What I have to say about Vietnam is not new, or profound, I'm sure. But I'll say it nevertheless. I admit I haven't followed events in Vietnam closely in recent years, but obviously communism has been abandoned in favor of capitalism. You can see that within two minutes of landing here. ​
    Thanks to our relative purchasing power, Ross and I can enjoy some luxuries in Asia. For a few dollars, we can arrange for a driver to pick us up at the airport to take us to our hotel in Hanoi. It was a nice car, too, though I forget what make and model. As I settled into the backseat, I immediately recognized the song playing -- an instrumental muzak version of The Sounds of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel.  When that song was a hit, American soldiers were crawling though the jungle in Vietnam, and possibly the father of our driver belonged to the guerrilla forces they were trying to subdue. Now, in the blink of an eye, we Westerners and our tourist dollars are more than welcome. And our soundtrack is an anthem to youthful alienation, with a  pretentious little slap at capitalism thrown in: "and the people bowed and prayed, to the neon god they made."

   Said the sly and conniving Mary Crawford to Fanny Price, and so I say to you, dear readers, forgive my long silence. Mary went on to say, "for you are so good, that I depend upon being treated better than I deserve."  
   ​And so say I to you, dear readers, thank you for treating me better than I deserve. And just as Mary broke her long silence because of self-interest, candour compels me to admit that I want to tell you something!
   I have just published my debut novel, A Contrary Wind: a variation on Mansfield Park. More about that in a moment.

One morning during our recent month-long vacation, I was tidying up around our beach bungalow in a quiet Thai village while listening to my husband talking to a friend back in Canada over Skype. He was giving a blow-by-blow of our vacation to that point. First, he (my husband) put his back out and pinched a nerve just before we were to go on vacation. He had to bring a cane along so he could hobble through the airport. Over the following days, he gradually got better as we enjoyed the beauties of the city of Guilin and took a cruise on the Li River to see the famous karst mountains. Then, on our last day in Guilin, I came down with a mild fever.

The trip to the Great Wall is the highlight of a trip to China for most people. Our trip to the Great Wall was, frankly, a bit of a disappointment because it was a foggy day. We couldn't see the wall undulating over the hills to the far horizons, couldn't imagine mongol hordes sweeping down from the north, couldn't comprehend with our own eyes the vast scale of the thing. 

We took a cable car to get to the Wall.