I stared out the window of the van and watched as the city gave way to suburbs, to industry, to rice fields, that would eventually deposit us in Halong Bay. As I watched our driver play chicken with big trucks, dodge motorbikes, and zip by the slower bicycles and buffalo – I thought that not […]
Jet lag was wearing off, and now we were rapidly adjusting to a new culture and environment. After 4 years of being away from Vietnam, my brain was happy to be exposed to all of this new and sometimes baffling culture again. Evie was also taking a lot in trying to make sense of Vietnamese […]
I mouthed the words, “It’ll be ok.” through the front window of the car as we pulled away. After all, I was taking away my sister-in-law’s oldest daughter to a place halfway around the world, a place she knew very little about, a place that was completely foreign – this was a big step. Yet […]
I stared at the numbers. Elapsed Time: 23:10 hrs, Miles: 9,940 – shit, we are flying halfway around the earth – I hope we don’t run out of gas. I will soon be getting on the longest non-stop flight in the world. For someone who has always gushed about how much I like long flights, […]
Before I left Vietnam I had a goal – I wanted to learn how to make Pho. I had eaten it a few times a week for a year while living in Ho Chi Minh City, and I never tired of it. The thought of eating boiling hot soup in humid 90 degrees somehow appealed […]
The bus bounced along on the road north and for the first time in 5 weeks I just sat back, relaxed and didn’t have to worry about directions while visiting Mongolia. I wasn’t responsible for breakdowns, or had to deal with the nagging internal question of “Will we make it?” Even thought I was bouncing […]
I instinctively made it to the office building; it had been two years since I was there and even though the buildings around it had changed, the Ger to Ger office building stood out to me teasing my memory and providing me flashes of deja vu. I remembered the stairs, the odd sculpture outside the […]
One of the most unusual sites I witnessed in my travels was experiencing Christmas in Asia. I had been living in Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam for 3 months when December 25th rolled around. In a country with no real religion, and no westernized consumerism (yet), Vietnam surprised me with their Christmas spirit. Christmas in […]
As much as participating in the Mongol Rally was to satiate my need for adventure and something different – it had another purpose…a big purpose. It was for this…. For Them… These are some of the children who live at the Christina Nobel Foundation Blue Skies Ger Village in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. It serves as a […]
The most frequent question I get asked is, “How did you get along with your teammates?”…which I will answer in a later blog post…have patience! But the 2nd question is always, “What did you do with the car?” That is the beauty of the Mongol Rally – the car is used to raise more money […]
