May 2019

Our guide showed us how the Vietnamese devised clever ways to hide access to the tunnel system; today, more than a million tourists visit the Cu Chi Tunnel System each year

We had just come through a stretch of the tunnel here; I had to crawl on all fours and was quite glad that the tunnels no longer had rats, venomous centipedes or snakes

Most of the time, soldiers would spend the day in the tunnels working or resting and come out only at night to scavenge for supplies, tend their crops, or engage the enemy in battle

Located 60 kms NW of Ho Chi Minh City, the Cu Chi tunnel network is an extensive labyrinth stretching to the Cambodian border; they were built over 25 years beginning in 1948 by the Viet Minh during the war against the French

This woman is making traditional rice paper that was used to wrap around food much like a tortilla; there were numerous employees, like her, that demonstrated trades and skills used during the war

The tunnel site had a shooting range where tourists can fire AK 47s, M30 and M60 machine guns and M16s; the noise from the range was deafening as we walked by

Not only were the tunnels home for thousands of Viet Cong guerrillas, but they were also a complicated network of trenches, bunkers, booby traps, bomb shelters and an amazing air ventilation system

The tunnel complex was very well organized and effectively presented; given the size of most tourists these days the tunnels have been enlarged from their original size

The Vietnamese used bamboo for many critical functions including building and for water; the Cu Chi Tunnels were the Viet Cong's base of operations for the Tết Offensive in 1968

We watched a propaganda film which definitely showed a pro-Vietnamese bias but it was hard to defend what the Americans did here; the tunnel system is an amazing 250 km long!

The shoes may look the same but the shoe on the bottom is designed to confuse the enemy; the wearer creates footprints going in the wrong direction!

Varanasi, a city of 1.5+ million, lies on the Ganges River; Buddha is believed to have founded Buddhism here around 528 BCE when he gave his first sermon

The group took sunset and sunrise boat trips on the Ganges without me since I was suffering from a severe and prolonged case of Delhi belly

The Manikarnika Ghat, one of the oldest in Varanasi; according to Hinduism, it is believed that a dead human's soul finds salvation, when cremated here

The trash and filth were indescribable in Varanasi; for such an important religious site you might expect the faithful to keep it clean but many are very poor and the infrastructure here is minimal

Hindus believe that death in Varanasi will bring salvation, making it a major center for pilgrimage; the city is known worldwide for its many ghats, embankments made in steps of stone slabs along the river bank where pilgrims perform ritual ablutions

Indian Prime Minister Modi represents Varanasi; the old town features narrow alleys full of trash and excrement where you constantly had to keep your mouth closed due to flies

Varanasi has at least 84 ghats, most of which are used for bathing by pilgrims and for the spiritually significant Hindu puja ceremony; each ghat is associated with a particular temple (there are 23000 temples here)

Locals feed the cows since there is nowhere for them to graze; of the 115 countries I've visited. I'd have to say India has been my least favorite

After a sunrise boat trip on the Ganges, everyone on the tour except me took a yoga class; Jonathan accomplished his first headstand

India has been much more third world than the countries on the SE Asia tour; silk weaving is the dominant industry in Varanasi with nearly half a million Muslims working as weavers, dyers, sari finishers, and salespersons

Bodies are being cremated at this ghat; like other large Indian cities, Varanasi is loud, crowded and chaotic; the locals seemed used to it but for me it was overwhelming

At Chitwan National Park we went on a safari seeing 10+ rhinos, wild boars, monkeys and crocodiles; our guide pointed out lots of cool birds but they were too fast to photograph

The World Peace Pagoda, at 1100 meters, looks out over all of Pokhara; it was built in 1973 and is one of 80 peace pagodas in the world

I was amazed to see Annapurna at sunset after a rainstorm; Annapurna is the most dangerous mountain in the world for climbers

A cool view of Davis Falls looking out from Gupteshwor Mahadev Cave; throughout the country, all sights have higher prices for foreigners and much lower prices for Nepalese

We were being taught how to make mo-mos by women rescued from human traffickers; I tasted one and it was entirely too spicy for me

All along our drives in Nepal were these long, pedestrian suspension bridges; we were excited just to get a chance to stretch our legs after endless days of riding the rough roads of Nepal

For our homestay near Chitwan National Park, the local ladies put on an elaborate dance that also showed off their strength; later, they grabbed us and we all danced together

Our farewell dinner coincided with the Nepalese New Year; our small group got along quite well except for Vesna (front right) who tended to insult people and just say the wrong things

