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THE KID’S SIDE OF THE STORY
My son has his very own blog. Go check out Kidventurer.com for his side of the story.Archives
Vietnam Archive
The Friday Photo: Rice Terraces
Posted on February 24, 2012 | 2 CommentsThis time next week we’ll be in the Middle East, landscapes of deserts, river, rock and mountain. But rice terraces form some of the loveliest human-made landscapes on earth: this...
The Sunday Six: Hanoi With Kids
Posted on May 29, 2011 | 5 Comments1: Play at Ho Tay Waterpark We defy any child visiting Hanoi — and plenty of adults, for that matter — not to enjoy the slides, zipwires, wave pool and...
A Rainy Season Odyssey
Posted on June 14, 2010 | 4 CommentsThe start of the monsoon season in Vietnam’s northern highlands is a beautiful thing. The rivers turn turbid and golden, rapids smearing the surface like toffee coming to the boil;...
Babysitting, Hmong Style
Posted on June 12, 2010 | 8 CommentsIt’s not easy being a woman in the Hmong tribal minority of northern Vietnam. Or a girl, for that matter. This little girl is six, and had been carrying her...
Global Time = Quality Time
Posted on June 10, 2010 | 50 CommentsMy son and I set out to travel the world together in January. I’d imagined many wonderful things about the journey. What I hadn't imagined is the sheer quality and quantity of time together.
Putting the Graphic into Ethnographic
Posted on June 9, 2010 | No CommentsAs you can probably tell from the picture the Vietnamese Museum of Ethnography in Hanoi offers infinitely more fun than the rather cumbersome title would suggest. (It’s slightly shorter in...
Making Incense, Vietnam
Posted on June 8, 2010 | No CommentsIncense is part of daily life in Vietnam. Joss sticks are offered at the altars which grace every business and almost every home, sold by the kilo in little stores...
Shopping Mission — Hanoi
Posted on June 7, 2010 | 3 CommentsIt was S’s (the nine-year-old’s father’s) last day with us today. And we spent it in Hanoi. The bulk of it, in fact… drum roll… shopping for a… cymbal clash…...
Cornucopia (Dinner Friday)
Posted on June 5, 2010 | 1 CommentThis is the fruit stall in the alleyway next to our guesthouse, in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Friday evening. It’s just an ordinary store. Nothing fancy. No posher than the laundry,...
Madam, Your Husband…
Posted on June 4, 2010 | 15 Comments“Madam,” said the chap on the scooter, eyeing the motorbike erratically parked some distance from the wrong hire shop (and, indeed, the pavement) with a sort of bemused, yet ineffably...
Round Halong Bay by Junk
Posted on June 2, 2010 | 10 CommentsHalong Bay, North Vietnam, is one of the most dramatic seascapes the planet has to offer. Five hundred million years in the making, twenty million in the shaping, and still...
The Red Queen
Posted on May 30, 2010 | 7 CommentsIt’s the weekend on Cat Ba island, not to mention the Vietnamese summer, which means there’s a vibe on the beach I can best characterize as Spring Break meets Butlins...
Easy Riders
Posted on May 30, 2010 | 4 CommentsWe’ve been exploring Cat Ba island, which splatters like a Rorschach blot off the northern coast of Vietnam, trailing 300-odd islets in its wake. It’s an implausible landscape to Western...
Summer in Hanoi
Posted on May 28, 2010 | 9 CommentsHanoi turns one thousand years old this year, and the city’s just on the cusp of summer. The point where the heat begins to turn from velvety to steamy, the...
Backpacks and Zacpacks
Posted on May 27, 2010 | 8 CommentsOne of the reasons for the longish silence I’ve been keeping is that Z’s dad joined us in Vietnam this last weekend. The boy, it would be fair to say,...
Cab Journey from Hell #1
Posted on May 27, 2010 | 2 CommentsI really thought, by now, after over four months in Asia and experience with virtually every taxi scam permutation known to man, my naïve London belief that anyone in a...
The Reunification Express
Posted on May 26, 2010 | 1 CommentWe flew from Manila into Saigon last week, the day after Ho Chi Minh’s birthday, and rode the Reunification Express 1600km or so upcountry to Hanoi to pick up our...
On Eating Insects
Posted on March 19, 2010 | 7 CommentsSo Z and I have eaten our first round of insects on this journey — in Vientiane, Laos. Baby crickets, deep-fried to a quite delectable crunchiness, flavoured with lashings of...
Anyone the Wiser?
Posted on March 9, 2010 | No CommentsI have seen some unusual bathroom set-ups in my time. But this, on the Vietnam-Laos border at Lao Bao, has me completely stumped. The ladies features one traditional WC, with...
Age Appropriate Reading
Posted on March 9, 2010 | 3 CommentsThe creator of the immortal line “The bitches mortared the piss hole and it didn’t blow up!” has, this evening, completed his reading of Chickenhawk, which, while still a wonderful...
