Hoa Lu andTam Coc near Ninh Binh in North Central Vietnam

Saturday we went about 75 miles south east of Hanoi into the countryside to visit one historical site and one site of natural beauty.
The traffic and driving was again one of the main entertainments of the day with the dance of the autos, trucks and motobikes reaching far out into the countryside.

Hoa Lu was the capital of Vietnam during the 10th and 11th centuries, chosen for the natural protection of the rivers and bizarre landscape. There are 2 restored temples from the kings of the 11th century.
A lily pond outside one of the temple complexes:


One of the temples:

This my guide at our lunch for two. Terrific variety!


After lunch we went to nearby Tam Coc. This is an area with distinct limestone mountains with a small river running thru it. The river actually forms a cave or grotto as it runs thru or under 3 of the mountains. Tourists can ride in rowboats along the river. The rowboats are powered by men or women who often row with their feet.



Often one of the tourist passengers participates in the heavy work:

A woman rowing with her feet:
Paddling thru the grotto. Our rowers consisted of a mother and her son:


A quiet location along the river:
Tomorrow we will go Halong Bay, a UN World Heritage site, and stay overnite on the Bay.

Ho Chi Minh's Place

Yesterday we visited the place where Ho Chi Minh (HCM to those familiar with him) is memorialized. It is a trafficless park area which houses the HCM Mausoleum, HCM's stilthouse, the HCM Museum, and another house and his garage with his cars.


This Mausoleum was built by help from Russian architects as one can tell by the solid, uninspired block-like design. His body is in there but has to go to Russia once a year to maintain the preservation of the body. We couldn't go inside because it was closed for maintenance.

One of the long list of regulations for entering the buildings contained the following rule (click to enlarge):


The stilthouse is interesting as it is quite simple and serene located on a lake and lovely garden area near the opulent French Govenor's Palace from colonial days.


This is a view from the veranda that surrounds the second floor:
After spending an hour at the Museum that tells his life story as well as the nationalist struggle for independence from the French and the re-unification struggle with the Americans. It is very interesting to get this point of view.

Then we visited the Ethnolgraphic Museum that has materials from the 54 distinct ethnic groups that live in Vietnam. More about that later as we will be visiting some minority hill-tribe groups in the northwest mountauns near the Chinese border.

Late in the afternoon we visited the site of the first university that was founded in 1072. And then visited the Tran Quoc Pagoda on the shore of the large West Lake:

Hanoi, Viet Nam

I arrived in Hanoi on time after 28 hours from the time I left my home in Del Mar.....with my luggage! I was met by my smiling tour guide Tran Van Bay who got me to my hotel safely.
I rested, we went for a walk, a snack, back to the hotel fo another rest and then dinner.

Hanoi is a busy city of 4 million friendly people with chaotic, noisy traffic mixing mostly motobikes with bicycles and motor cars. It never stops even for the few traffic lights that seem to exist here. Horns are constantly beeping as lane stripes are always ignored. Outrageous maneuvers are accomplished without any sign of road rage. Traffic is extremely entertaining to observe.



We took a walk around Hoan Kiem Lake which is near the colorful Old Quarter. It is quite picturesque in the eerie late afternoon sunlight that is filtered by a mildly polluted haze as is the case in most Asian cities.



This one of several art students we saw on the shoreline attempting to capture the feeling.

We will be here for 3 days experiencing the sites and museums. What is particularly interesting is to get a fresh viewpoint on the "American War" which we will get visiting some museums tomorrow.

Leaving for Vietnam & Thailand

I'm leaving this afternoon on a trip of one month duration to South East Asia.
I'm taking the commuter plane to LAX and catching the 18 hour long nonstop Thai Air flight form LAX to Bangkok and then catching a 1 1/2 hour flight to Hanoi Vietnam. My first time in Viet Nam. I'll spend almost 2 weeks in northern and central Viet Nam. Then will go for a little over 2 weeks to Thailand in Bangkok and a couple of beach areas called Phuket and Pattaya.
That is pronounced "Poo-ket" not "Fuh-ket".

Stay tuned.

Jet Planes at Waikiki

We went to see Waikiki Beach in Honolulu on our last day.

