Welcome to Hanoi

A full 12-hour excursion took me on a 110-mile inland bus ride each way to the capital of Vietnam, winding through the countryside and small towns up the Red River to the city of pagodas and palaces, presidents and prisons. Welcome to Hanoi. Our tour guide and host Kha, born in 1977, spoke candidly about…

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Tunnel Vision

I must go back for a moment to Southern Vietnam, and return to an experience I needed some time to synthesize before I share my thoughts. While in Saigon, we took a day trip about 30 miles northwest of the city to the district of Cu Chi where, from 1967, it served as base for…

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Haunting Halong Bay

Off the coast of northern Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin, lies the hauntingly beautiful Halong Bay. It features thousands of limestone karsts and isles in various sizes and shapes that jut upward from the sea. The core of this area has a high density of about 775 islets and the limestone in the bay…

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Remembering Saigon

I looked forward to Vietnam with curiosity and admittedly, some apprehension. I came of age during the Vietnam War and clearly remember watching TV on July 1, 1970 as numbers were drawn for those born in 1951, to see if my brother would be called to the draft. After my visit to the country, I…

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