I am back in Hanoi today after a week in beautiful Sapa. My last few days of language classes went well, and I feel I have a good start to really learning Vietnamese, but it is really hard. One of my last days in Hanoi, a few of us went to Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum. Ho Chi Minh wanted to be cremated upon his death, and have his ashes spread across Vietnam. To honor his wishes, the Vietnamese embalmed his body and built a massive mausoleum for public viewing. It w...

Hello from Hanoi. I have been here over a week now, sweating like crazy in this heat and humidity. Last time I was here was in January when it was actually cold…no such luck now. A few days ago the heat index was 104 at midnight. Ok, enough whining about that. We arrived last Saturday with minimal issues. Another volunteer did cut his visa and they almost didn't let him board the plane. After an hour of trying to decide what to do in the Bangkok airport, the ...

Sorry I am not updating this too often (for anyone that is actually reading….). I have been pretty busy after leaving Jenna in Bangkok. I took the night train with no issues to Chiang Mai, and met all the other volunteers at our hotel, the YMCA of Chiang Mai. I had met most the other vols in April, so it was more of a reunion. The first night we had some Thai hotpot, which was a lot of fun with our group of 40 or so.We had 4 days of culture classes (i.e. if you...

I'm back in Bangkok, after almost two weeks of traveling with my sister. Sorry I have not updated the blog until now, but we have been pretty busy. After arriving in Bangkok with no issues, we decided to go to the temples at Angkor Wat in Cambodia. It was my second time visiting there, but Jenna's first. We took the bus from Bangkok, and thankfully the road in Cambodia was actually paved. Last year when I was visiting, it was still a dirt road with tons of pothol...

Hi. Tomorrow I start my third journey to Asia. This time I will spend about 1 year volunteering at Tra Vinh University in Tra Vinh, Vietnam. After my last trip, I knew I wanted to return to Asia to live. Last winter, I found Volunteers in Asia (VIA), a non-profit located in San Francisco (http://www.viaprograms.org/). "VIA is dedicated to increasing understanding between the United States and Asia through public service and programs promoting cross-cultural ...