Category Archives: Southeast Asia

Bob and Claire Rogers’ tandem bicycle journey through SW China and SE Asia.

Tchepone, Laos and the Southeast Asian War
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Because of our most recent travels in Asia on our tandem bicycle, I have developed a new interest in the Vietnam War, really the Indochina War of my youth. My draft board called me in 1964. I presented myself, got on a bus and taken for a physical and mental evaluation. I was just out of hospital for a bleeding ulcer. They didn’t know how to cure ulcers in those days, and they knew military food would kill me: 4F. I have always had some survivor’s guilt, partly because I have seen the toll that particular war took on many of the surviving draftees. The vets I have shared this feeling with have said I didn’t miss anything, and to let it go. I think I have. Maybe traveling there, seeing the land and the people involved has had something to do with my coming to terms with those feelings. My appreciation for anyone who fought there is deep. It was one helluva place to have to fight a war. Read the rest of this article…

Adventure travel by tandem bicycle; funny way to be a happy couple: a preview
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A preview of The New Bohemians program about how to survive and thrive while adventure bicycle touring in remote parts of the developing world. Laugh while you learn the practicalities of day to day life on the roads from Tibet to Cambodia, Kazakhstan to Turkey. Read the rest of this article…

The Many Faces of Buddha
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Southeast Asia is made up of several compact, densely populated countries. Along with a change in currency and the sound of a different language, visitors to the region know they’ve crossed a national border simply by looking to the Buddha. Buddhist imagery and the philosophies it reflects are remarkably different from region to region worldwide, but the differences are especially pronounced in Southeast Asia. Read the rest of this article…

The Killing Fields: The Shooting of Gabrielle Giffords and Others
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After 35 years, the first Khmer Rouge mass murderer has been convicted in Cambodia. We’ve all heard of the killing fields of Cambodia, when the Khmer Rouge murdered between one and two million other Cambodians. It was one of the worst periods of mass murder in history. It was the Chinese Cultural Revolution gone crazy. The Khmer Rouge, in attempting to bring about an agrarian utopian society, sought out and murdered anyone with an education, and anyone associated with them. Read the rest of this article…

Cambodian Disaster: Sad Event For A Fine People
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So sad to hear of the crowd disaster and all the deaths in Cambodia. In our three weeks or so in the country we found the people to be hard working, cheerful and generally happy despite sometimes difficult living conditions. Like most Southeast Asians, they love their festivals, and the Water Festival is most beloved. This is an unusual occurrence and should not deter anyone from visiting this wonderful country. We’d go back in a minute. เทศกาลน้ำ Read the rest of this article…

Ear Wax Removal Guaranteed, and Safer than the Vietnamese Barber’s Method
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I do have an ear wax removal method you can do yourself. Before you shower, fill one ear with vegetable oil and let it soak by lying on your side for five minutes, or more if you can stand it. Absorb the oil with a paper towel when you stand. Shower with a moderately strong stream of warm water into that ear. After a couple of minutes, turn your ear to the bottom of the shower, jump on your right leg and bang your head on the opposite side, gently. Read the rest of this article…

Living on the Mekong in Cambodia: Where do you live?
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The family on this, approximately 25 long by four feet wide boat, are fishing the Mekong river in Cambodia. They fish from early morning to dark daily. They will find a, hopefully safe, place to tie up for the night. The boat is their home, their only home. The eat, sleep, cook, make love, give birth and die there. The only time they touch land is to sell their fish. In some places buyers come to the river. There are many such boats on the Mekong, in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Sometimes a government tries to take them from the river, but they return. Read the rest of this article…

Chengdu China one year ago today. Series on beginning In Search of Shangri-la
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One year ago today we rode our tandem in Chengdu, China traffic in preparation for our journey across Tibetan China and through Southeast Asia. We are beginning a series of re-posts remembering this adventure. Follow us as we remember, or better yet, go to the link at left, In Search of Shangri-la and read the whole four months. Read the rest of this article…