anywhere not here

1988.06 | honolulu | oahu | hawaii | usa

1994.02 | seattle | washington | usa

1994.02 | vancouver - victoria | british columbia | canada

2001.06 | puerto vallarta | mexico

2002.08 | portland | oregon | usa

2003.06 | kyoto - osaka - tokyo - yokohama | japan

2003.09 | taipei | taiwan

2003.09 | hong kong

2003.09 | bangkok - pattaya - phuket | thailand

2005.10 | london - greenwich - brighton | england

2005.10 | paris - versailles | france

2005.10 | brussels | belgium

2005.10 | amsterdam - leiden | holland

2005.10 | munich | germany

2005.10 | florence - rome | italy

2005.10 | washington dc | usa

2005.10 | new york city | new york | usa

2006.01 | chicago | illinois | usa

2006.02 | washington dc | usa

2007.03 | kahului - lahaina | maui | hawaii | usa

2007.06 | new york city | new york | usa

2007.08 | orlando - miami - key west | florida | usa

2008.03 | tokyo - kyoto - hiroshima | japan

2008.09 | atlanta | georgia | usa

2009.03 | san jose - puntarenas - tortuguero - limon | costa rica

2009.11 | christchurch - queenstown - mt cook - auckland | new zealand

2009.12 | sydney | australia

2010.05 | buenos aires - el calafate | argentina

2010.06 | lima - cusco - macchu picchu | peru

2010.12 | seoul | korea

2011.01 | new york city | new york | usa

2011.01 | toronto | ontario | canada

2011.03 | atlanta | georgia | usa

2011.03 | new orleans | louisiana | usa

2011.05 | austin | texas | usa

2011.08 | anchorage - seward - denali - fairbanks | alaska | usa

2011.10 | london - cambridge - bath - oxford | england

2011.10 | geneva | switzerland

2011.11 | new york city | new york | usa

2011.11 | boston | massachusetts | usa

2011.11 | hanoi - ha long - hue - da nang - hoi an - saigon | vietnam

2011.12 | siem reap - angkor - phnom penh | cambodia

2012.02 | oslo - bergen | norway

2012.02 | göteborg - stockholm - värmdö - malmö | sweden

2012.02 | copenhagen - rungsted kyst - helsingør | denmark

2012.03 | honolulu - ko olina - north shore | oahu | hawaii | usa

2012.04 | washington dc | usa

2012.04 | keflavik - reykjavik - ólafsvik - stykkishólmur - vestfirðir - sauðárkrókur - hólar - akureyri - mývatn - reykjahlið - hverarönd - egilsstaðir - seyðisfjörður - breiðdalsvik - höfn - jökulsárlón - skaftafell - vík í mýrdal - hella - haukadalur - laugarvatn - Þingvellir - selfoss - hveragerði - reykjanes - blue lagoon - grindavik | iceland

2013.03 | ponce - baja roja - rincon - fajardo | puerto rico

2013.05-08 | hanoi - nong thon | vietnam

2013.05 | beijing | china

2013.06 | lhasa - gyantse - shigatse - rongpuk - everest base camp | tibet

2013.06 | luang prabang | laos

i don't think i got a very proper introduction to geneva... or switzerland, for that matter.  i was EXTREMELY excited to visit switzerland as i had missed it completely during my last excursion in europe back in 2005.  about 20 minutes after arriving in geneva on a sunday morning, i began roaming around only to be approached by two gypsies clearly out to rob stupid tourist-looking me.  despite this, geneva is a wonderful city and switzerland is probably an amazing country that i will have to try and visit again... simply just not geneva.

in any case, geneva, itself is a beautiful city nestled around the tail of the very massive lake geneva and surrounded by the heart of the swiss alps.  the city has a very international feel as soon as you set foot into it.  the headquarters of the united nations sits atop a hill north of the lake in the outer boundaries of the city.  the area around it is seemingly teeming with activity as foreign dignitaries, diplomats and visitors are buzzing around constantly.

from quite a distance away, you can see jet d'eau (water jet) which is one of the iconic symbols of geneva.  walks around geneva can be deceptively difficult because of the intense changes in terrain in short lateral distances.  even a seemingly short walk can become a mild hike because of the hills and inclines that are not visible on a two-dimensional map.

