Author: chaskemp

I sent this to you almost exactly a year ago. And here I am again, saying…

(Click here to hear it) There were trains, and we out-run ’em; There were songs, and we out-sung ’em; There were brighter days, never ending; There was time, and we were burnin’; There were rhymes, and we were learnin’ – There was all the love two hearts could hold.

And after all this time, you’re always on my mind; Hey I could never let it end, ’cause my heart takes so long to mend; The dream that keeps your hopes alive; The lonely nights you hold inside; And after all this time, you’re always on my mind – I still want you

There was rain, that we outlasted; There was pain,

but we got past it; There were last goodbyes, still left unspoken; There were ways I should have thrilled you; There were days I could have killed you – You’re the only love my life has known.

And after all this time, you’re always on my mind; Hey I could never let you go, a broken heart that heals so slow, could never beat for someone new, while you’re alive and I am too; And after all this time, you’re always on my mind – I still love you.

And I could never let it in, ’cause my heart takes so long to mend; The dream that keeps your hopes alive, the lonely nights you hold inside; And after all this time, you’re always on my mind – I still want you; Hey after all this time, you’re always on my mind – I still love you.

We eat cheap. Still, as we’ve gotten older we’re eating more often at more upscale places like where the seats have backs; but often it’s still plastic

stools, standing on the sidewalk, or the floor of the guesthouse or hotel. It’s hard to find better food or have a better time. What could be better than this (Photo at left)… In our Bangkok hotel room – The Ultimate food – mango and sweet sticky rice with coconut milk, and in this case, some mangosteen!

We’ve broken the Asian food court code. These food courts aren’t remotely like what Americans think of as food courts – no franchises, just vast amountsof totally ethnic, totally cheap, and really good food. Yesterday, for example, we ate at Big C, a middle-class mall in Bangkok: First, we got some masaman (Muslim) curry and sticky rice at the back of the grocery and some jackfruit. We went up to the food court (aircon, seats with backs, hot water to rinse utensils before using, all the right stuff), where we got larb (fine-chopped chicken, chillies, lime juice lemon grass, fish sauce) and rice. All this was about 100 baht or a little more than $3USD. Today we had green curry with rice, pad se eu (flat noodles with pork and vegetable), fried shrimp, and jackfruit for dessert – again, about 100 baht. So this post is all about the amazing food we had on this trip. ****means Hall of Fame; everything else was excellent to good.

Fruit in various places: Jackfruit, mango (really amazing mangos), mangosteen,

pineapple, papaya, banana (not the same as American supermarket banana), watermelon, rambutan, lychee, pomelo, and mixed fruit smoothie

Photo: Food alley in Hanoi

Hong Kong: Our goal in HK is to have all the duck and pork we want, all the dim sum we want, and all the brilliant shrimp wonton noodle soup we can eat – big wonton dumplings with the best shrimp everDim sum from a street stand in Mong Kok, including hargow (steamed shrimp dumplings),

sui mai (steamed pork dumplings), steamed BBQ pork buns, fried curried chicken rolls, steamed pork with black beans and chillis, stuffed fried dumplings

Roast pork with rice and vegetable

BBQ duck with rice and vegetable

Indian food, including curry, samosas, naan, pickles

Ham and egg sandwiches at Cherikoff Bakery or 7-11 (7-11 not the same as in U.S. – way cheaper).

****Shrimp wonton noodle soup almost every day at Tsim Sha Kee – the shrimp here have a wild taste, unlike the bland shrimp we get in the US – and vegetable with oyster sauce

Chicken tikka masala, naan,

pakoras, vegetable samosas, and milk tea in a hallway at the Chungking Mansions

Photo above: Binh Thanh Market food court; photo left: bun cha

Vietnam: Porkarama! Vietnam is the place where pork, especially grilled, reaches a pinnacle of porkdom.

****Banh cuon (steamed big crepe with pork, vegetables, served with herbs,

fish sauce, and massive amounts of smashed fresh garlic in vinegar)

Photo: That’s the banh cuon lady in her little queendom; following photo is the banh cuon served with fish sauce, garlic, chillies, herbs, and nem.

Nem (like egg roll but all meat)

Banh xeo (like a big crepe with shrimp, pork, vegetables)

Bun bo Hue (spicy beef stew with noodle)

Bun thit nuong (grilled pork on cool noodles and vegetables)

Nem nuong (grilled pork wit

h sauce and vegetables)

****Grilled pork chop on rice with egg and vegetables; always with strong iced coffee

The coffee!!! – $.50 for large iced strong

Banana pancakes

French fries

Noodles with vegetables, chillies, and garlic

Fried bread stuffed with shrimp

Cha gio

Garlic bread

Omelet with baguette

Photo: The people who make roti in Chiang Mai

Banh khoai – kind of like a fried pancake folded over pork and

shrimp – cut it into strips and wrap them into rice paper with steamed bean sprouts, cucumbers, lettuce and dipped into nuoc mam-based peanut sauce.

