He didn’t specify which branch of service he was in, but we guessed it was the one that tends to be secretive. After several, appropriately vague, stories about his ventures there, we shared our experiences being lost in Laos on the spiders web of the Hoh Chi Minh Trail, and we could tell he knew all about the anti-personnel “bobmbies” we were worried about. Read the rest of this article…
This view is probably familiar to many in my generation who served in Vietnam in the 1960′s and 1970′s. It was taken, looking north, from a headland jutting out into the South China Sea, forming a barrier to weather, and no doubt troop movements, between South Vietnam and North Vietnam. Hai Van Pass, Vietnam. Read the rest of this article…
Vietnamese school girls, in the hot Mekong delta, ride their bicycles to and from school. They wear these beautiful pant/dress outfits, and large face masks. We learned thatthey wear the masks mainly to protect their skin from the sun Read the rest of this article…
This woman was selling fresh pineapples in a roadside market in Laos. We bought one, and she expertly peeled and sliced it in finger friendly pieces and put it in a bag so we wouldn’t get our bicycle sticky. It was a pineapple I will remember forever, because it was so perfectly ripe. Our interaction was fun with the few Lao words we know, but smiles go a long way when language is short. The price was a few cents, and sustained us on a long hot day. I hope our small sale helps that bun in the oven get an education one day, something few Lao children get. Read the rest of this article…
Claire: It sounds romantic: going to sleep to the sounds of chanting and waking to the sounds of milking. But these women’s lives are a gritty exsistence that our culture hasn’t known for generations. Hauling wood, water and food up the ladder to the living space, making butter and curds, grinding grain, hand washing clothes, keeping the fire going, cooking… Mundane, routine, weather-dependent, smoke-filled and layered with years of grime. At first, we were both a little uncomfortable with their aboriginal way of life (we even took some Pepto-Bismol as a prophylaxis against any reaction to the yak butter). It’s kind of like going feral in Australia, at first, you try to avoid the bull dust, then you live with it until finally, it becomes your outer layer.
Zippy shrink wrapped and ready for China. The wheels are in two other boxes, along with tools and sharp objects, a third bag will carry tent and sleeping bag for the high mountains. We’ll carry cameras and the computer in … Read the rest of this article…
The bags are going to look like a clown pretty soon, if she keeps putting on patches. I asked Bob why they don’t get new bags. He said they are sentimental about the bicycle and the bags. New would be nice, he said, but these bags have memories; every tear and scuff has some meaning to them. Read the rest of this article…
We leave September 1 for Chengdu, Sichuan, China to begin a tandem bicycle tour of SW China and SE Asia. We begin in Chengdu, Sichuan, where the earthquakes killed thousands last year. We will visit some pandas and probably visit our first important Buddha statue before heading into high country where the Himalayas transition from the Tibetan plateau, giving birth to all the great rivers of SE Asia. After a long crossing into Yunnan, we will drop into the sub tropics of Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and end probably in Bangkok, one of our favorite cities. Read the rest of this article…