Comments Posted By Kevin Kim
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I must have been half asleep. I wrote:
(synoptic = syn/same + opsis/same/together, i.e., “seeing things the same way”)
That should have been:
(synoptic = syn/same/together + opsis/seeing, i.e., “seeing things the same way”)
Sorry. As always, I wish there were a way to go back and edit comments.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 22/January/2026 @ 11:49 am
In Mahayana Buddhism, the idea of “buddhahood” is expanded and cosmicized to include not just all sentient beings, but all of reality. There’s “the Buddha,” but there are also “buddhas.” In that cosmic sense, Happy Charlie is “a buddha,” and Lady Buddha is “a buddha.” You and I are “buddhas,” participating in reality and expressing our natures, which is what buddhas do. The poop you poop is also a buddha.
In Christian theology, people make reference to the “Jesus of History” and the “Christ of faith.” Some folks call this the difference between pre-Easter and post-Easter Jesus, but the idea is that, with the Jesus of history, we’re talking about a specific man who lived in a specific area in a specific time of history; with the Christ of faith, we’re talking more about something akin to a cosmic principle. John’s gospel, different from the first three “synoptic” gospels (synoptic = syn/same + opsis/same/together, i.e., “seeing things the same way”), packs a ton of theology into just a few verses: “In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. […] And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth.” This is directly enjoining us to think of Jesus as the incarnated Word of God, a cosmic principle who has existed since the beginning, i.e., was and is co-eternal with God. So the “Christ of faith” has been cosmicized for as long as there’s been a Bible.
I grant that this is only a very rough parallel to what was going on in Buddhism (just a man vs. cosmic principle), but I hope the Jesus analogy gives your mind something relatable to latch onto.
In Theravada/Hinayana Buddhism, the older sort of Buddhism found in the rest of SE Asia, the Buddha is a man—a teacher rooted in history (and one in a series of incarnations) who passed along principles and techniques for us to be able to follow a path that will lead through and beyond suffering. The “theology” of this form of Buddhism sees the founder as the “Buddha of history.” Mahayana, meanwhile, tends to see the Buddha himself as the incarnation of a fractalized cosmic principle—buddhas, buddhas everywhere.
One Korean Seon (Zen) master in Maryland once said during a dharma talk, “Even the drop of water is enlightened,” i.e., water is no less a full participant in reality than you are. I’ve given talks at churches on this topic, and some disgruntled Christians have groused that they don’t want to consider themselves the equivalent of a discarded Coke can (i.e., mere a material object versus a full-on person), which is a prideful thing to assert when you think about it: biblically speaking, we’re all dirt according to Genesis, aren’t we? Formed from the earth? Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, etc.
Seon/Zen is Mahayana, for what it’s worth. I remember being surprised when I learned that most Buddhism in Vietnam is Zen since SE Asian Buddhism (Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, etc.) is primarily Theravada/Hinayana. For more on the big differences between Mahayana (big vehicle) and Hinayana (little vehicle), see here.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 21/January/2026 @ 5:17 pm
Oh, right, about “Lady Buddha”—so once again, this isn’t a Buddha, but the selfsame Gwanseum/Kwan Shih Yin bodhisattva of compassion that we’ve talked about before. She’s called “Quan Thế Âm” in Vietnamese, straight from the Chinese.
Gwan/Kwan/Quan = observe, listen to, perceive
Se/Shih/Thế = world
Eum/Yin/Âm = soundsUsually roughly translated as “She who hears the cries of the world.” One photo at the website you linked to shows her with the other non-Buddha, Budai/Podae/”Happy Charlie” who is a bodhisattvic incarnation of Maitreya (Buddha of the Future) and generally represents happiness, good fortune, and sharing.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 20/January/2026 @ 11:10 pm
My first train ride since the Seoul-to-Busan bullet train all those years ago (other than a commuter train in Manila, the PI is devoid of this means of travel).
Interesting. Those train seats look like certain Korean bus seats.
She’ll be comin’ round the mountain when she comes…
Have you seen, in Vietnam, any mountains with the unique charm and mystique of your beloved Easter Mountain back in the PI?
