I expected the Mekong River jungle to be relatively silent. But it is not. In a humid, green undergrowth, I stride to the sound of...

"Ceaselessly the river flows, and yet the water is never the same, while in the still pools the shifting foam gathers and is gone, never...

(Hue, Vietnam, part 2) Emperors and gods are sometimes (usually!) indistinguishable. In Asia, and especially looming China, central...

The Perfume River (Sông Hương or Hương Giang; 香江) crosses the city of Huế, in the central Vietnamese province of Thừa Thiên-Huế Province....

I’ve spent a night on Halong Bay, on the coast of North Vietnam, twice. Both times, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience — (1) hauling...

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...

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...