Cooking the NYTimes and Other Assorted Retirement Activities

  Fortunately, today was a sea day, another day where the weather emerged perfect for a sea cruise.  Blue skies.  Puffy clouds.  Tranquil waters.  I took the opportunity to just be tired, so napped most of the afternoon in the sunshine by the pool.  How lovely. We did manage to engage in the cruise ship organized activities, to whit: 1. Attended a lecture about Cambodian architecture, including wats and Khmer modernism.  It was very interesting but unfortunately I found myself nodding off at 9:30 in the morning.  Knew that did not bode well for the remainder of the day. 2.Noon time trivia.  We did not win. 3. Nap.  Nap.  Nap. 4. Port talk about Sihanoukville, Cambodia.  This will be a decidedly smaller city than the ones we visited in Viet Nam. 5. I might have napped again in here. 6. Attended a lecture about how the spice trade changed the world.  I always find myself wondering how anyone looked at a plant and said, "Hmm,...

  This continues to be what I can best describe as an overwhelmingly amazing experience. I wish I could stop talking about the traffic, in particular the scooters, but frankly we spend a considerable amount of time in  traffic as we transport to the various locations included as part of shore tours.  Consequently, you're looking out the window and damned if the scooters aren't zooming past, through, around, inside, outside, upside down next to your bus.  A source of never ending fascination. Day 9: Saigon. In A Pedal Cab.  Or, an Opportunity to Watch Your Life Flash Before Your Eyes. Our ship is docked in a commercial port, about an hour plus from the center of Ho Chi Mihn City/Saigon between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., otherwise plan on closer to two hours to arrive to your destination.  Saigon is the major metropolitan area of Viet Nam, population 14-15 million depending on which guide you're listening to, 809 sq. miles.  Roadside markets pop up each day; so...

  Sea days are nice.  Sea days are especially nice if they are hot and sunny.  I wasn't anticipating sunny, given the monsoons we experienced yesterday, but the weather gods prevailed. A brief rundown, then, of how we spent the day on the Viking Orion sailing the South China Sea: Breakfast.  As previously mentioned, the food is quite delicious and we are taking ample advantage of all the restaurants on the ship. My Friend Jeanie ™ and I had massages in honor of her birthday, which is today (October 28 on this side of the International Date Line). We plunked ourselves on deck chairs, then lowered ourselves into the Infiniti pool overlooking the aft of the ship.  Dan-o enjoyed the adjacent hot tub. At noon, we played Trivia and came in tied for second place.  The questions that caught us up were: what is a group of flamingos called (a flamboyance) and what is the smallest flowering plant (wolffia globosa).  The winners knew the flamboyance.  No one ...

  For the younger readers of this blog, you might not be familiar with the film Good Morning, Viet Nam! in which Army DJ Adrian Cronauer, played by the inimitable Robin Williams, crows on his first broadcast:  “Good morning, Vietnam! Hey, this is not a test. This is  rock  and roll. Time to  rock  it from the delta to the DMZ! Is that me, or does that sound like an Elvis Presley  movie ? Viva Da Nang. Oh, viva, Da Nang. Da Nang me, Da Nang me. Why don't they get a rope and hang me?"  Readers of a certain age, I'm guessing you may consider Williams' performance among his best. Dan sang the Da Nang Me line as we walked down the gangplank to the buses for the Da Nang shore tour and it pretty much stuck with me most of the day. Different parts of any country present differently, right?  Not surprisingly, Da Nang in the Central Highlands showed itself to be significantly distinct from Hanoi.  Historically, once again French colonialism is inf...