We awoke this morning to the very sad news of what transpired yesterday in Ottawa. It's hard to describe the emotions we went through half a world away from our home. This kind of thing doesn't happen in Canada, certainly not in the city I call home and definitely not 3 kilometers from where I live. Once I got over the shock, I became enraged, then saddenend, then concerned and worried for the well being of my friends and loved ones. Thanks to social media, most...

This morning we left Saigon by sleeper bus en route to the seaside town of Mui Ne. Instead of having conventional seats, a sleeper bus has 2 bunk bed style levels of 3 fully reclining seats in each row. As comfortable as they are, they were designed for your average Asian, not for a 6'4" Canadian with size 12 feet. According to Google maps, the 216 km trip should take 3 hours 38 minutes. In reality, due to the congestion on the1A highway, my feet will be liberat...

We heard from so many people that the War Remnants Museum was a must-see for visitors to Saigon. Today we broke down and walked the couple of kilometers to find out what all the hype was about. The entrance fee worked out to about $1.50 CDN for the two of us, which is a pretty good deal no matter how you cut it. As soon as you walk through the gates you're surrounded by a huge US Chinook helicopter, an F-5 fighter jet, a number of cannons of varying caliber and ...

Eight years ago today, Brenda Wong walked into my life, stole my heart and made me whole. Four years ago today we were married. Not a day goes by that I don't express my gratitude for having been granted the gift of sharing my life with her. Since we met, we have always marked our anniversary in a very nice restaurant in some far away place. Sadly, most of these fine resaurants have ended up being disappointments with food, ambience and charm far less appealing...

To keep this interesting, I've decided to just give the day's highlights here and the rest of the story in the daily pictures I upload and caption. As we were walking back to our hotel after visiting the Tan Dinh market, we were approached by a street vendor selling coconut water. He didn't try to sell us anything, just pointed us to the location of the war museum and kept pace with us as he carried across his shoulder a bamboo pole supporting a cooler at one en...