Chicken fried with garlic and chillies

Fried dumplings, one stuffed with

yellow bean and some coconut and the other a “salty mystery mix” including meat

Photo: Part of the food area in the “walking market” in Chiang Mai

Cambodia: Most of our meals were with Samnang’s family – a blur of good food and good company

Various soups

Stir-fried beef, chicken

Chicken with garlic and chillies

****Raw beef salad

Red curry with noodles and baguettes

Picnic food (written by Leslie): We ended up with whole fish (1 large and 4 small) fire-roasted on skewers; chicken with ginger (every piece perfect with its fair share of bone); a whole roasted chicken; hot pot with soup, vegetables and assorted meat; lotus seeds; whole steam

ed tamarind; rice steamed in metal tubes served with sugar, cinnamon and grated coconut; other gelatinous, sweet morsels. Amazing!

Photo above: Food court food in Bangkok at Siam Paragon – Red curry, chicken with cashews, satay, larb, vegetables, rice, all kinds of sauces – about US $5 for everything

Thailand: Here is where the food fun really takes off. We experience Thai food as a brilliant melding of sharp, sweet, sour, spicy, sometimes rich, and always fresh. Fish sauce with chillies and some variation on lime and ugar is part of almost every meal; other sauces usually available.

Photo below: Khao soi stand – serve yourself to vegetables

****Mango with sticky rice and coconut milk –

I had this every day in Thailand

Red curry with steamed rice

Green curry with steamed rice and lots of herbs, etc.

Panang curry with steamed rice, cucumbers

****“Meat curried in sweet peanut” – turned out to be masaman or Muslim curry – this was from the Big C grocery store, served in a plastic container, 39 baht. We took this + some unsweetened sticky rice up to the food court where we also got some larb and steamed rice and various fish sauces. Finished the meal with jackfruit.

Photo below: Meal at Big C food court – pad se eu, green curry, fried shrimp – US$3 for all

****Khao soi (red curry soup with noodles, crispy things, chicken and various vegetables

Jungle curry, which was okay – red curry soup with a lot of different vegetables

Satay (chicken, pork, beef in various marinades)

Grilled chicken, grilled sweet beef

Pad se eu (fried noodles with chicken or pork and egg and vegetable)

Spicy fried noodle with pork

Chiang Mai sausage – grilled, spicy, with lots of cilantro

Rice with chicken, Chinese sausage,

ground chilli paste, egg

Ground chicken with chillies and peanuts

Ground pork with chillies

Photo: Pad Thai street stand – 45baht for pad Thai with shrimp – good!

Tom ka (spicy coconut soup with chicken)

Tom yum (very spicy clear soup with shrimp)

****Larb, chicken and pork

Fish cakes, fried (this was just okay)

Sticky rice, sweet, flavored with fruit

Peanuts with garlic, lemon grass, citrus leaf

Photo: Entrance to a lane in Chinatown – ladies are cooking it up!

Northern Thailand sampler plate, including Chiang Mai sausage, eggplant and chillies, fried sour sausage, steamed vegetables, pork roll, pork crackling

Banana roti from the Muslim couple who set up a stand every night outside a wat

French fries

Pad Thai

Som (papaya salad with green beans, lime, tomatoes, etc. with dried shrimp – [the ones with little beady black eyes]; also with crab)

All sorts of vegetarian breakfast things at the Lanna House in Chiang Mai, like noodle, soup, pizza, pineapple, watermelon, banana

Photo: Rice with two things place in Chiang Mai – 30 baht!!! (US$1)

Rolling into Phnom Penh, into the “bus station” and looking out the window to Sokhom waving. There’s Samnang. Far out, we’re here. Load our stuff into the Camry and make our way across town to the family’s new house, the front of which is exactly like the old one – a small cafe where motorcycles drive right in between the bar and the 3-4 tables. Chanmony and Sophear are waiting for us, along with Than, Jeudi, and Uncle Da. Up the steep stairs, into the room where we’ll stay, wash up, have some (really good) dinner. We’re here. Photo: Children I saw on a walk (described later) Phnom Penh photos are here

In the past we stayed a block from Psar Tuol Tom Pong (Russian Market). This time

we were further out, but still, an easy 8 minute $2 tuk-tuk ride to the market. Phnom Penh this time was mainly spending time with Samnang’s family, including the totally Cambodian family outing described below. Jeudi’s food was stellar as always – it was a really nice, relaxing, homey time.

The following from Leslie’s email to David: Yesterday was Chinese New year and Tet is today, so the big markets, etc. were closed yesterday and today. We had planned to spend several leisurely hours down by the riverside. The girls wanted to join us (a day completely off because it’s Happy New Year!) but then Samnang took over the “plan of the day” and announced it at breakfast this morning – a family expedition to Udon, the old capital, lunch there and a tour of the ruins.

We brought water; beer; soda; Samnang’s bottle of liquid herbal medicine; and my frozen bottle of tea. The girls actually wore long sleeves and Sokkhom brought (and wore) neck scarves for all the women. Needless to say, I just carried mine.