geneva was like a beautiful chain-smoking stranger that stole me a passionate kiss and left a mildly bitter taste in my mouth.  i look to geneva with a bit of chagrin and am still slightly mesmerized, but the faint unpleasant memory remains deep in my thoughts.

hanoi is rich with cultural history and is vibrant with every aspect of typical vietnamese life from the fashionable and trendy to the grungy and downright dirty.  a visit to northern vietnam definitely centralizes itself on an excursion around hanoi.  unlike its busy and more modern sister to the south, saigon, hanoi retains a charm highlighted by its many beer gardens, endless traffic and accented by its sweet-talking inhabitants.

unlike in saigon, where you're watching every moment for people ready to scam the slippers off your feet, in hanoi, things move far slower and the locals readily entertain your curiosities and small talk.  from the moment we landed in noi bai and took a cab into the heart of hanoi, smiles were aplenty, and society was definitely different from the west.

every twist and turn walking through hanoi is filled with interesting sights and history.  the architecture in hanoi, though not as refined or magnificent as saigon, does offer some historically-pertinent sights, such as the legendary tháp rùa (turtle tower) sitting in the middle of hồ hoàn kiếm (sword lake) and the hồ tây (west lake).  apparently, november is also wedding season in hanoi as we passed photo shoots and couples at all the sights around the city strolling through on a saturday afternoon.

however, to say that we strolled through hanoi is a bit of an exaggeration.  getting through town is quite a challenge as the air in hanoi is infamously polluted from the growing number of cars and motorcycles that weave through hanoi's crowded alleyways and narrow streets.  traffic was no better described than a nightmare at most hours of the day as it was almost faster to walk anywhere in hanoi than any other form of transportation.

culinarily, hanoi and northern cuisine is simply a blander and less spiced version of its southern brother.  widely less available in the united states and the west, northern cuisine is known for its milder soups, sparse use of chilli, pepper, spices and more tropical ingredients, such as coconut and sugar.  the south, which developed much of its cuisine from the more widely-available local tropical ingredients and heavily influenced during the french colonial period, is a world of difference from the north.

all of that aside, an order of nem (cured pork) and beer certainly satisfied me enough before i went to saigon.

voted one of the world's seven natural wonders, it was abundantly clear why ha long is visited by millions of tourists a year.  these millions of tourists, however, make visiting the bay like sitting on an endless floating shopping mall.  once in the middle of the bay, the dramatic cliffs and islands are astonishing... along with the other 5 dozen cruisers peppering the view.  the visit became a little anti-climactic because of the hoards of people stealing what otherwise be part of a magnificent view.

my feelings of the excursion were mixed.  the natural beauty of the scenery was unrivaled from most that i had ever seen, but the number of other tourists lounging about made the experience just the slightest bit less special.  the road to ha long is a fairly boring drive.  a small peek at the poor countryside outside of hanoi through the window of a small, air-conditioned bus is all one can afford.  it's also a 4 to 5-hour ordeal on some of the worst roads in vietnam, but after passing dog-butcher shops one after another... we ended up at the pier in ha long town which is no more than a dock, a building and a motorboat to take us to the cruise ship.

there are hundreds of little islands, caves and "secret hideaways" in the bay, and if one is lucky enough to catch a clear sunset or sunrise in the bay, it's an awesome sight.  going in late november, we were blessed to have visited north vietnam in a relatively mild autumn/winter with fairly decent weather.  we caught a glimpse of a beautiful sunset while kayaking through the bay and getting up at 5am, we didn't see the sun, but we watched as the sky slowly illuminated and the bay awoke.

regardlessly, once floating in the middle of the bay surrounded by some of the most amazing natural scenery in the world, even for the briefest moment, everything else is lost and forgetten.

the former capital of imperial vietnam is an uncomfortable 12-hour train ride from hanoi central.  sharing a moving 4-bed jail cell with an 80-year old grandma, a middle-aged businessman and my travel partner was an unprecedented intimate experience as we crawled our way through the night to central vietnam.

the confusion right out of the train station was expected, but the difference between hue and hanoi was immediate. the weather there was noticeably warmer and far more humid.  after successfully arguing our way out of a taxi driver trying to double our agreed upon fare, we settled into our centrally located accommodations and went exploring.  the history in hue is colorful and vibrant, much like the people and food.

