Catching up.

It's hard to believe, bet we have been back from SE Asia for a month now! Time does fly when your not having fun as well as when you are! Back to the grind of work, and a bathroom remodel.

In the rush of travel, and spotty computer and internet access I did not get a lot of our travels up on the blog. Much happened between our leaving Ha Noi and our 'epic' trip home from SE Asia. Over the next week or so I will try to catch things up for everyone!

A few days before New Years we left Ha Noi via train, heading south along the Vietnamese coast. Our departure was in the evening, and we spent most of the trip south to Da Nang sleeping, but in the morning we got some great views of the S China Sea.

We arrived in Danang and were picked up at the train station for a short drive to Hoi An. On the way we stopped at the sculpture works near marble Mountain. There is an amazing array of carvings of all sizes, whcih are sold and shipped all over the world!

Shortly we arrived at our hotel in Hoi An. It was quite the place. Between the wonderful hotel, the food, and the wonderful port city I wished that we had planned to stay longer than one night!

We got ourselves situated in our suite and then headed to the hotel restaurant to eat. The service was very good and the food was wondererful! Linda & Epiphany enjoyed a variety of local seafood, for which Hoi An is well known!

After eating, Linda went back to the room. (Linda got her money's worth on this luxurious room, as she spent most of our two days in the room as she was not feeling well.) Epiphany and I grabbed cameras and went out to explore the town. We wound up out well after dark, a beautiful time to be on the town in Hoi An!

The next morning Epiphany and I headed out early, to make the most of our half day in town. Unfortunatly Epiphany's camera had died and was not working. She elected to head back to the hotel and I had the morning to my self. It was pretty much the first time during the trip that I had to myself.

It was a pleasant monring, making my way at my own pace and I enjoyed my 'morning on the town' visiting the market, Japanese covered bridge, and other sights, returning to the hotel in time to pack and meet our driver to head back to Danang and the train which would take us south to our next stop in Nha Trang.

Sleepless in Seoul

Well our trip has been quite an adventure, and between the whirlwind of activity, and the slow or sometimes nonexistent Internet access I have not updated the blog for a quite a while. We are now back home, but only after the ordeal of flying!

On the evening of the 7th, our ever reliable guide and driver picked us up and drove us to the airport, where we paid our $25.00ea (USD) 'exit fee' (what happens if you don't have it I wonder?) cleared security and boarded a Vietnam Airlines flight back to Hanoi.

In Hanoi there was a bit of difficulty as we had no boarding pass yet for our next flight, but we needed a boarding pass to clear customs! Not to worry, once the crowd of Japanese tourists cleared customs our kind customs officer (REALLY!) ran herself out to the Korean Airlines desk and got our boarding passes for us! Then it was another trip through security and on to our plane bound for Seoul where we were to have a tour of the city before boarding our last plane home.

We arrived in the Incheon airport in Seoul tired, grumpy, and unclear as to how we should proceed. After a bit of waiting, wandering, losing our place in line for yet another trip through security we decided the best thing to do would be to go to the Korean Air transfer desk and ask them, as they were the ones who would be providing the trip, a perk for putting up with a 12 hour layover, the other option being a hotel room, which at the time did not sound as enticing, but right now we were considering asking if it was possible to change.

Bad news at the transfer desk though. It seems we were not booked for either a tour NOR a hotel room, somebody had screwed up. Korean Air blamed our travel agent (who was of course pretty much impossible to contact at that point!) I stated that I was pretty sure that she had booked the tour while we were in her office at the time we orginally purchased the tickets, the women behind the KA counter flatly insisted that was not the case! I pointed out, that regardless of where the problem happened that the problem was before us now and would have to be resolved here. No luck, there was notheing she could do.