So off we went at 9:20, six of us in the Camry and three on a motorcycle, missing only Than. We arrived at 10:40 after only one short stop for gas, and entered the “park” area which is free for everyone except foreigners @ $1.00 per head. Photo below: The street where we stayed

The road that lead to the way up the mountain was lined by umbrella-covered

food vendors. The opposite side of the road had long thatched-roof pavilions with wooden platforms covered in mats for families to rent for picnics. We unloaded water, etc. from the car onto one of the platforms and David, Jeudi, Da, and Sokkhom went off to fetch an assortment of food from various vendors. We ended up with whole fish (1 large and 4 small) fire-roasted on skewers; chicken with ginger (every piece perfect with its fair share of bone); a whole roasted chicken; hot pot with soup, vegetables and assorted meat; lotus seeds; whole steamed tamarind; rice steamed in metal tubes served with sugar, cinnamon and grated coconut; other gelatinous, sweet morsels. Amazing! Photo below: One of my favorite photos – children in a temple

We ate at 12:15 after all the above was

assembled. Jeudi served as always and ate last, but she, Samnang, and Sokkhom all ate tons which I’ve never seen before.

About 1:20, after lunch and naps, your Dad, David, Mony, and Sophear started up the mountain while Samnang, Sokkhom, and Jeudi all napped some more while I wrote this and caught up trying to balance $4 million VND – I’m not kidding!

The hikers returned about an hour later, soaking wet and tired. After quickly packing up loads of left-over food and fixing a doggie bag for Sali, the dog, we pulled out of our spot at 2:30, and the Camry occupants arrived back at the house at shortly before 4:00. The poor three-some on the motorcycle had their 2nd flat of the journey and didn’t get back until about 6:30. And you guessed it, Jeudi then prepared and served dinner. It’s incredibly hard work to have her job in this household.

A couple of observations: shortly before we left the park grounds, a hit-and-run driver struck and killed a woman on a motorcycle about 50 yards from where we were. It drew large crowds from far afield, but there was no outcry or anger at all. Samnang didn’t explain

that there’s been a death until I asked again in the car on the return trip. It was surreal. Photo: The family outing

Your Dad told me that on the mountain top, there was a woman responsible for cleaning around the stupa; but she just threw all the trash over the railing. Why would that even cross your mind?

It was a long, hot interesting day.

So that’s it for the day here. We both had a cold shower that felt wonderful and have crashed watching the Australian Open. Hewitt is doing a beautiful job holding his own against Djokovic, and the home crowd is going wild (me too!). Photo: Sophear

CK’s account of the hike up

the mountain: After lunch, in the heat of the day, cousin David, uncle Da, Chanmony, Chansophear, and I headed up the hill to the stupas. It was a hot walk, three hundred and some odd steps past quite a few beggars to the stupa, but not bad. Oh, there’s another stupa, up more steps and past more beggars and another and another, so by the time we got to the last one, I was pretty hot – we were all hot and sweaty, even cousin David (the one who set the pace). From the last stupa we could see far across this flat, green watery land – it was like we could see across Cambodia. The stairs down were very crowded with fellow holidayers (that’s the short way up and down) and more beggars and even some monkeys. Photo: The view from the mountain

My internet friend, Henning and his partner, Mint picked us up one morning for breakfast at Jars of Clay, one of the aircon places near the Russian Market. It was good to see them. This is the third time we’ve gotten together in Phnom Penh. Henning is a world traveler since he was a child and has vast knowledge of Cambodia and the near and far east. Photo: Random family on a moto. I wonder why MVAs are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Cambodia…

From there we spent a few hours in

the market. Interestingly the woman we’d bought silk from before remembered Leslie and asked after David. It was hot in the narrow, crowded aisles, but it’s been hotter. Another nice thing was

that I saw a woman with some serious burn scars who before had always walked around selling on foot; now she has a small stand. When we were done we went back to Jars of Clay and had some coffee and then some food – in comfortable chairs and air-conditioning.

I went for a walk yesterday morning, the last day of the Chinese New Year holiday, the Year of the Dragon… through narrow lanes, past children playing and some just standing, past a few food vendors, people selling this and that, then unpaved alleys (faint sound of drums), past people eating, sitting, washing in front of houses, past some apartments – a narrow walkway with cell-like rooms on each side, then through narrower passages with a few people standing and sitting, some pretty hard looking, staring at me or not, hearing he sound of drums louder and louder and

the passage opening up and out in to an open area next to a large market and some people around and lion dancers leaping and whirling and shaking their heads and of course the weird round-faced mask guy fanning ghosts. Photo: The round-headed guy who’s always a part of the Lion Dance