there are a dozen sites of historical, political and religious significance throughout hue and its surrounding areas.  thien mu pagoda, the citadel, sông hương (perfume river) and the nearby champa ruins are among the most famous and doable in a day or two of serious sightseeing.  a ride on a boat down the river to the pagoda with more sites further down negotiable costs in the neighborhood of VND300K-400K, and is definitely worth the money just because it offers a different path to a few of the sites.

lastly, there is no going wrong with food in hue.  every meal in hue was well-spiced, particularly compared to its blander northern brothers in hanoi.  bánh canh is one of the musts in hue.  served with quail eggs, nem chua (fermented pork rolls) and chả, it was refreshingly spicy and hearty.  bún bò huế, a widely-known specialty of the region, is abundant and a must when traveling to hue.  for about a dollar (VND20000), a fresh and flavorful homemade bowl can be found in any number of stalls off the beaten path in seemingly quiet and unnoticed alleyways.  the street vendor variety was definitely preferential to the restaurant quality as the ingredients were much more fresh, the flavors much more rich and deep and the atmosphere, obviously more... uniquely hue.

the drive to da nang from hue took about 2 hours (and incidentally, cost us about $50 cause i tipped the guy heavily), and i think would have been a GORGEOUS drive had the weather not been so depressingly ugly.  how was i supposed to know that of all the places in vietnam, central vietnam had some weird microclimate that was actually cold and rainy during winter while it's northern and southern brothers, hanoi and saigon, were still blazing hot and dry?  for the most part, i escaped really terrible weather (as terrible weather goes in vietnam)... but going to a town known for its beaches during a season where its beaches are more or less deserted was kind of a downer.

beyond the weather, da nang is a city with a split personality.  on the east island, home to its famous beaches, i.e. my khe, there are large and developed boulevards and tall foreign-built hotels.  to the west, where the majority of the people actually live, there is weird hodgepodge of shady alleyways sitting next to large modern shopping malls and the looks of westernized development.

da nang is actually fairly large and spread out, so in two separate afternoons, we explored a few nooks and crannies to get a literal taste of the town.  because we had yet to experience the culinary delights in saigon, da nang actually had its fair share of wonderful foodie finds.  an amazing bowl of da nang-style bun thit nuong cost us around 80c (VND17000) and the wealth of local bakeries added to our feasting!  another awesome meal was during a rainstorm when we got take-out dinner less than a buck (VND20000) with a generous helping of rice and a bunch of homemade side dishes.

the locals were all generally pretty friendly when it came to making recommendations and asking for directions.  though i imagine it's possible to get by on english, vietnamese was definitely preferable and made life a lot easier.

all in all, i was pretty satisfied with my stay in da nang despite not really getting to enjoy one of vietnam's most famous beaches.

i think if i had gone to hoi an would have been a great find about 10 years ago when it wasn't as well known and harder to get to.  unfortunately, hoi an ended up being any other little vietnamese town that turned out to be a bit of a tourist trap full of foreigners.  despite this, i can see where people did find hoi an to be a little gem in the middle of rural vietnam.

hoi an was an important cultural center centuries ago when vietnam's southern border only extended about as far as present-day da nang.  flanked by the powerful khmer empire and the then-already declining champa empire, hoi an is mere steps away from champa ruins (vietnam's version of angkor) and the world-famous ngũ hành sơn (marble) mountains.

present day hoi an offers interesting little guest houses, a variety of locally-produced souvenirs and knick-knacks and historically, some of the more interesting looks at vietnamese history that goes beyond the war.  the streets of hoi an are peppered with colorful laterns that are lit during the night of each lunar month's holiday.

a walk through the historical chinese and japanese districts of hoi an are especially a highlight during a visit to hoi an.  the many temples and historical points of interest can certainly busy a visitor for hours.  don't forget to stop by the local cultural society for an impromptu traditional vietnamese opera performance.  i caught a young woman getting hyphy to a 12-person traditional orchestra while she reenacted one of many vietnamese legends.

if one can spare the time (and money), hoi an is worth at least a look to experience a side of vietnam that would otherwise be missed in hanoi, hue or saigon.

i fell in love in vietnam... her name is saigon.

reaching saigon was a homecoming of sorts for me.  a place that i had never set foot on, but a city that i had long fabled and fantasized of from the numerous stories of a long gone past and a country that no longer exists.  saigon fell to the viet cong on 30 april 1975.  a culmination of defeat upon defeat around the rest of the crumbling formerly glorious south.  after experiencing present-day saigon, it astonishes me to think of what my parents' experience of saigon was like in its heyday.

