*Full Vietnam photo gallery below* When we first planned our itinerary, we were guided by both a long list of places we wanted to see as well as the logistics of connecting flights around the world. As the trip plan was fine tuned, I thought what we had ultimately chosen was an itinerary diverse enough […]

We started out today with a half-day tour of the Cu Chi tunnels, about a two hour bus ride from Ho Chi Minh City. The bus ride and tour was another one of those tourist bottlenecks where all the foreigners merge onto one space like a swarm of locusts. I was reminded again of my […]

Vietnamese people, generally speaking, are kinda serious people. Right next door you have the nearly always cheery and jaunty Cambodians, and next door to that it’s “the land of smiles.” In Vietnam though, a lot of people initially present a very severe business-like facade. A little small talk usually breaks through the facade, but in […]

“If this is the tourist bus, where are all the tourists?” It’s a question that’s been asked a few times on this trip, enough that it’s become a bit of a joke. The first time it came up was in Mexico, taking a bus to the pyramids. I was the only foreigner on the buses […]