Since coming home — and even before coming home — I’ve been asked one question more than any other: “What was your favorite place?” I could never narrow it down to one! To me, my destinations are like my children — I could never say I love one more than all the others! That said, [...]

When you’re constantly on the road, you make a lot of friends – and because of that, you end up saying a lot of goodbyes. For the most part, these goodbyes aren’t so bad.  You hug, you find each other on Facebook, and you spend the next few months laughing at each other’s status updates [...]

For our final night together after traveling through Vietnam for nearly a month, we decided to do something special: finally go to karaoke in Saigon! Karaoke is a big deal in Vietnam — as it is all over Southeast Asia. You can find karaoke rooms and studios all over the city, including our neighborhood of [...]

Let me start this by saying that I’m no expert on the Vietnam War. I know about it.  I’ve read a lot about it.  I’ve watched a lot of movies and read a lot of fiction with the war as a backdrop. And I studied it in school.  But considering that my US History class [...]

Water Puppetry didn’t have the greatest reputation among my friends at Hanoi Backpackers. And though the art itself comes from Hanoi, I didn’t get around to seeing a show there. But I did make it to see the water puppet show in Saigon! And I was shocked – while the reviews I had heard from [...]

I LOVE Saigon. Are you surprised?  Everyone keeps saying to me, “Jeez, Kate, is there any place you don’t like?” (Well, yes.  Luang Prabang.) I do love Bangkok.  I love Hanoi.  I love Phnom Penh.  But Saigon is more than just another Southeast Asian city I love — it’s the city that would make the [...]