I walked up out of the market area to the dusty road, even though it’s now paved, that leads to Choeun Ek, a few miles away where mass graves have been emptied, but with shards of bone and scraps of rotted cloth still in the dirt – I was there in 2005, never having imagined that I would ever see mass graves and planning on never seeing any again, remembering that it was an unpaved, much dustier road then, and a mentally hellish ride back and now I walk across the road to a kind of wooden dock perpendicular to the road with 8 or 10 ramshackle 1-2 room houses on each side 20-30 feet above muddy, polluted water and from there back up to the road, past a couple of life-ravaged prostitutes in an open-fronted “massage” place with a sign saying 10,000 Riel ($2.50USD) for services,

just the two of them, sitting on low chairs, singing karaoke about 7:45 in the morning, loud. I’m not making any of this up. Photo: Houses built over the water

All in all, it was a low-key, relaxing visit. On the way to the airport Leslie saw a sign that said “Orphanage, Tourists Welcome” – part of the new orphanage industry, I imagine. It was on the road to Choeun Ek, a lucrative location, no doubt, what with tourists leaving the mass graves and thus vulnerable to guilt-inducing pitches for donations. Motherland, cradle me. Away we go.

We’ve ridden buses all over Southeast Asia for many years now – a lot of good trips, sometimes uncomfortable, sometimes a little long, but always good, always good…

Notes taken on the bus from Saigon to Phnom Penh, staring out the window, in a dream… On the road again, through the streets of Saigon where there are more trees in some (older) neighborhoods than one might expect. The streets aren’t nearly as full today as on days before – Tet! Drummers and dancers coming through the neighborhood yesterday. The dancers wear silk robes – one dancer has a jolly, but kind of menacing mask and the other has a bearded sage face; both carry fans and one of them fanned bad winds or spirits out of Leslie. Photo: Sunset over the Mekong

Endless streets thinning out…semi-rural now with gardens and some padi (what people call rice paddy)…different varieties of palm trees…tile roofs, tin roofs…banana trees, bigger gardens, mango trees…small river, padi, bamboo…many businesses closed, many yellow-flowered trees in pots (for Tet)…big market open…Catholic church with a large statue of the virgin dressed in blue and pink.

My iPod playing Loser by the Grateful Dead. It’s live and Jerry is playing one of the hottest solos I’ve ever heard him play. Chinese cemetery, people burning paper money, padi, water buffalo – yeah! Only a few people working the fields today.

Now the Stones from the ancient Got Live! Album. I know I’ve told this story before, but here I go again. Through a series of events I ended up my time in Vietnam 1966-67 in an Army “psyops” unit because they needed a few Marines to go on Marine operations. That’s how I ended up in the Hill Fights – bad shit. One of the things we did on operations was at night to haul some pretty big speakers up into trees and broadcast stuff to the enemy, like Buddhist funeral music and how hopeless their situation was so far from home, and so on. It wasn’t part of the plan, but we also had some rock & roll tapes, including the Got Live! album. We liked to play stuff for the Marines, like, Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadows.

But right now it’s, I’ve Been Loving You Too Long, and despite all the blood and darkness, yeah, Vietnam, I’ve been loving you too long, “I can’t stop now, too late, I can’t stop loving you now, no no no…” A school – pale yellow stucco, like schools all over Southeast Asia, one story, in a U, with a veranda all the way around the inside dirt playground. Goats…trees with clusters of white flowers.

It’s time for lunch – egg, cheese, cucumber, cilantro, and tomato baguette sandwich from the woman who sets up at the end of our alley for a few hours every morning. Each of our sandwiches is wrapped in half a page from a phone book and each cost 15,000VND ($.75). Tabasco completes the picture. This last morning the woman came out from behind her cart and hugged Leslie.

Cao Dai temple…guy across the aisle takes his shirt off. Fortunately he’s young and don’t smell bad. Visions of Johanna – “Mona Lisa must have had the highway blues, you can tell by the way she smiles.” Huge padi and one person out there – white conical hat in the green, IN THE GREEN. Some kind of orchard…bougainvillea cascading over a gate…red lanterns, yellow flowers – Tet!

We’re rolling through a small town, over a big river empty of everything but brown water and water hyacinths, no boats, no people…huge padi, empty empty, stretching far away – who ever saw an empty padi in Vietnam! Now I see two people standing together in the green and Robert Earl Keen is singing Feeling Good Again – “I looked across the room and saw you standing on the stairs” – this trip is intense. Photo below: Children begging at door of bus

Here we are at the Vietnam-Cambodia border. Everybody off the bus. Back on. Off. On, and five minutes after clearing the border pull into a bus stop cafe for 20 minutes, now on the road again, past the casinos, hotels, and brothels. Cambodia dustier than Vietnam…fields mostly

fallow, dry…more palms, houses different than in Vietnam, most set above the ground on pilings or stilts, smaller, most are wood, painted blue or ochre or gray or unpainted and weathered, shutters, not a pane of glass anywhere, tin roofs, some tile. And these days, only the countless little roadside stands have thatch roofs…big shallow lake and the water shone like diamonds in the dew…stucco school…more new houses every year…ox cart…motorcycles – motos”…Angker Beer sign (many of these)…water buffalo…blue and white Cambodian People’s Party sign…

Huge sere fields dotted with the single tall palms that are so perfectly Cambodian…massive fall of bougainvillea…houses, all with dirt yards. Black Angels, a psychedelic neo-hippie rock & roll band…bus swerves..shoot-em-up on monitor at front of bus…turn it up Black Angels.

