Middle East and SE Asia - 2024

After our day driving through Taroko Gorge, everywhere else was bound to be a bit anticlimactic...  Our next stop was an overnight at Sun Moon Lake, which is the largest natural lake in Taiwan, and reputed to be a "must see" place....  It reminded both Norma and I of Big Bear Lake or Lake Tahoe, or some of the more touristy lakes in the Adirondacks- "nice," but a bit over-developed.  We did have a cool visit to a Tea Plantation and processing factory that was neat, as well as stopped at one of the more impressive Confusionist temples we've seen... After leaving Sun Moon Lake, we headed back down to the West Coast city of Tainan.  Here we hoped to enjoy the annual "Taiwan Lantern Festival." Unfortunately, the festival was one of the big disappointments of our trip.  Norma had seen a Rick Steves travel segment highlighting the festival a few years back, and we planned our stop here based on that impression....

After 2 days in Taipei, we rented a car and set out to discover some of Taiwan's natural wonders - specifically the eastern coast and then up and over the main central mountain range.  Day one took us from western Taipei at the airport, across to the east coast, where we enjoyed a wonderful lunch in the small fishing port of Su'ao.  Su'ao was a place we just decided to explore on the spur of the moment on the way to our overnight in Hualien, and it was a wonderfully serendipitous choice!  We had one of our best meals of the trip here- starting with scallion & egg pancakes, and finishing with passion fruit shaved ice (in the picture!). Yum! After that we drove down the coast to Hualien, along a road that compared favorably with US highway 1 through Big Sur or the NorCal and Oregon coast.  Absolutely breathtaking for about 60+ miles of hairpins, tunnels, and cliff edges :-) Once in Hualien...

After 7 weeks on the road, and 13 time zones, we've made it to our last "new" country - on the island of Taiwan (formerly Formosa).  Depending on who you ask, it is technically either the "Republic of China," or a province of the People's Republic of China (mainland China) called "Chinese Taipei," though most people here just say "Taiwan."  Politically, it's more complicated (a LOT more complicated!), but from what we've seen and heard, this is a distinctly different place and culture here.  Mandarin Chinese is the main language spoken, but there are strong influences from Japan, which controlled the island for more than half a century up until the end of WW II.  On our two days in Taipei visiting museums and taking a local walking tour, we've learned a lot, including the basic fact that we don't teach much about the post-WWII history of China/Taiwan in the US (Google "228 incident," and you'll se...

Saigon is big, busy, loud, stiflingly hot, and absolutely over-run by scooters, but still worth a visit... but 3 days was plenty! We learned a lot about the craziness of the 20th century here (and our uncomfortable role in it), layered on top of what we'd already seen in Hanoi and Hue.  I'm still amazed at how open and friendly everyone here is, but I suppose the obvious growing prosperity here has bred a very forward looking optimism.  Architecturally, Saigon is a blend of modern, French colonial, and a bit of traditional Vietnamese, with a strong NYC like feel to the central city.  There were several good museums, a really nice botanical garden, some great downtown avenues, and even more great food, at crazy cheap prices.  So no complaints, other than the heat.  95-100F at high humidity just isn't much fun for wandering around ba city on foot!   so... Tomorrow we are ...

We've spent the past two days about 3 hours drive south of Hue in the small city of Hoi An, another UNESCO world heritage site.  Hoi An ws major trading center in the region up until the late 18th century when the river upon which it is located silted up too much for larger ships to continue use it as a port.  It subsequently fell into a long economic decline, and was largely forgotten and bypassed by the turmoils of the 20th century which brought destruction to many more important places in Vietnam. By the time Vietnam began to pursue tourism development in the early 1990's, 200 years of salutary neglect made Hoi An a perfect example of 17th century Vietnamese architecture and town planning, an a prime candidate for UNESCO recognition. While the core of the old trading settlement is almost wholey intact, it's still a bit overun by tourist centered business, particularly on the weekends, when most visitors appear to be other Vietnamese.  Still, behind all the restaurants,...