but we have lots of fabulous things to see and do.
We are traveling on a private tour for most of our 4 weeks here in Vietnam. We have a dedicated driver and a dedicated tour guide. When we need to take a little more or a little less time in a location we ask, and it is done. The guide is also another pair of eyes watching out for our cameras and our safety. When it happens that we have the same guide and driver for more than a day we quickly become a family of 4.
Our guide also takes photos for, of, and with us, which is... priceless!
Also Nov. 9:
Today as we leave Da Lat I can declare victory in my prime objective: I have, so far as possible, connected with my wife’s past. Joyfully at times, tearfully at others. Now we head to Nha Trang, away from this bustling mountain tourist center that was once a tiny hamlet with a little school for girls.
Posted Nov. 10:
This country has many wonders of many types, but I have so far been mostly quiet about the dark side. I’ll now break the silence. Food and water-borne illnesses are common. Don’t eat uncooked vegetables. Don’t drink anything with ice in it.
Pollution. In the air and in the water. Mekong river has trash all along its banks. Roadsides are full of trash of all kinds. Laundry detergents have strong odors, so even having our clothes washed at a hotel has a downside.
Poverty is everywhere. A homeless encampment in the USA has nothing compared to what you see here. I’ve seen people who look like they shouldn’t be alive, gaunt, nearly toothless, deformed in some cases. Three times I thought to photograph them, but each time I held back, feeling that my photograph might somehow rob them of their last shred of dignity. |
