Leaving for Shangri-La(Not really but it sounds great)

In about two weeks, I will be on a jet plane going back to Vietnam for the umpteen time(as someone else told me), but somehow the enthusiasm hasn't lessen.

I will begin in Saigon(HoChiMinh City). There are several people I will visit in HCM. After that, I will fly to BuonMaThout, where I will visit one of my VNese sons who recently married. I look forward to drinking lots of "cafe" at the local coffee shops, one of which is owned by Hung, the man I am visiting. I first met Hung in 2002 but connected with him through email because he wanted help learning English. We have kept in touch ever since but haven't always been able to see him while in Vietnam.

Then I plan to take the bus north to Plieku and KonTom. This area not heavily traveled by tourists and more rural and ethnic in population. Actually this started out to be the main reason I was returning to Vietnam as one of my former Vietnamese students(Tommy Nguyen) here in Portland wanted to start a nonprofit for the people who live in this area and he asked me to go with him. But in the planning, he had conflicts so now I am going alone. I plan to try to explore some of the area even though I have been told that the local police and gov't officials are not very receptive to tourists or foreigners. Because of this, it might not be easy to see much. This is quite a poor area where lots of people have no water supply and little shelter or food. This is the reason for the nonprofit idea, so I am still going to see what I can learn.

After this, I go to DaNang, where I will fly to Hanoi. In Hanoi, I plan to volunteer with Global Volunteers at a local high school. I did this in 2008 too. After that, I plan to take the bus to Nanning China. I will travel to Guilin and Yangshou, ending up in Kunming, where I will volunteer at a school for two weeks. After that, I will somehow get to Xian where I volunteered before. I plan to reunite with a few teachers and two students that I have been in email contact with. After that, I will travel to HongKong, and stay a few days in HK because I plan to visit with two volunteers that live there.

Finally, I will come home on Jan. 12.

Recently, I had dinner with two former students that I taught in 1981-82 at Gregory Heights. They both live in the Portland area and recently we reconnected. They were some of the first VNese students to come to Greg. Hts. and I remembered them well. There was no ESL then, just integrated into the regular classroom. They have turned out great. So they took me out to dinner one Saturday night with their families where we spent a lot of time reminising about the good old days.







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