I was duped into buying this Coke imitator!; it was even priced the same as the real stuff but, since we can't use the water, I used it to brush my teeth

Inside this building is the spot where Buddha was supposedly born; it's a UNESCO World Heritage Site with several temples and peace pagodas

Pokhara was the most enjoyable town we visited in Nepal; the town, which rhymes with okra, was clean and had lots of trekkers going to Annapurna

The Nepalese countryside is full of terraced rice paddies; the hard-working locals tend to plant and harvest crops by hand on their small parcels of arable land

I walked around Fewa Lake to see Davis Falls; supposedly a Swiss woman was taking a bath in the river when she got swept away so the falls were named after her

The view of Pokhara and Fewa Lake from the World Peace Pagoda; Pokhara is the second most populated city in Nepal with 600,000 people and lies 200 kms west of Kathmandu

Our group with ladies rescued from human traffickers who served us a nice lunch; the ladies are supported by a grant from G Adventures

Nepal is a landlocked country wedged between India and China; it's roughly the size of Iowa (slightly larger than NY or NC) but challenging to navigate with only narrow, 2 lane roads

I rode one of the elephants in the river but it was very unnerving since I always felt like I was going to fall off; the handlers had us ride their necks which didn't seem the most stable position

Four of us spent an enjoyable afternoon at an elephant sanctuary; Laos has banned the use of elephants as beasts of burden so owners no longer wanted them hence the need for sanctuaries

We took a cool tubing trip along this lengthy underground river that was within the cave behind me; you pulled yourself along using a rope system

Jonathan in front of a typical rural Laos house where the bottom floor traditionally has housed livestock, chickens and other animals; the second level has all the living space with multi-generational families sharing being the norm

Fortunately this was the only homestay on our month long tour; the locals we stayed with are quite prosperous by Laotian standards

Laos has about 7 million people which is roughly the same as Arizona or Massachusetts; the birth rate in Laos is almost twice that of the US so there are lots of babies here

In recent years, Vang Vieng has become a stop on the Southeast Asia backpacker circuit and the main street has many guest houses, bars, massage studios, restaurants and tour agencies

This is the dry season so the rice fields are fallow; cows and water buffalo graze the rice paddies this time of year

Laos is a very poor country where people die 16 years earlier than US citizens and where people make 94% less than Americans; in many of the rural areas people don't even have running water

Amnesty Intl and other NGOs have reported egregious human rights violations, religious persecution and the arrest and imprisonment of political and religious dissidents in Laos by government military and security forces

Elephants don't have the best eyesight so the yellow wrist strap for my camera looked very similar to a banana and was thus a target for the trunks of the friendly elephants

The view of the karst landscape from our hotel balcony; significant expansion of Vang Vieng and its infrastructure occurred during the 1964-73 Vietnam War when the US constructed an air force base here

Kayaking was the other good activity option in Vang Vieng but, with only 24 hours here, we had to choose only one and the elephants won out; tubing the river is also popular but in dry season you hit bottom often

For our homestay they made us wear traditional Laotian costumes which made us look even more like tourists than we already did

When we stayed with a local family in a rural village we got a tour of the neighborhood; this house has an outdoor comfort room while many of its neighbors had more civilized outhouses

As part of our visit we fed the elephants bananas; we were told they eat hundreds of pounds of food every day which is one reason their former owners wanted to get rid of them

Throughout Laos we have dealt with extremely smoky skies as locals burn land so that they can farm it; I don't think the burners even own the land since people seem to farm any area they can

Our village homestay was for the pigs; I would have preferred the extra night in Vang Vieng so we could have enjoyed kayaking and/or visiting one of the nearby blue lagoons (although there are lots of Chinese tourists crowding sights)

The agricultural sector accounts for 70% of national employment and most of this is comprised of small plots of land where people are growing barely enough to survive

In the third quarter of 2012, the Lao government carried out a crackdown in Vang Vieng, pulling down all the riverside bars which had created a rowdy party atmosphere; there were dozens of tourist deaths each year from drunken activities on the river

Laos is about the same size as Minnesota; the roads are horrendous with tons of potholes and dirt/gravel stretches along the winding, mountainous center of the country

It apparently wasn't at all unusual to pass cows on the road in the village where we had our homestay; we were divided up with local houses each taking two of us (Jonathan and I lucked out to have a house with a real toilet)

Vang Vieng is a traditional stop on the road from Luang Prabang (8 hours north) to Vientiane (4 hours south); Laos is the only land-locked country in SE Asia and is a one party socialist republic