Now my wife Linda rarely cries, but being pretty close to exhausted, and looking at 12 hours in an airport she began to tear up. I was pretty much left speachless at the women's response and just stood at the counter waiting for something to happen, which of course nothing did. We left and sat down at a nearby table. After stewing for a bit I went back up to the counter and asked to speak to the women's supervisor, which I was permited to do, with basically the same result, not tour, no hotle, no compensation for our trouble of any kind, not even so much as an apology. all I got was a suggestion that we use the rest and relaxation area at the airport (which was pretty much full.) I don't think that I will be flying Korean Air again. Airlines are notorious for poor service, but this pretty much took the cake for me.

Linda and I sat back down at the table for a bit, then lugged our carry-on luggage in search of a place to rest. We finally found a bench we both could kind of sleep on and spent the next 4 hours in fitfull naps - o glorius air travel!

Eventually the 12 hour clock wound down and we were able to board our final flight bound for home, but not until we had suffered a hand search of all our carry on bags! Seems security had found something they did not like in a passenger's checked bagaage, so everyone had their carry-on bags searched as they boarded the plane!

The rest of our trip home was pretty much routine. A long flight, a quick trip through immigrations and customs then a shuttle ride home.

It has been a great trip, but it does feel good to be home! There is still a lot to tell, from Hanoi, down the coast of Vietnam to Saigon, and then days of exploring the Angkor temples in Cambodia - so stay tuned, I will fill the rest of the trip in soon!

Goodbye Hanoi & fresh beer.

Tonight we leave Hanoi and head south to Saigon. We will spend a day in Hoi An (near Dannang) and a couple of days (including New Years) in Nha Trang. We will arrive in Ho chi Mihn city (Saigon) on the end of the week.

It has been a crazy and fun time in Hanoi. It will be nice to get out on the coast and hopefully somewhere quieter with cleaner air. Each of us has spent at least one day not feeling well, and everyone seems to now have at least a sore throat. Linda has also been coughing for the last couple of nights. Hopefully some fresh air will help.

We never did get out to Halong Bay to go rock climbing. The days we had planned to climb turned out to be raining, so we stayed in town. We did make good use of our time, finding a supermarket so we could get food fro the train, attending a night of songs at the Hanoi Opera house, and attending the Water Puppet Theater.

We also went and saw the school that Epiphany had been staying at while she was studying here. We walked out to the school. On the way Epiphany & I sat on the street and enjoyed 'fresh beer.' It was one of the highlights of the trip for me. The beer is brewed fresh each morning and delivered to street vendors who serve it straight from the keg. The beer is apparently available in three varieties, but what we found was the most popular, a light, almost sweet Lager. The fun part is you sit on little plastic 'kindergarten' stools and drink it while the world goes by.

While we were out near Epiphany's school we also bought lunch. Pork sandwiches for Linda & Epiphany, and rice and vegetables for me. Once again we sat on the little 'kindergarten' stools that seem to be anywhere in Hanoi. This time we did have a small table to eat at however.

I will miss Hanoi. I will miss our nice little hotel, with such friendly and helpful staff. I will miss the morning coffee here, dark, strong, and very smooth, the best I had in Hanoi. I will miss Hoan Keim lake and its surrounding park. I will miss all the little restaurants, the Pho', vegtables, coffee, ice cream. I will miss breakfast on the top floor of our hotel, with the view of the lake.

But further adventures beckon. We have time for one more meal in Hanoi, and then we catch a train south tonight, arriving in Dannang in the morning. From Dannang we go to Hoi An where we will spend the night.

Goodbye Hanoi, it has been wonderful!

Hanoi - Old Quarter

Hanoi is a frenetic, noisy, chaotic place!

Yesterday Linda & I explored the Old Quarter of Hanoi, which is where our hotel is located. It is filled with small shops, people, cars, and motorbikes, motorbikes, motorbikes!

Consumerism flourishes here in the Old Quarter! There are countless shops selling everything you can imagine - textiles, clothing, shoes, wallets, purses, bags, belts, watches, electronics, dishes, pots, pans, gifts of all types, and countless varieties of produce, food. Motorbikes bicycles & trucks run back and forth transporting goods to the shops. Shoppers walk, bike, motorbike and wander about. It is pretty much total chaos, and crossing the street is an adventure in and of itself. It is amazing that there are not more crashes.