Now the Mekong, rolling on through Asia and the ages…bus straight on to the ferry with beggar children running along beside the bus and on to the ferry to beg through the ride…children being given the (incredibly sweet) canned drinks and the crackers that had been given to each passenger by the bus company and the children clutching desperately at the cans and cracker boxes, fighting for them at times and the sun setting over the Mekong and the Dead doing Dylan’s It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue – “Yonder stands your orphan with his gun, he’s crying like a fire in the sun … The vagabond who’s rapping at your door, is standing in the clothes that you once wore…strike another match, go start anew, and it’s all over now, Baby Blue.” Photo: Sunset over the Mekong

A trance trip on the bus, into the Cambodian night…

And now, for our listening pleasure, Dengue Fever – Uku (the Mekong) in case we needed some more trance

Mostly I photograph what I see as we walk around vs. “the sights.” Photo: the food court area at Binh Thanh Market – Action! Saigon photos are here

We had an inauspicious start to Saigon (and a sweet ending): At the airport, long a notorious den of taxi cheats (notorious even for SE Asia), we were caught up in the new dispatch system. Still a cheat, but only for a few dollars; even so, there’s an ill taste to being cheated. Through the rain and insanely crowded streets to the “backpacker alley” where our hotel (Kim Hotel – $20/night) is – too narrow for cars, so we got out at the entrance to the alley. I waited with our luggage under an awning and Leslie went down the alley and pretty soon here came the two young women who’ve helped us before and down the alley to the hotel we went, splashing through the water.

Checked in, bought water, went looking for something

to eat. We met a promoter and d-j who recommended a place. It was okay, but a little over-priced like a lot of places on this alley, which is on a steady march to mid-prices in food and lodging.

Photo: al fresco dining on Bui Vien Street

The next day we went to the alley where the people sell stellar pork chop and egg on rice with some vegetables. A great breakfast with more and more powerful coffee – WooHoo! From there to a bus place to get tickets to Phnom Penh. The buses are so full that we couldn’t get seats together, so took what we could get. Lots of foreigners headed out of town as most of Saigon closes down for Tet.

One of the things that’s happened with both of us in aging is that we remember less and less of our night dreams. More often than not all either of us can remember is that there were dreams. Now, in Vietnam, both of us are dreaming more and remembering more. Last night Leslie dreamed this (from an email she sent to David and copied to me): “I had a wonderful dream about you last night. When it began, you were your current age/appearance, but after a nap, you were a beautiful baby boy again (wasn’t a surprise at all in the dream). I wrapped you in a soft blanket and took you for a walk in your stroller, held you, etc. and it was incredibly happy and serene. I sat and watched your sweet

little face, especially your mouth, while you slept – just wonderful.

It was a rare gift to have the dream and to be able to remember it in great detail; both of us are so happy you’re our son.”

That was a nice one to hear about!

Photo: pork chop and egg on rice, with vegetable and coffee for breakfast

Back to the Kim for a lazy hazy tropical afternoon. This from email to Jessica from Atrium Obscurum: Back out to the streets, Leslie and I walking around – going a way we hadn’t gone before, through labyrinth alleys and passageways, just digging being there, stopping in at the “bauty shop” to get my beard trimmed (everyone having a good time with that). Stopped at a street vendor for noodles with vegetables, chillies, and garlic +

cha gio and cooold Saigon beer for dinner (little blue stools and metal table on the sidewalk of course). The Vietnamese variation on chilli oil is knocking me out! It’s hot here, after Hanoi and Hue – Ahh, Hue. Now back in the room listening to Solar Fields, feeling good. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJKB6knW4FY

Photo above: flower vendors and customers in the rain – talk about sweet!

On to Binh Thanh Market. To get there you walk through a big park which is currently filled with flower and bonsai vendors in the most amazing display I’ve ever seen – and I’ve seen a few flower shows. We wandered through the flowers for awhile, then to the market where we got pretty much over-heated. Binh Thanh is the main tourist market in Saigon, so in addition to areas set up for locals, there are many stalls selling the same old stuff for tourists. Since this is Tet season, there are quite a few Viet Khieu (overseas Vietnamese) in town and the joint was jumping. I had decent Bun bo Hue, but Leslie was so over-heated she didn’t eat.

Photo below: Pham Ngu Lao, the backpacker area of Saigon

The next morning it was more pork chop and egg on rice, more coffee, more coffee, talking with the old lady who’s always sitting in the alley – not that we could understand much of what either of us could say. She walks (assisted) up from wherever she lives down the alley, sits in one of the three chairs

with a back, the coffee lady brings her a glass of coffee, she has a cigarette, someone sits with her, talking, drinking coffee, smoking together. The good life.