Looking out from the hidden river where we went tubing; there were portions of the cave where we were down on all fours to explore passages

Rice dominates agriculture, with about 80 percent of the arable land area used for growing rice; however, only 4% of the country is arable land, and a mere 0.34% used as permanent crop land

On the beach at low tide before heading out on Island Hopping Tour A; the destinations on Tour A were much closer to El Nido than those on Tour C

Pair kayaking through the entrance to the Small Lagoon; I swam but given shallow waters over coral fields I was glad that excursions were encouraging people to enter via kayak

The sea anemone protects the clownfish from predators, as well as providing food through the scraps left from the anemone's meals and occasional dead anemone tentacles, and functions as a safe nest site

Family of sea squirts; some scenes from the 2012 film The Bourne Legacy were filmed in El Nido

There was virtually no trash in the water which was surprising given how many tourist boats visit the area each day

Marigold Christmas tree worms; my camera has difficulty shooting small objects underwater so I was glad to see this photo in focus

Finally, a turtle sighting!; El Nido has been a turtle sanctuary since 1984 but sightings now are not very common

Banded sea krait; while true sea snakes spend almost all of their time underwater, sea kraits return to land to digest their prey, rest and to reproduce

Guidebooks and Wikipedia describe the area as having dugongs, manta rays and sometimes whale sharks; speaking to locals they say this is not true and none of these species have been seen in years

Large Toadstool Leather Coral; when the polyps of this soft coral species are fully extended, toadstool leather corals have a fuzzy appearance

Orange sea sponge (I think); historic gender roles hold true here with only young men working on excursion boats or in construction jobs

Encrusting Montipora coral; El Nido, like much of the Philippines, has a terrible problem of stray dogs (they need Bob Barker here)

The weather in El Nido in February is ideal; it's dry with sunny skies, mild temperatures and a steady tropical breeze

In order to reach Secret Lagoon you had to crawl through this hole; there was a long line of tourists as a result

I just love the bright colors of the clams; in El Nido hundreds of bangkas clog the harbor each morning with the tourists walking out to their respective boats

These two women were on my excursion and I immediately pegged them as Russian; they had huge false eyelashes, were rude to others on the trip and were drinking beer when we began at 8:30 am

I was surprised there weren't private boats anchoring at the many pristine, empty beaches; I thought any of them might have better snorkeling than the few places the tourists were taken

Shoal of squid; El Nido is ranked 4 on Conde Nast Travelers' list of 20 Most Beautiful Beaches in the World but I wouldn't put it on that list

Brain coral; the lifespan of the largest brain corals is 900 years and colonies can grow as large as 1.8 m (6 ft) or more in height

This is the entrance to Big Lagoon; tour A used to visit both Big and Small Lagoons but crowds were overwhelming so now some boats do one and some boats do the other to cut the crowds in half

Narrow-line pufferfish; I was surprised at the number of Europeans visiting El Nido since I had expected the majority of visitors to be from Asia

The islands offshore from El Nido are full of nooks and crannies due to their geology; this view is inside the Small Lagoon

I need lots of help with identification here!; I'm assuming they are animals, so could they be worms?

Heart-shaped table coral; El Nido businesses seldom accept credit cards (and charge a hefty surcharge when they do) and there are just 2 ATMs in town which are frequently out of cash

Titan triggerfish; strangely, many of the nicer hotels are not built on the beach but along the main highway

Green bird wrasse; Palawan has been voted as the world’s best island two years in a row by Conde Nast Traveler

Table Coral; locals said that the situation of electricity in El Nido is so much better now compared to previous years when electricity was only available from 6pm to 4am

Eastern triangular butterflyfish; given the vibrant seascape I expected to see more fish than I did

I'm not sure what species this is but these small fish were very active so I suspect they may be juveniles; Google images is a big help but with primitive internet here it is very time-consuming

7 Commandos Beach is located on the mainland of Palawan but is only accessible by boat/kayak; it is a popular stop on the island hopping tours

I struggled through this book due to the British dialogue which I found confusing and hard to follow; I'll try another of his books later in the trip

The topography underwater mirrors that of above water so there is just a narrow reef to explore before underwater cliffs drop away

Interesting to see several different species of these evil critters in the same waters; you don't want to visit during rainy season (May to November)

The islands off El Nido resemble those of Ha Long Bay, Vietnam; both are part of the tectonically active Sunda Plate