This is the nicest hotel I’ve ever had the pleasure of staying at: friendly staff, a great breakfast buffet, and comfortable rooms. The Haian is doing it right!
I hope they’re not preparing your group for slaughter.
How could I refuse? And what have they got against Polish people?
“They keep us off the poles.” I like their sense of dignity and self-respect. Life is a choice and doesn’t have to be an endless daily grind of wiggling hips and gobbling foreign sperm and taking care of five unintended kids.
The view from the rooftop.
Da Nang’s population is about 1.3 million. At around 10 million within city limits, Ho Chi Minh City is comparable to Seoul’s population, but greater HCMC is closer to 20 million. So the dynamic is a lot like in Korea: one or two huge cities, then the population for all the other cities falls off drastically.
Seoul: 11 million; greater Seoul = 26 million (50% of the country)
Busan: 3.5 million
Daegu: 2.5 millionCouldn’t think of anything to rhyme with “twelve” for your blog title, eh? May I suggest the following non-starters?
Day Twelve, We’re Still Ourselves
Day Twelve, Massacred Elves
Day Twelve, the Buddha Was Shelved
Day Twelve, Into Girlfriend I Delve
Day Twelve, Fell on My Pelv… isWill Day Thirteen bring back the rhymes, or now that the pattern is broken, will we see normal prose in your blog titles again?
Thirteen, Sights Unseen
Thirteen, No In-between
Thirteen, Hey—That’s Gangrene!» Posted By Kevin Kim On 20/January/2026 @ 5:30 pm
Regarding this:
Have you ever realized that [a woman’s] [,] “I’ll be ready in 5 minutes” […} and a man’s [,] “I’ll be home in five minutes [,] are exactly the same[?]
Make “woman’s” singular and lower case = yes.
Add commas = no.
Spell “I’ll” correctly, with a single apostrophe = yes.
Add a question mark = yes.No need to over-comma.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 20/January/2026 @ 7:14 pm
Well, this trip and your documentation of it have been educational for those of us stuck in our residences. Despite my whinges and complaints, I realize a person can’t be expected to document every little thing, especially when he’s on vacation to have a good time, not to be a slave to his readers/commenters. I’m glad you’ve been having a good time, and thanks for all the pics of buildings and scenery and everyday life, even if it is largely life in the tourist zones. I’ve learned a good bit about today’s Vietnam as you’ve moved through it. Thanks.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 20/January/2026 @ 4:34 pm
I didn’t take notes about the former purpose of the buildings we saw. Sorry!
This has more the look of a palace, a fortress, or a palatial fortress given the walls and the decorative koi.
Old buildings somehow make me feel younger.
The complexity of the architecture reflects Indian influence.
I did read that many of the buildings in the complex were destroyed during the Tet Offensive in 1968. Viet Cong were hiding out inside them, so the Americans bombed them.
AI calls this: “Pavilion of Splendor (Hien Lam Cac)”
That’s as close as we got to the building with the big flag.
AI says this is:
…the Flag Tower (Cột cờ) located in the Imperial City of Hue, Vietnam.
The flag tower was constructed in 1807 under the Gia Long Emperor.
It consists of a flagpole and a three-tiered base.
The site is part of the larger Hue Citadel complex, which was the political and cultural center of the Nguyen Dynasty from 1802 to 1945.
The entire complex is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The flag flying on top is a sacred symbol associated with the 1945 August Revolution in Hue.I hope this Tet isn’t offensive.
I’m currently reading the action novel Cry Havoc by Jack Carr, the ex-SEAL who wrote the James Reece novels picked up by Amazon to make the Terminal List series. Cry Havoc is about Tom Reece, James’s father, who served as a SEAL in Vietnam and was there when the Tet offensive went down. Lots of cloak and dagger, lots of geopolitics, and a good bit of action. Decent book so far.
Oh, and we brought some beer with us to enhance our river experience.
Of course! Sobriety is for people who like a sharp mind.
Once we were back ashore, Swan went shopping for pasalubong
And what pasalubong are you taking back with you?
I decided to try the ga xao chua ngot.
On the menu, the English under your entry has two errors of the same type.
Swan deemed her meal “spicy.”
But where was her “bamboo tube”? Or was that wrapped up and handed over as a discreet, naughty “gift for the ladies”?