Photo: flower delivery

More flower market, more food court, this time for bun thit nuong, banh cuon, and fried bread with whole shrimp in it (I gave a pass to the heads). Back to the room for a nap and later for a walk, this time to a different part of the park, where we watched guys playing an amazing fast hacky-sack kind of kick game with a shuttlecock.

Photo: who wouldn’t love a Vietnamese girl on a moto, with her mask, her gloves

Then an exercise class led by a compact, muscular woman and then a different exercise class that was pretty sexy. Then along a street past the “open tour” buses, and on to the same place as last night for more noodle, cha gio, and beer. This place, by the way, was where last year when we were walking to catch the early morning bus to Phnom Penh, there was a huge dead rat about six feet from where we were eating this trip.

But that was then, this is now.

Photo: lots of women and girls posing for photos at the flower show.

Really, once again, it’s just being here. I don’t think there many of the “sights” we’ve missed over the past seven years. Here’s a big event for us: Today the woman who makes the banh cuon at Binh Thanh market came out from her stand and cuddled Leslie. Saigon travelers will know what an unbelievable thing this is like anyone

ever got affection from one of the food women here. Sweet. So that was the high point of the day in our exciting life.

Tomorrow we catch the bus to Phnom Penh. On the road again. Just can’t wait to get on the road again.

Photo: this is the woman who came around the counter to snuggle Leslie – uninvited, unexpected, such a beautiful thing to happen.

Someone on a travel forum said that this journal is boring. My response: “Thanks for the comment. It’s what happens when you get old, if you’re lucky: just happy to be alive, happy to be with your wife, happy to be in Vietnam again … simple needs, simple pleasures, laying up treasures where moth and rust don’t corrupt.” Here are the Hue photos. Photo below: Street of dreams (speaking of simple needs)

In the Hanoi airport we talked with a pleasant couple from Germany. At some point the man said he hoped it wouldn’t be raining in Hue. I didn’t say so, but I thought that I hoped it would be raining in Hue. It’s winter and it’s Hue and I love the rain in Hue. And of course it was raining when we landed – ahhhh, Hue.

The ride into town from Phu Bai Airport was as always, a panorama of mossy temples, shrines, and other religious structures interspersed

among the usual open-fronted stores selling pretty much the same old stuff, then a few markets, then bigger and bigger buildings, modern ones and the smaller stores and the motos, bicycles and cyclos (more than in Hanoi or Saigon), cars, trucks, but nowhere near the congestion of Hanoi or Saigon. It feels so good being in this place. Then turning left from Hung Vuong on to Nguyen Tri Phuong and pulling up to the alley where the Binh Duong and other budget hotels and cafes are. We’re here! Get a room ($18 for triple – none of the doubles working for us). Drop our bags, step across the way to

Cafe on Thu Wheels for some soup, noodles, garlic bread, and beer with U2 on the sound system – a backpacker cafe – banana pancakes for me soon. Photo: An Cuu Market

I fixed coffee in the room (Trung Nguyen #4) and we had our usual leisurely morning, then walked to Nina’s Cafe for an excellent omelet and cafe sua da (35,000 dong – about $1.70USD) and comfortable chairs. http://ninascafe.jimdo.com/ Then to the Family Home Cafe for Leslie to try their egg sandwich – another good one, but the chairs are uncomfortable (Asia, the land of uncomfortable chairs).

Photo below: Coffee in the room

We walked across the Trang Tien Bridge over the wide Perfume River to

a supermarket to get some yogurt, then back across and southwest for a pretty long walk on Le Loi to Dien Bien Phu Street to a place named Quan Tai Phu that’s well known for nem lui (grilled pork on lemon grass). When we got there I went to the toilet – through the kitchen and a short passageway that was (no kidding) 18” wide with loose tiles on the floor and into the squat toilet room about 3.5’x3.5′ where all sorts of newly laundered clothes were hanging so that I was peeing with someone’s damp clothing on my shoulders. When I got back to the eating area, they’d brought our unordered food (and no idea of the cost). The server showed us what/how to put the various vegetables on the rice paper and then the pork, and then some weird looking and very tasty dark viscous sauce. I think there were 12 pork things, all for 50,000 dong ($2.50USD). Wow! Sooner or later we’re going to get over-charged (and needless to say, we bargain firmly with cyclo drivers) but so far, things are working out well for us in Vietnam. Here is the food blog that describes nem lui (page down a few times) http://theworldtastesgood.blogspot.com/2009/02/hue-part-3.html.

