We had a seven hour layover in Singapore on the way to New Zealand. Picture if you can a modern Eaton's Centre in Toronto. That's sort of like what Singapore airport is. But so much of everything is free. They have free hi-speed Internet, free foot massage machines and the cleanest toilets I've seen anywhere. I damned near bought a sandwich and a coffee with the idea of having lunch while sitting on the toilet, just to say I'd done it. And just fo...

 Ellen and I were sitting at the computer in our hotel lobby in Hanoi's old quarter trying to plan for our time in Fiji when Mahn, the hotel owner approached."You hear 'bout Saddam Hussein?" he asked in badly broken English."Yes," I replied as Ellen continued to type."America kill many our people," he said.Ellen stopped typing. We both looked up at Mahn. He was the first Vietnamese person to make mention of the Vietnam war.With a hand chopping motion, Ma...

  People, Ellen among them, sit in the lobby each morning with giddy smiles on their faces waiting for guides to appear with their routes. I study them all with anxiety hoping we'll be grouped together with the older or out of shape. Sadly, most are physically fit. I don't ask what our route will be. I know I'm not going to like it. We're in the town of Sapa, Vietnam, in the Tonkinese Alps. (The dot on the map north-west of Hanoi, near the Chin...

I remember a cartoon in a men's magazine from the 70's. It had a caricature of a naked ventriloquist with a clownish hand puppet covering his private parts. The puppet lamented "Aw gee, do we have to have sex again? I always throw up at the end."We weren't in Bangkok 20 minutes when I caught my first glimpse. Ellen was at the exchange counter buying Thai Baht when they walked by. He, a 75 or so year old white man. She, an 18-20 year old Thai woman. In...