It is a nice beach but crowded with professional tourists and high rise hotels hugging the beach. There is a public, open section at one end.

It was extra crowded the day we were there because it was Air Force Week and the Thunderbirds show team was there practicing for their big show. It was very impressive.

We had a good flight home to San Diego on Friday the 14 September.

A Circumnavigation of the Island of Oahu

Today we drove 90 miles counter-clockwise around the island. We went east over the windward mountain range to the north west coast of the island,which is the more rainy side.
Then we headed north along the coast and stopped at the Polynesian Cultural Center. After that we headed west along the famous North Shore which in the winter is alive with huge surfing (20-40 feet tall) waves generated by swells from the winter storms in the Gulf of Alaska. And then south thru the western plain back to Ko Olina.

This is a beach on the Windward coast that was across the street from out lunch spot:

These next 3 photos were taken at the Polynesian Cultural Center near the BYU-Hawaii campus on the northern tip of the island. They have demonstrations of dances and skills from seven different Polynesian islands- Tonga, Samoa, Tahiti, Hawaii, New Zealand, Fiji, and the Marquesas. These photos are from the "Pageant of the Long Canoes"





These place is rather touristy but it is interesting and, after all, we are tourists.

On the North Shore the beaches were quiet but beautiful.

Sunset Beach:

And Waimea Bay:

Last Night's Sunset

Back at Ko Olina Resort - Oahu, Hawaii

Have returned to Ko Olina with my friend Denis. I have a one bedroom villa that is nicer than I had in March in that it is on the 8th floor with a nice view of the 8th hole of the golf course as seen above. It is also less crowded with kids than late March.
I played golf yesterday...the first time in 6 months and the first time since my surgery. I didn't play too well but did break 100. It was warm and I played with a Japanese couple whose only English was "nice ball". This was much better than my Japanese vocabulary.
We did go into Honolulu Saturday nite and had a very good meal at a Thai restaurant.
More later if something interesting happens.

Russia was cancelled; Heart surgery instead

Well, about 3 weeks before the trip to Russia was supposed to begin, I had my biennial (every 2 years?) treadmill stress test. This time it was positive so I had a coronary angiogram which showed some partially blocked arteries. (There is a strong family history of this on my father's side). So I had heart surgery to bypass these blockages on May 8. This is a very common procedure these days but still a fairly big deal since they saw thru your sternum and stop the heart and put you on the heart-lung machine for an hour. It went rather smoothly except for a common complication of irregular heart beats the first few days. I have recovered well and am now exercising at a level equal to that prior to the procedures without chest discomfort. I am planning to travel to Ohio this weekend to attend my Aunt Charlotte's 90th birthday party.

Next big trip is back to Hawaii in September, then maybe Brazil in October and then Vietnam/Thailand in Nov/Dec.
Plan to see the world while I am "young".

Pearl Harbor

Yesterday, Wednesday, we did our duty and went to Pearl Harbor to see the USS Arizona Memorial. It is the white structure in the picture below. The battleship USS Missouri is moored near it...on the left. The Memorial structure is built above the sunken remains of the USS Arizona where about 1100 men died during the surprise attack in December, 1941. About 900 of them are still entombed there.


This is a photograph of the ship which sits in about 40ft of water on the bottom:There is still oil leaking out of the engine room almost 60 years later:

The battleship Missouri is now a museum which one can tour. This ship was retired in 1992 after service in the Gulf War.


Today we played golf again. And tomorrow we have nothing planned. A ay of rest.

North Shore and Makaha Valley Golf

On Monday we took a drive to the North Shore past the Dole Pineapple Plantation to the famous beaches where the big surfing waves hit when there are storms in the Gulf of Alaska.
The surf was quiet and the beaches were beautiful on this day. An example:
Today we played golf again. This time at a course about 30 minutes north of our resort on the western coast of Oahu. The Makaha Valley has 2 courses set in a beautiful valley surrounded on 3 sides by lush mountains and the Pacific ocean on the 4th side.