Sunday: After a banana pancake breakfast (with honey and yogurt – see Photo above) and

not forgetting a glass of very strong cafe sua and a few minutes later splitting an omelet/baguette sandwich, we took a riverboat cruise for 100,000VND (Leslie’s bargaining acumen) to Thien Mu Pagoda, 45 minutes up the perfume river. This where the monk Thich Quang Duc lived before he went to Saigon in 1966 to immolate himself in protest against the VN government and the war. The pagoda and grounds were quietly beautiful – understated and mossy with just a few people around and a view from the grounds across the wide river, past the plains, to these mist-covered mountains where we fought and bled, where so many from every side fought and bled and died, aching for life – me for a beautiful dark-haired girl whose photo was so washed out from the water that only the shadow of her left eye was left and now, 45 years later, looking across the room from where I write she’s sitting on the bed, the love of my life, beautiful, her hair white now and here we are in Hue and I look out through the glass-paned doors toward palm trees and mossy buildings – it’s misting in Hue.

Photo above: Random lane; photo below: These mist-covered mountains beyond the Perfume River – photo taken from Thien Mu Pagoda

Aes Dana, Summerlands … then Vibrasphere, Forest Fuel … Aes Dana, Les Grandes Fonds … Solar Fields, Summer … Hue, misting, humid, green Hue, perfect for psytrance.

We walked along a quiet section of the riverside, then along Le Loi Street and back to the nem lui place, and added a bowl of bun thit nuong – grilled pork with cool noodles, vegetables, peanuts, and nuoc cham with, what else, chillies. Every morning we’ve marveled at our lack of GI distress. We hope for the same thing tomorrow.

Monday: We had another late start, coffee in bed, talking, and finally to Nina’s Cafe for an excellent backpacker’s tradition – banana pancake (with honey and yogurt) and more stout

coffee, then we walked along the Perfume River again and over the new bridge to the Citadel side of the river and wandering down side streets through neighborhoods in the soft mist for a little over three hours – more overgrown green, more mossy walls, gates into houses, tin roofs, tile roofs, shrines, incense, women with conical hats, past a school with children playing in the street – “Hello! What your name! Yo-yo-yo!” Bicycles, motos, xyclos, fruit and vegetables for

sale, coffee/tea shops with stools at low tables, cafes, and finally through a gate in the huge wall, across a narrow bridge over the moat, into shops and to the old

bridge in the mist that’s a light rain by now. It was really raining by the time we got to Nina’s for banh khoai – kind of like a fried pancake folded over pork and shrimp – cut it into strips and wrap them into rice paper with steamed bean sprouts, cucumbers, lettuce and dipped into nuoc mam-based peanut sauce. Back to our room that’s been damp the whole time we’ve been here, and damper now. We’re pretty damp too. LOL, our clothes
are damp, our bodies are damp, our books are damp (the pages are kind of wavy, if you know what I mean), our bed is damp – it’s damp … it couldn’t be better.

Hanoi was a resting place for us this time around – taking it easy, walking around the Old Quarter … “This is the Asia we dreamed of from afar. Steeped in history, pulsating with life, bubbling with commerce, buzzing with motorbikes, and rich in exotic scents, the Old Quarter is Hanoi’s historic heart” (Lonely Planet). Just photos are here.

Recall that I left my pack in the airport in Hong Kong and eventually got it back. The only time Leslie carries a purse traveling is when we fly. Now, Leslie left

her purse at the visa issuing area in the Hanoi airport and when I raced back to where she’d left it, there it was, sitting on the bench. Lucky twice! On to the Camellia 4 and into our room around 9pm. Really tired. We went across the street to the King Cafe for chicken with garlic and chillies, an order of french fries(!), and beer. Photo: Passages like this are everywhere

The next day we had the Camellia’s outstanding breakfast buffet, including pho ga + massive amounts of Vietnamese coffee, then walked to the bank to change money. Last year while we were at that bank there was a baby shower going on. Leslie asked the woman who was helping us about the shower and after some puzzlement (Why is this foreigner asking about this and how does she know?) it turned out it was for her, so she and Leslie had a good time talking about the baby. Photo: Flower vendor – tons of goods are sold like this

We walked to the Intimex Store, walked around there looking at this and that food, kitchen wares, etc. (Leslie and Charles getting jiggy), and bought some yogurt and 250 grams of Trung Nguyen coffee. We walked to the well-known (and not highly recommended by me) bun cha place on Hang Bo Street. We had bun cha (grilled pork served in nuoc mam [fish sauce] with vegetables) and nem (fried spring rolls), which was very good, but expensive ($4.50USD) and way too much food for us, so we got almost a full order of bun cha to go and went back to the hotel.

By now I was feeling pretty bad with the onset of a sinus infection, so I started a course of azithromycin and took some ibuprofen and rested. The last thing I remember as I fell asleep was the maids outside our door, laughing, talking, carrying on – happy me.

