It is finally time to leave Hanoi, the city, for a gambit in the countryside. But it takes time, as the metropolis is far-flung, hanging...

Vietnam today is, of course, a different place than in the previous century. Changes have been significant in government,...

At one time, in the last century, Americans dabbed charcoal-tinted war paint on their faces and attempted to subdue a combined imperial...

I have always wanted to ask a puppet, in private, what it is like to be enslaved and forced to do its master’s bidding, subject to being...

Hanoi (Ha Noi, “river’s inner”) is a large sprawling beehive(s) of activity, spotted with large construction projects and relentless...

I visited North Vietnam the first time roughly 10 years ago. The country then had already moved on from the previous century of...

“The swallow has set her six young on the rail, and looks seaward.” James Lee’s Wife (1864, pt 3 st.1), Robert Browning Before Autumn...

Tomorrow I leave for another visit to Vietnam and Cambodia for a couple of weeks. It has been 10 years since I was in these two...

Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus) never set foot or planted the flag for the Crown of Castille on North America. However, he found...

It's early morning, late September. I stride across Meidan-e Shah Square (the massive Royal Square) in old town Esfahan (or Isfahan),...

In the wilderness about 200 miles south of Tehran is a place called “Half of the World.” Ishfahan, twice the capital of Persia, was the...

Shiraz, Iran is a poet's (Hafiz's) oasis, where the art of Islam has prominence

I arrived at the ruins of Persepolis, near Shiraz, with great anticipation. The skies were clear and the sun burned hot even in...

Tomb of Cyrus the Great (all photos are my own) “O man, whoever you are and wherever you come from, for I know you will come, I am Cyrus...

The historical vibrations of Persia really begin to hit home in the central desert towns of Iran, especially in the large city of Yazd —...

One of the oldest towns in the world displays some of the finest Persian architecture in central Asia

Modern Iran is certainly a paragon of Islam but the country’s culture also has deep roots in the ancient mostly unrecorded Zoroastrian...

Do human beings (living things) have real “free will”? The philosophical debate over this question probably will continue eternally even...