We wandered the narrow streets and alleyways, getting totally lost and then worked on finding our way back to our hotel. It was a frenetic and exhausting adventure!

We also spent time today on a stroll around the lake beside our hotel. While we were exploring our little part of Hanoi, epiphany was moving from the dorms at school to the Opera Hilton Hotel and finishing here last paper. We joined her in the evening for dinner at a small restaurant.

We have not yet made out plans for today, but I am sure it will be another adventure. If it does get dull or boring, there is always going out and trying to stay alive while crossing the street!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

View of the de-icing truck from my window seat.


Chigago, New York, Iowa, nope SeaTac airport!

Hello from Vietnam!

Yes we actually made it to Vietnam. It was looking rather close there for a bit. Friday I got a call from the Shuttle folks telling us that, due to the snow, they would be unable to pick us up at our house. We would have to meet them at the Shari's on Union. I had visions of us lugging our bags on the Pierce Transit bus on a snowy Sunday morning. Epiphany's friend Kim came to our resuce and drove us out to the Shari's.

We got to the airport ok, checked in and to the gate. As we were lined up to board the plane we heard the announcement that all of the subsequent flights out of SeaTac were cancelled for the day!

We spent a long time waiting on the tramac for the de-icing truck. We finally took off, almost two hours late! We were on our way, but it looked like we might miss our connection in Seoul as we only had a two hour layover.

Fortunatly we had good tailwinds and made up some of the time and we landed with an hour before our plane would leave. It gave us enough time to get through security and to the gate in time for boarding.

All we have seen of Hanoi so far is a very rapid drive through the town at night to our hotel. (Everything folks say about driving in Hanoi is true!)

It is one in the morning here, and I have no idea what time it is at home right now as I am very tired. Epiphany, Linda, and I have been visiting for a bit, but now it is time for bed for me!

Christmas in Vietnam

It has been an odd Christmas season for Linda & I. Our house has no Christmas lights, no decoration, no tree, not even the most important part of Christmas, hanging the stockings! We have done virtually no Christmas shopping. We did not throw our annual Christmas party this year. From all appearances we are skipping Christmas this year. We did dig out the Christmas records and CDs, but that is it.

Linda & I are headed off to Vietnam to spend 3 weeks visiting with our daughter Epiphany who is with the UPS Pacific Rim study abroad program. We will be leaving Sunday. (if we can get to the airport, and the planes are flying!) We will be spending the Christmas and New Years holidays in Vietnam with Epiphany. It just didn't make sense to put up the lights and decorations, buy a tree, and do all the regular Christmas stuff when we won't be here.

We will be celebrating Christmas eve with the PacRim group. Christmas morning we will do a small celebration in our hotel room - we are bringing Christmas stockings with us. For the rest of our Christmas celebrations, Epiphany is in charge and is planning a day out in Hanoi.

It has been a bit odd to not be involved much with all the holiday preparations this year. Any Christmas shopping we do will be in SE Asia. We will also be missing our daughter Rachel & her husband Josh's first Christmas in their new house in Portland, something I regret, but one can't be two places at the same time.

Linda & I are certainly looking forward to our vacation, we have not had one in a long time. Merry Christmas to everyone, hope you have a good one. I will try to write from Asia. If not I will update you all upon our return in January!

Josh's Salsa La Cruz

I have been meaning to get photos of some of the interesting bikes we build up on the website. As you may know if you browse the website, we have not gotten that done. Consider it one of those New Years resolutions that never happens!

Here is at least a start:

My son in law Josh wanted the ultimate commuter bike for transportation around Portland. He started with a Salsa La Cruz frame and specified the bike you see below. It features an 8 speed internally geared hub (Shimano Alfine), disc brakes from Avid, Shimano dyno hub & light set up on the front, Nitto North Road bars, a Brooks Flyer saddle, . A great, low maintenance commuter bike!