unlike phnom penh, saigon's april 1975 was relatively far less difficult.  saigon's shift from the glorious capital of the republic to a second-tier, overpopulated metropolis of the people's republic was far from peaceful, but saigon, for the most part, was able to maintain much of its colonial and prewar charm.

i won't deny it.  i was dumbfounded by the level of modernity in metropolitan saigon.  though the majority of the traffic still runs on two wheels, cars and motorcycles are definitely predominant and the idea of pedestrian is next to unheard of.  saigon's youths are moving.  fast.  skyscrapers and construction is visible all over the city, and the nightlife in saigon is rivaled in southeast asia by only that of bangkok.

the thing about saigon was that there both nothing to complain about and so much to complain about simultaneously.  for those that know and love true southern-style vietnamese cuisine, there is no place like saigon where you can get it better.  in saigon, there is no culinary low point, from banh khot with a crust that is so crisp that it crunches with every bite and filling that is so moist and flavorful that it melts in your mouth to rice plates and street food and sandwiches that were experiences on their own.  every taste i experienced in saigon was both cheap (but expensive relative to the rest of the country) and amazing.

contrast this with the colorful characters that i met, the endless traffic jams, the rough tongues of the locals, the little social quirks and the general sense of needing street smarts to survive in saigon.  despite it all, i had an overwhelming sense of being... home.

even more than 36 years after the communist take over of the south, saigon remains the cultural, commercial and true capital of vietnam.  there was a saying that i heard more than once all across the country, "if it isn't in saigon, it doesn't exist in vietnam."

saigon.  sg.  ho chi minh city.  thanh pho ho chi minh.  tphcm.  whatever you call it, one will have to experience the craziness, the romance and the quirks themselves to understand why i left my heart in saigon.

the road from siem reap to phnom penh is about 200 miles but takes about 6 hours to traverse.  the views on the way to phnom penh are an amalgamation of rural khmer life: poverty + dirt roads + more poverty + chaos.

the only reason i had to go to phnom penh was to visit my friend, who, more than a year before, had moved to phnom penh to run away from her problems in america.  though i was excited to see a familiar face in phnom penh, i had very little expectations for the city.  after being in the surprisingly extremely modern saigon, i had high hopes that phnom penh would be more metropolitan than i had originally imagined.  my hopes were more or less unfounded as every impression i had once we arrived in phnom penh lived up to the very image i had of a generic third world capital city.

this is not to say that phnom penh did not go without its charm.  phnom penh offered an interesting mix of culture (both foreign and local khmer) and general ease that did make the city quite interesting.  phnom penh is full of obvious attempts at westernization and modernity juxtaposed with bizarre third-world quirks, like a busy riverside boulevard full of cars... with an elephant wash on the roadside.

the rich history of recent cambodian tragedy lies deep in phnom penh at the infamous former high school converted to khmer rouge torture center used during pol pot's regime.  i expected very much to be sullen and depressed following a visit to tuol sleng, and so leaving s-21 depressed and lacking energy was not a great surprise.  however, looking beyond the cambodia that most people read about in textbooks and in history, the cambodians have clearly left this dark past behind them and are moving forward.

one remarkable thing that i noticed with the majority of the khmers during my time in cambodia was their warm and genuine smiles.  thailand, according to many, is the land of smiles, but in my experience, i got mostly racism and scowls in thailand.  cambodia, on the other hand, offered nothing but genuine smiles (even as they try to rip you off and you're bargaining like crazy).  remember, a genuine smile is in the eyes, not the lips.

to say that phnom penh is third-world is nearly an understatement.  the poverty everywhere in the entire country is obvious, but phnom penh had its own unique and vibrancy that definitely owes itself to a very dynamic and young population (demographics show that the majority of the population is overwhelmingly under the age of 25) and tons of ex-pats from europe and north america giving the eclectic nightlife scene a distinct western flavor with a khmer twist.  with every twist and turn, phnom penh offered unique and interesting views on a society very different from anything in the west.

to put it simply, phnom penh is like your awkward, mid-puberty, still-discovering-her-identity younger sister, squatting in the shadows of her elegant and beautiful sisters: saigon and bangkok.  one day you'll grow up phnom penh... and one day, you'll be gorgeous, too.