Time keeps on ticking, ticking, into the future…
I see four errors in that meme.
Welcome back to Da Nang. Just a few days left…?
It all looks to be beautiful and packed with history and culture, but like any culture, Vietnam is more than just a museum. Have you flagged down any “lifer” expats there to talk about Vietnam’s culture—what works, what drives foreigners crazy, places to eat and drink, aspects of the Vietnamese character, etc.?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 19/January/2026 @ 9:41 pm
Kevin, how about: of my experience taking sand to the beach with my Korean girlfriend, Eun Oke. Are you sure you’ve told me a million times? Honestly, I’m not seeing it.
You’ve fixed the problem without even knowing what the problem was. As we’ve discussed a million times before, hyphenate phrasal adjectives when they precede the noun they modify.
• of my taking-sand-to-the-beach experience with the Korean girlfriend, Eun Oke.
Before the noun “experience” is a phrasal adjective. You really ought to be able to see that by now. Your correction works because you shifted the position of “experience” so it is no longer preceded by the phrasal adjective. Now you know. Until the same fuck-up happens yet again, anyway.
Does removing the comma before “but” fix the problem?
Yes, but WHY? Because it’s a compound predicate, i.e., two actions done by one subject.
WRONG: She sat down, and farted.
RIGHT: She sat down and farted.WRONG: …we took a stroll, but didn’t see anything
RIGHT: …we took a stroll but didn’t see anythingThe meme error is “your” instead of “you’re.”
Yes.
Until you learn to recognize these same problems that keep cropping up again and again and again, you’ll have learned nothing. Knowledge isn’t knowledge if you fail to apply it when you need it.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 19/January/2026 @ 11:56 am
of my taking sand to the beach experience with the Korean girlfriend, Eun Oke.
Spot the error! Feel the terror! We’ve been over this one a million times.
We failed in that attempt, mainly because my map app, Waze, led me astray.
Why not use Google?
I’m not sure what this is supposed to be, but there it is.
Did the untrustworthy Waze or Google Maps label that location? At a guess: it’s a religious spot. Out front is a huge brazier filled with sand to hold up incense sticks. Lots of dragon imagery (look at the building in the background, too), and the brazier appears to have a phoenix by it, too (on the left). In Korea, dragons find themselves at temples as well as at sites devoted to royalty; phoenixes are more explicitly associated with royalty, but in this instance, I suspect the whole property is more religious than royalty-focused. That’s just my guess. You didn’t step onto the property to take more pics of the building? None of the building’s doors were open to reveal, say, Buddhist statues and paintings and meditation pads? Well… next time you pass that way (maybe on your next trip), please gather more clues, and I’ll do what I can to solve the riddle of this place’s name and function. Meanwhile, I need to study up on Vietnamese Buddhist iconography and royal symbolism so I can identify things correctly.
We did see another temple-like structure.
The Chinese character on that golden-looking brazier looks like 德/덕/deok, which means “virtue.”
And damn, Kevin Kim is a big man around here. Or a dead one.
According to AI, that yellow sign says:
KIM HUNG GOLD PRIVATE ENTERPRISE HEAD OFFICE ADDRESS: 94 MAI THUC LOAN STREET, PHU XUAN WARD, HUE CITY PHONE: 0932449853
A bridge we didn’t take. About 500 meters further up the narrow road we were walking, Waze announced we had arrived at our destination. Except there was nothing there other than a couple of decrepit houses. Fuck you, Waze!
When I’m walking across South Korea, Naver Map occasionally goes nuts and does me wrong. But that’s one time out of a hundred, so I still think of the app as trustworthy. Has Waze otherwise been okay, or does this sort of problem happen a lot?
Y not?
“Pharmacie” is the French spelling of “pharmacy,” so you’re seeing a bit of linguistic history from Vietnam’s French-occupied past. In German-speaking regions, pharmacies are labeled with the Greek “Apotheke” (ah-poh-teh-keh, orig. “storehouse”), like the archaic English term “apothecary.”
After our meal, we took a stroll through the tourist district, but didn’t see anything that enticed us to stop.
Oy gevalt. This error yet again. What’s the simplest possible correction?