A panoramic view of the ocean from the tee of a par 3 hole (click to enlarge):


A view of one of the lush mountains as Debby tees off:
Mark & Debby on a green with a sample of the beautiful views:


The three of us:

And we finished off the day with a Luau at the hotel.

Ko Olina, Oahu, Hawaii

I have a 2 bedroom timeshare week at the Marriott Ko Olina Beach Club this week. I traded my Newport Coast timeshare unit for this one.My brother and his wife from Orlando, Florida have joined me here. This place is on the relatively isolated western shore of Oahu about 25 miles west of the tourist chaos of Honolulu. But a non-stop 5 1/2 hour flight from San Diego.

Ko Olina is the start of a resort community with 2 hotels, a marina, golf course, some houses and condos and 4 man-made crescent shaped lagoons that allow sheltered swimming. But just 30 minute drive to the big city. The picture above shows the lagoon at our place.

Yesterday we played golf at the golf course across from the resort in the 20mph constant tradewinds here. The course was very nice.


This is them on the 12th tee with the Beach Club tower in the background.

This is Mark & Debby in their golf cart:

This is Debby teeing off. She actually hit this ball on the green and sank the 6-foot putt for a BIRDY!

Tomorrow we will be lazy and spend time at the beach, pool, gym or possibly drive to another part of the island.

2007

This my first post in 3 months. I have been busy, but haven't taken my camera. But I am going to Hawaii on Saturday for a week so I wanted to get you all warmed up.
So far since I returned from South East Asia, I went to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show, skied at my timeshare at Snowbird Utah, visited my brother and his wife near Orlando. I've got some other timeshare stays planned so far this year in Palm Springs (twice)and Hawaii again; and I have about 3-4 other timeshare weeks available.
I've also got a trip to Moscow and St Petersburg Russia planned for late May on a river cruise boat.

The picture is from my trip in 2003 Hiking in the Dolomites in Italy.

Home in San Diego

Tuesday, December 19

I got home late last nite after flying back on Thai Airways.
The BKK-LAX flight got in an hour early after being aided by big tailwinds...only 13 1/2 hours.
But LAX was a mess transfering luggage thru customs and connecting to United Express to San Diego.....new TSA procedures had inadequate staffed personnel to handle them.
Plan is to get a month's worth of mail at the post office today and re-program my brain to the new time zone.

Saturday, December 16

Well, I am not bored yet in Pattaya. Same routine with a variation today. Went to an island off the coast that was a terrific change of pace, but not too much of a change. Unfortunately, I was stoopid enough to leave my camera's SD card in my computer's card reader back at the hotel room. So when I took out my camera to take the first of several great photos, I noted the empty card slot and was very pissed.

I took a ferry boat for a 40 minute ride to the island of Koh Lan. Then jumped on the back of a motorbike for a 10 minute ride to Monkey Beach. I spent 3 hours eating lunch, reading, and swimming in the nice water. Got back around 5:30.

One more full day here and then on Monday I catch a car to the airport for a 7:20 pm evening flight back to usa.

Relaxing in Pattaya

Thursday morning, December 14

My last week in South East Asia is at the Marriott Resort & Spa in Pattaya, Thailand.

Pattaya is a beach town 2 hours southeast of Bangkok populated with assorted characters. It was popular with American GIs on leave 35 years ago and it has grown to the largest beach resort in Asia. It has local Thais on holiday, as well as other Asians especially Japanese and Koreans on tour, and a slew of expatriates living here for various reasons......cheap retirement, easy sex and alcohol, etc. There are many Brits, Russians and Germans as well as some Americans.

My day here consists of late wake-up, going to the hotel gym for 30+ minutes on the exercise bike and some light free weights, then lunch and then going to the beach where I rent a chair under the umbrellas, get a massage and get served refreshments. Then back to the hotel for a swim in the pool and nap. And then dinner and sampling the nitelife. So far, I'm not bored but there are about 15 golf courses near Pattaya that are inexpensive if I want. Golf is extremely popular in Thailand even before Tiger Woods and his Thai mother.

A panorama of the beach here (click to enlarge) :


A view from my beach chair:


And a Thai beach massage boy attending to a customer:
I'm not sure whether I will add another post, since life is very similar each day. I return on Monday.