A plug for Pico Iyer’s wonderful essay on airfare class divisions: How much would you pay to enjoy six hours away from your fellow humans, in a chair that reclines? $1,500 an hour – or even more? And if someone invited you to spend $9,000 to pass a long afternoon in a fairly cramped lounge,…
All posts in Travel
And all I got was this lousy skyscraper.
I was in a gift shop in Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat International Airport, looking for something – anything – to take with me as a souvenir of my nearly two weeks in Vietnam (on assignment). The bottles of Vietnamese liquers stuffed with cobras were interesting; the T-shirts were nice; the pointy hats…
Low Moments in Aviation History, Chapter 1
On two occasions in five years I have ridden in a Chinese taxi at night with the headlights purposely turned off. In both cases, I complained, and in both cases the driver patiently explained to me and my fellow passengers that he was saving fuel (he wasn’t – but I’ll leave that discussion to wikipedia).…
Dog, Ho Chi Minh City
Figures that the only in-focus photo that I took from the back of my new friend Tien’s motorbike was this one. In retrospect, we really should have stopped to find out what was going on here.
Wire Factory, Ho Chi Minh City
I took this photo at 10:00 AM, and already the heat must have exceeded 35 degrees, Celsius. It’s the rainy season here, and the humidity was stifling. Water, as the photo suggests, is an uncomfortable fact of life. Anyway, at the request of certain faithful correspondents, I promise to be more pro-active about posting scrap-related…
The Coy Vietnamese
A seller of postcard packets and tour books encountered in front of Saigon’s cathedral. She had three books for sale: the Lonely Planet guide to Vietnam, a history of the Cuchi tunnels dug and used by the Vietcong outside of Saigon … and the title she holds in the picture [update: I’ve been informed that…
Temple Streets
On Friday, what was supposed to be a leisurely walk through Hanoi’s old town, became an inadvertent tour of old Hanoi’s vast catalog of small Buddhist temples. Accompanied by a new friend from Luxembourg, we wandered the twisting maze of streets and alleys, each of which seemed to have a shrine hidden behind a gate.…
Hanoi English
Though I’ve only been in Vietnam – and Hanoi – for a few days, I am struck by the English language ability of its residents – especially as compared to that found in China’s biggest cities. Whereas in Shanghai or Beijing, an English-speaking taxi driver – even one who can barely discuss the fare –…
Hanoi
I arrived in Hanoi late last night during a rain storm that blurred my fleeting first impressions of the city. Today, I’ve been in meetings tied to my hotel but for a brief foray into the surrounding neighborhood during lunch with an American friend. Along the way, we happened upon a small shop selling turned-wood…
Rem’s CCTV – Construction Update
[UPDATE 3/25: This post continues to generate hits, months after I first made it. So, since I’m in Beijing, here’s a new photo as of today. It become ever more impressive and imposing: [UPDATE 11/19: Visitors looking for a more recent photo of the under-construction CCTV building in Beijing, click over to this fine image…