Today is the fifteenth anniversary of my mother’s passing.
Respect to your mom.
The idiot vlogger Vitaly has been deported from the Philippines (and he’s damn lucky they didn’t hold him in jail for years pending trial). I saw this on Facebook this morning, and if it is legit, he’s still an asshole.
Come to Korea, Vitaly! Try that shit here. The PI should have amputated all his limbs before deporting him.
It’s what’s inside that counts.
I see one error in that meme.
Well, sorry to read that there had been navigational issues. If Waze is misleading you often, just stick to Google Maps. In some parts of the world (like La Rochelle, France), Maps will even offer you 3D renderings to navigate an area.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 18/January/2026 @ 7:54 pm
The area you’re in seems quite nice. That menu’s “local food” page looked appetizing. I’d have ordered one of everything.
The stairs up to Hai Van Gate would make me stop for breath several times, I’m sure.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 17/January/2026 @ 8:12 pm
I couldn’t find anything about this guy in a Google search (everything was in Vietnamese), but the placard said he was a scholar who became a leader opposed to French colonization and was executed for his resistance.
Right-click (or do whatever counts as right-clicking on your laptop) on this page, then hit “Translate to English,” and you’ll see plenty.
Today’s YouTube video is an introduction to the things to see and do in Hue. I’ve never heard “Hue” pronounced as “He” before, but then again, I’ve been calling it “Hew” for as long as I can remember.
The AI god says:
The Vietnamese city of Huế is pronounced differently by region, but generally sounds like “Hway” (Northern/Central) or closer to “Way” (Southern/HCMC), with the northern version having a distinct falling-rising tone, like a soft “Hway” with a questioning or surprised lift at the end (IPA: [hwej˨˩˦]), while the Southern version drops the ‘h’ and sounds more like “Way” (IPA: [wej˦˥]), not like the English color “hue” (hyoo).
Pronunciation audio here.
Everything looks very nice, but also very tourist-trappy. Are you trying any traditional Vietnamese food, or are you sticking to the Western stuff?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 16/January/2026 @ 8:27 pm
Sorry—in the epic Ramayana, the monkey king is Sugriva, and Hanuman is his monkey general.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 15/January/2026 @ 7:28 pm
I guess they had monkeys back then, too.
Hanuman is the monkey-king deity, for what it’s worth. I don’t know whether that particular image is of Hanuman, though; it seems to be occupying a temple-guardian position on the building. Maybe it is Hanuman.
That one close-up pic of the temple, with all the darkened stone and lichen, made me want to grab a pressure-washer and hose the entire building clean. But I imagine that decay is part of the charm.
Hard to argue with that logic.
Were you ever a golfer?
I would’ve been all over that Hindu temple. Now, I’m motivated to look up “Hinduism in Vietnam.” Thailand, where the Buddhism is of the Theravada (older) variety, is also heavily influenced by India and Hinduism. You see it everywhere there, in all the names, e.g., Maha Sarakham. (Maha comes from the same ancient root as the Greek mega or the Latin magnus; it means “great,” as in maharaja, “great king.”) Since we’ve already established China’s deep influence on Vietnam, I’m curious to know more about India’s influence. I should look more closely at the food, which strikes me as much more Chinese-inflected than Indian in tenor. But there may nevertheless be Indian influences in the cuisine, maybe in the types of herbs and spices the Vietnamese use. I don’t know. I’ll consult the AI god as a starting point, then move on to legit sources.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 15/January/2026 @ 7:25 pm
The last post in the LTG archives from August 2016 features a recounting of meeting the American Ambassador to Korea in my new suit, having some birthday shots with friends at Shenanigans, and a brief mention of my upcoming trip to the Philippines that would include my new Korean girlfriend. They call that bringing sand to the beach. We’ll find out how that went soon.
Did I miss the missing link?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 15/January/2026 @ 8:51 am
Nothing like being greeted on the TV screen.
The screen says “Divina,” so is her name Davina or Divina?
It felt like a zombie apocalypse.
Have I got a video for you! Go to Netflix, look up “Love, Death, & Robots,” click over to Volume 3 (basically Season 3), and watch “Night of the Mini Dead.” It’s very short. I recently reviewed the whole series, for what that’s worth. The review will be there when you get back home.
