These last two weeks in Vietnam have been a great prelude to the five months we're about to spend in Thailand. We used our time here to completely chill out and unwind from our routine back home. We did very few of the typical tourist things and were very happy just living the moment and enjoying each other's company. The weather has been amazing: the whole time we were here it only rained once, albeit very hard and very briefly. Typically the temperatures rang...

We've been in Mui Ne for a couple of days now and have settled in nicely. So far we've only spent a couple of hours on the beach, but we'll probably remedy that today (Saturday). The daytime temperature is always in the low 30's with humidity at about 94%. We've gone out for short runs at 6:00 AM a couple of times but even at that early hour it's almost too hot to exercise. Next week in Chiang Mai we're taking part in a 6 hour endurance run that starts at 2:00 PM...

Tonight we went for dinner at Lam Tong restaurant, a 170 meter walk from our hotel. We arrived early, around 5:00 and were able to snag one of the four tables overlooking the South China Sea. With the sound of the waves crashing onto the shore, we made absolute pigs of ourselves. Our meal started with a fresh spring roll each that was served with a perfectly spiced peanut sauce. Then we had sauteed morning glory with garlic, tofu with lemon grass and chilis, ...

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...