My Son, Vietnam
My Son, a group of crumbling Hindu temples built by the Cham people between the 4th and 14th centuries, is often compared to Cambodia’s Angkor Wat. But from what I’ve read, My Son is smaller and has fewer intact buildings. The ones that are left are made of brick with intricate patterns and imagery carved right into the brick. The biggest My Son mystery is how the bricks are stuck together. Some organic glue? Some mineral substance? No one knows for sure.
There’s one group of My Son buildings that was almost completely obliterated by U.S. bombing during the Vietnam War. A French museum curator of Cham culture was so upset that he wrote to U.S. President Nixon asking him to stop the bombing, according to Lonely Planet. Below you can see my picture (third from the bottom) of the bombed monuments.
Johanna was quite fascinated by all the lingams and yonis, especially the ones that had cracked apart, thus the last photograph.
Hoi An, I love you
The Tran Family Chapel was built for worshipping family ancestors. The architecture is a mix of Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese.
Johanna and I have been biking, walking and sweating our way around Hoi An, a small city on Vietnam’s central coast. Despite being quite close to the Vietnam DMZ, Hoi An escaped unscathed from the Vietnam War. The city is beautiful! Hoi An’s Old Town was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999. With such credentials, you can imagine the number of tourists in this city. You can also imagine the number of businesses that have popped up to support the tourists. The Old Town is filled with hundreds of old buildings, many of which are occupied by tailors and shoemakers offering to make you a dress or stitch you some shoes for $10 or $15. It’s a little disconcerting.
Nevertheless, there’s a lot to see and do here beyond getting a new wardrobe made. We’ve visited Chinese Assembly Halls (many Chinese fled to Vietnam after the Ming Dynasty fell in the 17th century) and explored restored homes, such as the Museum of Trading Ceramics (not too edifying except for the small section on the history of restoring old Hoi An buildings). One of our most interesting visits was to Reaching Out Vietnam, a fair trade shop where all the handicrafts are made by disabled people. Johanna and I spent about an hour browsing the store and watching the tradespeople make the items sold in the store. According to the Reaching Out brochure, employees receive salaries that are 35% higher than other artisans and also receive health and social insurance. The employees we saw did look happy and interested in their work. It’s heartening to know that a Vietnamese-founded and Vietnamese-run organization has found such success in Hoi An.
And what would a visit to Vietnam be without eating some really good food? I’m not an epicurean but Johanna is – lucky me! We’ve tried all sorts of noodle, fish and vegetable dishes. I’m not the biggest fish person but braised fish with lemon grass sauce was one of my favorites. One of our favorite desserts was fried wonton with fruit and chocolate inside. We enjoyed that one at Mango Rooms, an upscale Vietnamese fusion restaurant where Mick Jagger supposedly once dined. Yes, even Mick Jagger has been to Hoi An.
All in all, I really like Hoi An. It’s easy to get around on bicycles, though the lack of stop lights and stop signs makes any journey a little bit dangerous. You’re constantly dodging motorbikes darting onto the road from hidden alleys and swerving away from bicycles moving into your path. Let’s just say traffic is very, very fluid here; lanes are optional. The people are friendly, though, and the vibe is peaceful. Whenever I visit a new place I always ask myself, “Could I live here?” And the answer for Hoi An is, “Yes. I love it.”
Street outside Tran Family Chapel
Abandoned house near the Thu Bon River
Tran Phu Street in Old Town Hoi An
Johanna inside the Assembly Hall of the Fujian Chinese Congregation
Fish inside the Assembly Hall of the Fujian Chinese Congregation
Dragon inside the Assembly Hall of the Fujian Chinese Congregation
Restaurant in Hoi An
Banana flower salad
Bar at Mango Rooms restaurant
Marvelous menu at Mango Rooms
Wedding pictures in front of the Japanese Covered Bridge
Portraits in the Chinese All-Community Assembly Hall of Chinese resistance heroes in Vietnam who died during World War II.
Get your shoes made here.
Johanna trying on clothes in a tailor shop.
Johanna at Mango Rooms
Figuring out where to go next in Hoi An.
We took a bumpy shortcut to dinner.
View of Hoi An street outside the Mango Rooms restaurant.
Airports around the world
Shenyang, China
What I love about an airport is knowing I could end up anywhere in the world from there. Sometimes, on my way to my gate, I stop and read the departure monitors. I like imagining where I would travel if I weren’t heading to my current destination: “Buenos Aires would be fun; I’ve never been there. Cleveland would be like another world. Plus I could visit the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame. Oooooh – Singapore! I could visit Sooz and Barry. Well, maybe next year. I should go to my gate now.”
The second thing I love about an airport is watching the people. Before 9/11 kept non-passengers from going to airline gates, I used to hang out at National Airport in Washington DC and watch people walk out of those tubular disembarking hallways and into their loved ones’ arms. Or not. Sometimes people came out, looked around for someone who wasn’t there and walked out to the main terminal halls. Budding writer that I was, I wrote down descriptions of these reunions (or non-reunions) and built short story scenes around what I saw.
In the past couple months I’ve spent a lot of time in airports. Which means I’ve also taken a lot of pictures in airports: the people, the buildings, the atmosphere. Some airports are like art museums, with sculptures and paintings and light displays (I’m thinking Detroit.) Some airports are like shopping malls, with people milling about the duty-free stores, picking out chocolates and perfumes and trinkets they don’t really need (I’m thinking Seoul-Incheon and London Heathrow.) It’s all incredibly fascinating. And so I’ve decided to start a photo essay on airports. Looking at the photographs I’ve posted, it seems that right now I’m interested in the architecture and the color in airports but I don’t really have a theme or an idea where this will lead me. We’ll see.
Detroit, USA
Detroit, USA
Seoul-Incheon, South Korea
Washington DC, USA
Vivi and Giovanni in National Airport
There I was, about to eat a fig bar before catching my flight to Boston at Reagan National Airport in DC, when a couple asked me to photograph them with their iPhone. Giovanni was heading to Miami. Maybe Vivi was going with him? I don’t remember. I do remember their lovely meeting story (I collect them, after all) but I won’t share it here because I don’t have permission. Vivi and Giovanni exuded happiness and playfulness and love and optimism. They were just so fun to photograph! I’m glad we crossed paths for a few minutes on Friday. Bonus realization from this impromptu shoot: National Airport is a fantastic location for engagement and wedding pictures.
(Above: That's me photographing while snowshoeing through a snowstorm. Picture by