October 19, our second full day on the “White Beach” of Boracay in the Philippines, and such variations of blue! The turquoise sea, the smoky blue gray mountains, skies in silver, eggshell and azure. Yesterday evening on the beach a policeman climbed stairs to a shrine on the shore to the Blessed Virgin, and lit […]
Our first full day in Boracay, and we will tour the island by boat. The “White Beach” in front of our hotel, The Discovery Shores, is the most beautiful, long stretch of powder fine white sand I’ve ever seen, sand that is is so firm your feet don’t sink into it at all. Off we […]
In Cambodia, David and I stand among teeming crowds to watch the sun rise over Angkor Wat, a 12th century temple. It’s 6:00 a.m. and already onlookers line the edges of a moat filled with blooming waterlillies. I hear a woman say, “I thought if I came early, I’d have the place to myself” and […]
I am in Vietnam where Americans are warmly welcomed. Odd. I’m 62 and I recall TV images of brutal jungle warfare. From 1964 to 1973 about 2 million tons of American bombs were dropped. As a teenager, I learned about napalm and Agent Orange. Most of all, I remember the anti-war protests. Apparently, so do […]
The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, Turkey is the size of four soccer fields, a shopper’s Nirvana packed to its mosaic rafters with pashminas, pottery, exotic lanterns, evil eye keychains, and rugs, rugs, rugs. Every day about 250,000 shoppers teem through its corridors and tunnels. While there, the lack of female salespeople surprised me. The beginnings […]