At long last, all of our Vietnam photos are uploaded here.  It was a great trip, and we had an especially great time exploring all of the culinary variety of the country.  The Vietnamese are serious about food, and it was an adventure finding all the favorite local spots to eat.  We had great success using online blogs and personal travel pages to target our searches, and we found this strategy to be much more fruitful than using guidebooks, which usually cater to slightly different palates.  The “find the sketchiest-looking place that’s full of Vietnamese people” strategy also worked exceedingly well.  Other highlights included whizzing around on motorbikes in the countryside around Hue, getting lost in the frenetic markets, and experiencing the near-worship of Uncle Ho.

Throughout the trip, I found myself having a hard time capturing the country in pictures.  For one thing, large parts of the country aren’t objectively pretty – lots of urban landscapes, traffic, crowds, pollution.  But I felt it went beyond that; I was taking pictures of some of these not-so-pretty things because they appealed to me on some level.  The photographic result failed to capture that appeal; places seemed bland and lifeless when they were anything but.  Only looking back over the photos after the fact did I realize what the problem was.  You use all your senses to experience Vietnam.  You smell it, you feel it, you hear it, you taste it.  My photos failed because they only had one sense to exploit when all five were necessary.  You have to smell the fish market of Hoi An to really experience it.  You have to feel the quiet misty air and cool water of Ha Long Bay, hear the cacophony of motorbike traffic whizzing around you in Saigon.  And by god you have to taste the tamarind crab – not to be missed.  Perhaps truly great photographers are able to somehow capture more that what the eye sees.  I’m not there yet.  But I’ll keep on trying.  In the meantime, enjoy these pale, washed-out reflections of a vivid, vibrant country.

Obligatory shot with the Lunch Lady of Saigon. This is a badge of honor for Vietnamese foodies.

That bit of annoyance out of the way, I can report that our trip was truly wonderful, all the way from Amman to Aqaba.  I’m still working on the photos, but soon you’ll be able to see that there’s really a ton to see and do in Jordan.  And then there’s the food, admittedly – for us – one of the primary attractions of any trip.  I had the best hummus and shawarma of my life, became a big fan of baba ganoush, and greatly enjoyed the various permutations of cheese, pastry dough, and honey that Jordanians love to have for dessert (or at any other time of day).  There are several new words in my food vocabulary – galaya, fatteh, knafeh – that I hope to put to use more in the future.

Petra is truly one of the wonders of the world and needs to be seen by everyone with even the remotest interest.  Walking through the slot canyon that is the Siq and then seeing the red sandstone facade of the Treasury suddenly appear around a bend will make even the most jaded traveler catch his breath.

Those of you who know me well know that I am greatly enamored by the night sky.  Spending a night in the Jordanian desert around Wadi Rum, away from almost all of the lights of civilization, provided a night sky the likes of which I hadn’t ever seen before except in the Outback of Australia.

These are just a couple highlights.  They don’t include the chariot race in Jerash, the surprisingly comical visit to Jesus’s baptism site, the obligatory dip in the Dead Sea, or any of those wonderful unexpected experiences that make travel what it is.  Of course Jordan has its fair share of problems – worsening water shortages, a limited economy, a shifting national identity with large refugee populations – but it remains safe and welcoming to travelers.  Whatever your brand of travel – leisure, adventure, active – I recommend it highly.

In preparation for our honeymoon trip to Australia, Carisa wanted to get me scuba-certified. I admit to having been a little apprehensive about the whole thing, as I am – at best – a poor swimmer. Still, I’m a confident and strong snorkeler, and scuba seemed the next step if I was going to scratch my underwater photography itch. So, we did our course work and pool work through Mass Diving (highly recommended), and we booked a trip to Turks and Caicos to do our checkout dives.

Our destination in Turks and Caicos was Salt Cay (pronounced “key”), a remote little blip of an island measuring about 2 miles long and having a little over 60 year-round inhabitants. To get there, we flew from Boston to Miami, then Miami to Providenciales, then Providenciales to Grand Turk, and then finally Grand Turk to Salt Cay. If you can imagine in your mind a quiet, tropical backwater where time and worries blow away on gentle ocean breezes, then you pretty much have a good idea of what this place is all about. Well that and really great diving.

Can you believe it? Me!

Of course, having only dove in a YMCA pool prior to this, I didn’t have much to compare it to. But still, I thought it was really great regardless, and Carisa – who has a little experience diving elsewhere – also gave it high marks.

The birding was fun, too, as you can see from the rest of the photo library. But I think coolest of all (along with the diving) were the people on the island. Comprising a mixture of native Belongers, immigrants from other Caribbean countries, and ex-pats from the States and the UK, the unifying traits among the island’s inhabitants were openness and friendliness. Everyone waves at everyone as they pass. People stop and chat with complete strangers. Even the dogs are super friendly.

We also ate surprisingly well for being so far off the beaten path. Special thanks here go to Porter Williams and Miss Nettie.

So bottom line is we had a truly wonderful and restful time while we were there. We felt like we had slipped a little off the map and out of the normal flow of time. It was a very nice feeling.

We had high expectations for our week visiting the islands of the Galapagos. Our pre-trip research had us eagerly anticipating the fauna, the landscape, and just being present in such a historic crucible of scientific thought. The preceding week in Ecuador was a sort of tack-on to appease Carisa’s sister and mother.

The islands were everything we expected and then some:

On the ground…

In the air…

Or under the waves…

We were pleasantly surprised, however, by how awesome our week on the mainland was.

We had yummy food…

Made some new friends…

And got to see some really great stuff…

You can see (a lot) more pictures from the trip here.

At some point in time, I’ll post a more detailed account of what we did in the travel log section of the blog. But until then, you can take my word that Ecuador and especially the Galapagos are not to be missed. Basically, it’s one of those places that should be seen by every person alive. It’s that good. What are you doing reading still? Go book your ticket now!