Len Zwelling

Bangkok: Traffic, Temples, And The Future Of Retail By Leonard Zwelling Bladerunner. That’s all I could think about as the van inched through traffic the likes of which I had never seen. There were electric billboards everywhere in the night sky. They were mini-movies for all kinds of products and other than the displays not […]

Cambodia, Angkor Wat, and Tuk Tuks: We Almost Didn’t Make It By Leonard Zwelling Our stay in Viet Nam was coming to a close. We transferred to Saigon’s airport for the one-hour flight to Siem Reap in Cambodia. But we had a major hiccup. Our flight was slated to be Vietnam Air VN 3825, but

The Tunnels Of Cu Chi: The Holocaust Of Liberation By Leonard Zwelling Would I have ever come to Viet Nam if not for the American War? Doubtful. Yet, after a week here, I have heard little from our various guides about that war. That changed today. It was somber. It was frightening. It was awful.

Shabbat Saigon By Leonard Zwelling If Hanoi is amazing, Saigon is otherworldly. It’s Paris with motor scooters. Eight million of them in a population of 13.6 million. They all seem to be riding their scooters on the street at once. And traffic lights? Few and just a suggestion anyway. This town is really hopping. Communism?

Hoi An: Food And Clothing By Leonard Zwelling It’s a day on our own in the Old City of Hoi An. That means only two things are on tap: food and clothing. The market in Hoi An, like the Shuk in Jerusalem, is stand after stand of vegetables, fruits, seafood and meat. It’s all fresh.

Ha Long Bay And On To Hoi An By Leonard Zwelling The two plus hour bus ride from downtown Hanoi to the boat dock at Ha Long Bay was boring, but at least it was on a highway with few motor bikes. The trip was broken up by yet another obligatory stop at a Vietnamese

The Historic Hotels Of Hanoi By Leonard Zwelling Touring the bomb shelter that Jane Fonda and Joan Baez shared in 1972 during the Christmas bombing of Hanoi was an otherworldly experience. That bomb shelter was discovered below the Metropole Hotel, the hotel at which we are staying here in downtown Hanoi. It is an old

The Streets Of Hanoi By Leonard Zwelling It is hard to grasp. I am walking in a country that I spent so much of my young life trying to avoid—Viet Nam. It is Saturday, December 8 here. It’s still Friday in Houston. The estimated population of this bustling city is about 9 million and they

Two Thoughts At Once By Leonard Zwelling In the New York Times on December 5, Frank Bruni makes the point that in describing the legacy of George H. W. Bush, there are positives and negatives. Both are worthy of description when recounting his presidency. More importantly, describing his triumphs (The Gulf War, the end of

What’s Really Outrageous? That Bush 41 Wasn’t! By Leonard Zwelling https://www.wsj.com/articles/reflections-on-impeachment-20-years-later-1543535342 https://www.wsj.com/articles/america-is-addicted-to-outrage-is-there-a-cure-1543620811 Two editorials on the same page of the Wall Street Journal on December 1 tell an interesting tale about America. In the first, my favorite editorialist, Peggy Noonan, commemorates (is that the right word?) the 20th anniversary of the impeachment of “Slick Willie.”