Later, as Leslie was getting the bun cha out of

the refrigerator in our room, the shelf it was on collapsed and the plastic bag of pork and fish sauce burst, sending the smelly stuff everywhere. I roused myself from bed and we got a pretty big mess cleaned up pretty fast. Is this the Flub and Dub Asia tour? Photo: Well to do child near Hoan Kiem Lake

The next day we had the breakfast buffet, but were a little more restrained with our coffee intake. After breakfast we decided to walk straight up Pho Hang Giay from our hotel. After the first block there were no more women selling souvenirs or shoeshine guys wanting to fix my shoes and the street got more and more congested with vendors, stores, and tiny cafes along each side, pedestrians, people carrying cafes on a stick (little stove on one end, food, and a

few stools on the other), impossibly laden motorcycles, trucks, so on and so forth. Photo: Selling bread

Eventually we realized we were at Dong Xuan Market and went inside into narrow, crowded aisles with people pushing past us in that insistent, but somehow not very intrusive Vietnamese way. Even so, people who are easily irritated or who have personal space issues should never come to a place like this.

Leslie added to her pepper collection with 250 grams black pepper from a woman – a good deal for the woman and for Leslie. After 30 or so minutes we left and quickly found the narrow food alley near the market where we’ve been before. Straight away Leslie spotted a woman selling banh cuon so we squeezed into the bench and a stool and had some decent banh cuon with pork and very good nem for 20,000VND each (20,000 VND = $1USD). Photo below: We ate at this banh cuon place every day

The woman sitting next to Leslie got us squared away on how to fix it in a bowl of sweet nuoc mam with peppers and garlic and we tucked in for an outstanding and massively fun meal with people brushing past (lots of body contact), motorcycles scraping by, people reaching over our heads and between us and we’re in the juice now! On the way out we spotted another western couple at another stand having a good time eating snails – of course they were Australians (the people, not the snails). I asked if they had a camera for a photo of them and took their picture. We’re

all having a good time.

Oh man, how did Leslie and I find each other. From the halls of Thomas Jefferson High School more than 50 years ago to this narrow alley somewhere in Hanoi. Yes! Photo: Leslie buying pepper

The next day we visited Jim (an internet friend) at the school where he teaches. We visited his class and talked with the students, who were poised and articulate. Really a good time with these lovely young people and this man who has found a good home in Vietnam. Photo below: Impossibly jammed street that nevertheless manages to move

Our scene in Hanoi is much like anywhere else – walking around, enjoying the street action, checking out the little stores selling everything

imaginable, eating most meals on the street, visiting markets, finding the flow. Hanoi has astonishing traffic – people walking, people carrying huge loads suspended from each end of a split bamboo pole, countless motorcycles, fair number of cars and trucks – and zero traffic rules, except for the only rule, which is bigger has precedence (motos over people, cars over people and motos, trucks over everything). You have to really pay attention and never stop or flinch. It’s the pedestrian’s responsibility to choose a line of walk which doesn’t challenge the vehicles and the motos and other vehicles then flow around the pedestrian. Also, when there are sidewalks, they’re usually

completely filled with vendors, people working on this and that, and parked motos. It’s a little dangerous and sometimes overwhelming, but still, a good or at least engaging time (what with so much to see and to keep track of). Today I somehow ran into a motorcycle, which fortunately wasn’t moving, otherwise I’d have more than a sore knee. Photo: A brilliant selection of garlic goodness

We went back to the food alley near Dong Xuan for lunch: banh cuon (steamed rice flour crepes wrapped round a little seasoned ground pork), banh with egg and no meat, bun cha, nem (fried spring rolls) – all served with a bowls of sweetened fish sauce to eat out of and tarted up with

fresh garlic and chillies in vinegar, fried garlic, ground roasted chillies, and tiny limes to squeeze

onto it all. All of this for 70,000 dong (~$3.50USD). On the way out of the alley we stopped and got two fried dumplings, one stuffed with yellow bean and some coconut and the other a “salty mystery mix” that included meat of some kind. Photo: Hoan Kiem Lake

This vendor is described here on Sticky Rice: http://stickyrice.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/03/fried_cake_ball.html.0…..3. The next day I ordered two with bean paste and coconut, which I think is the better way to go.

Classic Leslie: We’re having bun cha at another place in an alley and in addition to the usual grilled pork and pork patties, there is a third item. Leslie picks it up with her chopsticks and says, “I don’t know what this is,” and takes a bite.

The night before we left I was finally well and walked to meet Jim at a cafe near the cathedral. I got there first and stood on the sidewalk, as I’ve done before, looking across the street as the

motorbikes, pedestrians, bicycles buzz in several directions across my consciousness until I’m in a trance of motos/people/Vietnam/alive/ good and the incessant voices talking, laughing, bargaining and the smells and dust and colors flashing. Photo: Little temple in the Old Quarter – crematorium door

That’s pretty much what we’re doing in Hanoi: walking around the full, noisy streets, seeing what there is to see (we’ve already seen most of the “tourist attractions”), eating fabulous street food, experiencing the intense street vibe, resting … Photo: St. Joseph’s Cathedral – a far cry from our clinic site in St. Joseph’s Catholic Mission (serving Vietnamese refugees)

Here is a weblog on food and the scene surrounding it in Hanoi: http://stickyrice.typepad.com/my_weblog/extreme_ch

eap_street_eats/