We had seen images of outdoor barbers in Vietnam, entailing a mirror hung up in the street with a chair right on the sidewalk. Thinking that this was a relic of the past, we were delighted to see such an operation just across the street from our guest house as we rolled into Son La. […]
A half hour after our scooter incident, the heavy fog began to burn off and the roads dried out. With the weather having shaped up for the rest of our days ride, we carried on through the dusty villages and towns on our way to Son La. [split_gallery show=”1-8″] Now three days into our visit […]
We woke up too a cool morning in Mai Chau well before the sun came up as usual. After laying on the extremely firm mattress for several hours, we decided to get an early start to the day. We made our way downstairs where we were met by the hostess. She offered us a breakfast […]
Mai Chau is a delightful little town surrounded by a steep limestone karst which seems to epitomize northern Vietnam. The people are incredibly friendly, and have surprisingly good English. I suppose that even though this little town isn’t a big tourist destination, it is close enough to Hanoi that there is enough opportunity to interface […]
Waking up in Hanoi this morning left me with some real anxiety. Today was the day we were to pick up our scooters and ride them out of the crazy Hanoi traffic and into Mai Chau. The rental process took what felt like forever and a number of hours later, we were just getting our […]
We had read reports of the airport being hawkish and local taxi drivers relentlessly soliciting foreigners for rides. Last night there were a few solicitors, but the “hawkishness” usually went something like this: “Do you need a ride?” “No, were ok, thank you.” “Where are you going?” “We don’t need a ride, thank you.” After […]
After a long night of pretending to sleep, we got up, checked out, and set to the streets of Saigon. A cyclone was slated to move into the city, though the full force of the reported 50 mph winds and heavy rain had not yet hit. Instead, we found a muggy drizzle that made the […]
There is no quick way to reach Saigon from the United States, but certainly United Airlines knows how to make it take even longer. After delays and cancellations in Salt Lake, an emergency Delta flight which required an all out sprint to the adjoining terminal which sent us to San Francisco, and a long “middle […]
Tuesday was our last day in San Antonio. Brandon had work, so Megan took us to the Concepcion Mission before we met Brandon for lunch before heading to the airport. The Concepcion Mission is incredibly well preserved. In spite of the light drizzle and gloomy skies, we thought that the mission was awesome and made […]
Brandon went to work on Monday morning, meaning Megan, Bree, Addie and I were on our own for the day. Since we were in the land of the missions, we decided that we better at least visit one (the Alamo doesn’t count). We all set out for a walk through the drizzling rain, and had […]
Ever since we tried the flying trapeze in Boston, we have been hooked. It just happens that there is a rig in Austin, which about an hour or so from Megan and Brandon’s place, so when we decided to visit Texas it was high on our list of things we wanted to do. Trapeze Austin did […]
After our visit the to Japanese Tea Garden and a quick lunch, we headed to the heart of San Antonio to visit the Alamo (we were in San Antonio, after all). When I envisioned the Alamo and the missions that we would visit on subsequent days, I imagined them pretty much in the middle of […]