As we made our way from Saigon to Buon Ma Thuot (or as I knew it, Ban Me Thuot) the low lying farm lands turned into gently rolling foothills covered with coffee fields being tended by local farmers living along the edges, just as the rubber plantations had been during my time before. Night …
The Central Highlands of Vietnam Leaving the sights and sounds of modern day Saigon, we began our journey to the Central Highlands of Vietnam. As we left the city that I had come to feel comfortable in and approached the outlying rural areas, I felt a heightened sense of awareness. Even though I knew …
The one thing that seems to be a constant in Saigon is the delicious smell of food cooking – from the street vendors, open air cafes, coffee shops and bakeries – it was that way in the late 60’s and remains so today. The first time I came to the city I remember walking to …
House 10 Aka “The Safe House in Saigon” On our first trip to Saigon we unsuccessfully searched for a villa, called House 10, that had been used during the war. It was initially a Central Intelligence Agency property that was used to support clandestine activities in Vietnam and other locations in Southeast Asia. Over a …
Mme. Dent at the Musée du Débarquement in Arromanches, 1999. I’m the daughter of a retired high school French teacher. Surprisingly, my mom is not French. In 1969, she fell in love with France while on a 6-week summer exchange program in Vichy, the spa city with a complicated past as a client state of …
Rucking 29 miles in the Colombian jungle in 29 hours. Over the years, I’ve taken a lot of trips and spent nearly a decade living in South America, Africa, and Europe. Jason has visited more continents and countries than me, though for shorter stints of time. And while we’ve traveled together plenty, our trip to …
