ira on December 9th, 2008

Well, we’re three days away from departure and as usual will leave with mixed emotions.  On the one hand, we can hardly wait for the warmth of hearth and home, family and friends over the holidays; on the other, we will feel a pleasant kind melancholy as the jets begin to whine.  This has been […]

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ira on November 18th, 2008

If you’ve ever have the desire to stand agog on a street corner, literally agog, come to Ho Chi Minh City and witness the motorbike traffic.   For a sample, view:  Bikes on Street Corner  Then, venture across the street. The first time, you cross with the same faith and fear as with your first parachute […]

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ira on November 18th, 2008

We are lucky to be here in Vietnam as older travelers. By custom, the Vietnamese honor people older than themselves, even those, such as our presenile selves, who are proceeding blissfully into the future. They are known also for overwhelming hospitality. We have experienced these expressions in spades and so have felt honored and welcomed […]

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ira on November 4th, 2008

I know we are all celebrating this magnificent moment.  I hope today’s spirit of unity will continue and that we will move forward now as Americans, unqualified by categories, not black Americans, Mexican Americans, etc. but American Americans, a people, unified.  Mom and I are terrifically proud to have seen civil rights seeds sewn in […]

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judy on October 15th, 2006

This is part 2 of the Myanmar trip story and was written by Dick Svee. Burma Road    They lived among an ancient civilization; hundreds of pagodas and stupas in various stages of decay, some with cracks and broken plaster revealing eroding brick foundations; others with trees growing and swallowed by the encroaching forest.    […]

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judy on September 30th, 2006

One last word or two about the Thai political situation.  It is not affecting anyone’s daily life at all, except for those who are involved in it.  Thaksin is in London “holidaying” as one of newspapers put it; his entire family and retainers are also there with him in the multi-million dollar home that he […]

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judy on November 15th, 2005

[imgset:72157611406123726,thumbnail] You probably already know that Ira and I are friends here in Bangkok with Yim and Doug who are the co-owners of an excellent restaurant which is also our neighborhood “hangout”.  Yim is Thai and Doug is from the US. Thanks to Yim, Ira and I were recently lucky enough to go to a […]

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ira on September 21st, 2003

In Phnom Penh you are never far from reminders of Pol Pot’s reign of terror. In Phnom Penh itself, Pol Pot’s psychopathic minions converted a former high school into a central torture center.  Where students once studied and played, tools of torture replaced the tools of learning. The metal beds, blood-stained floors, and grim implements […]

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