On a constant search to figure out how to use Derek’s airline mileage, I recently schemed to take our middle daughter Emma (13) to Southeast Asia. After all, my uncle and cousins live in Hong Kong and we had never been. Since we were going all the way there, where else should we go? We decided that prior to culminating our travels for Thanksgiving in Hong Kong, we would also visit Siem Reap, Cambodia, as well as Hanoi and Halong Bay, Vietnam.


If I didn’t know any better I’d think President Obama was following us because he had just been in our hometown of Boulder, Colorado, before the elections and was heading to Cambodia just after, as were we, but we decided not to pursue any link in case the Secret Service thought that somehow we were the stalkers.


My main impression of the entire trip was that I felt very safe despite the apparent lack of rules and laws. In Cambodia and Vietnam no real stop lights or traffic direction among the millions of mopeds and tuk tuks. It took me awhile to get into it, but the somewhat daunting task of just crossing a busy street, while dodging every imaginable type of transport, was mastered within a matter of days.  


Emma really got into it by eating jellyfish and pigs knuckles at Dim Sum in Hong Kong too. (Must have gotten that from Derek). As I still reel from the culture shock of re-entry into the United States, I reached out to other ’84s to see where they’d been lately and what their experiences were like.


Tom Callahan writes: “We had a fantastic trip this summer to Tanzania. It was so much fun for me to be in Africa just for fun (no war zones!), and Grace (15) and Claire (12) absolutely loved it. We covered about 900 miles through four parks on a self-drive/guide safari.”


From Adam Burck: “I celebrated my 50th with my wife on a brief trip to Peru—arrived in Cusco, the navel of the world according to the Incas. After acclimatizing at 11,000 feet we started our Andes trek along with three brave mules. We were amazed at the stoicism of the local farmers surviving at 14,000 feet on potatoes grown using Inca tools and techniques. We reached the Pachacutec Pass (15,200 feet) on my birthday—hard, despite our diligent training.” 


John Lubin says: “Recently I went to Feira de Santana, Brazil, to visit my wife, Eli, our daughter Julia (4) and my wife’s family. Eli is a Brazilian national, but has lived in the United States for more than four years and last summer became a naturalized U.S. citizen. Julia, born at Dartmouth Hitchcock in Lebanon, New Hampshire, is a dual citizen too. They left for Brazil at the end of August and are planning to spend seven and a half months in Bahia. I recently spent 12 days there and met my in-laws for the first time in person. I have been to Brazil half a dozen times during the last 15 years. We have a truly intercontinental marriage.”


Jane Blansfield recalls: “After visiting Kaya Kazmirci in Istanbul we made a dramatic transition to the pastoral landscapes of rural Romania. Medieval monasteries painted inside and out were the main draw, but we were surprised and equally enchanted by the Carpathian Mountains in full fall foliage. No travelogue about Transylvania would be complete without reference to Vlad the Impaler, inspiration for Count Dracula, and we caught the spooky mood as we walked the streets of his birthplace, Sighisoara, after dark.”


—Jan Gordon and Derek Chow, 770 Union Av., Boulder, CO 80304; (303) 448-1580; janandderek @comcast.net