That guy in the back looks familiar.
And no belly to rub because he ain’t Podae!
Swan and I shared this platter.
Barely enough for one ravenous Kevin.
Looks to have been a great time at Ba Na Hills—an interesting mix of cultures and civilizational histories. Looking forward to images of Hoi An.
re: the “sheep lies” joke
Good God, that one’s older than I am.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 14/January/2026 @ 9:40 pm
Meant to say that I clicked over to read the Hemingway story, which was obviously scanned in (optical character recognition) and simply slapped up on the website without any further editing. So many mistakes as a result. It’s hard to tell which mistakes were Hemingway’s, and which were the result of poor editing. I do know, however, that the story would be improved just by pulling apart all the words that got inadvertently fused together for no good reason. Despite the sloppiness, I’m pretty sure I saw quite a few of Hemingway’s own mistakes, and like a lot of authors, he had no clue how to handle commas. The story itself was good: sad and somber in tone, bespeaking loneliness and giving us, at least a little bit, a sense of how human beings misunderstand each other by trying to guess each other’s motives and intentions without ever asking directly because we’re too wrapped up in our own pressing concerns (“I wanna go home early”). It occurred to me that you’ve linked to this story before, maybe to this very website. And yeah, the first thing I noticed is how the cover title has no comma, but on Page 1, the story title has a comma in it. Someone with your level of unconcern for consistency obviously prepped this for the website.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 14/January/2026 @ 5:58 pm
Peaceful, and well-maintained.
No need for a comma. Take away the hyphen. Hyphenate phrasal adjectives when they precede the noun they modify. I don’t see any noun, so… no hyphen.
Yeah, “Kraut” (the epithet) is a proper noun.
re: fluorescent comma splice
If you think a semicolon would be hard to see, make the statement into two sentences. No excuse for the poor punctuation.
re: Prunk/Drunk
Yep, a second look shows I’d misread the sign. Guess I was prunk at the time.
Yes, hyphenate “open-air.” It’s a phrasal adjective coming before the noun it modifies.
• the well-written essay (hyphenate)
• The essay was well written. (don’t)» Posted By Kevin Kim On 14/January/2026 @ 1:56 pm
I couldn’t bear to look.
They look as though they died for our sins.
Peaceful and well-maintained.
Spot the error! Man, you’re never gonna get this right.
A sculpture that caught my eye.
Are they summoning Dr. Strange?
We were getting hungry, but I wasn’t in the mood for sour kraut.
If that’s supposed to be a pun on “sauerkraut,” then “Kraut” should be capitalized and probably pluralized: “I wasn’t in the mood for any sour Krauts.”
Game On!
Who took the picture?
Hmm…
So “tây” means West/Western, and “Prunk” is German for “splendid,” “magnificent,” or even “ostentatious.” If “prunk” has a Vietnamese meaning, I didn’t find it.
Now you tell me!
Spot the error in the fluorescent sign!
We were planning to go here for some shawarma eats, but alas, they didn’t serve alcoholic beverages. Thanks, but no thanks. We were on a roll.
Why not eat, then get your drinks elsewhere?
…to this open air food court.
Sigh… spot the error.
While Swan ate the feet.
I’ve had boneless chicken feet in Korea, and I think I’ve mentioned this before, but chewing on them was like chewing on rubber gloves. Not for me. I don’t like cartilage, gristle, tendons, or animal skin. Except as ingredients to slow-boil for a long time so as to render out the collagen and make rich broths. I might enjoy the chicken feet if you deep-fried the fuck out of them, turning them into chicken chicharrones.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 13/January/2026 @ 11:28 pm
I left the comma out after clean intentionally because as I remembered the Hemingway story “A Clean Well-Lighted Place” there wasn’t one. A subsequent check via Google shows it both ways.
Hemingway is worshiped in some circles, but he could be sloppy. When you have pairs of adjectives that don’t make up a phrasal adjective, do you put a comma between them or not? I answered that question ages ago. See here.
So if Hemingway was trying to say that “the place was clean and well lighted,” as I think he was, he should have inserted a comma. Maybe the weight of that sin is what drove him to blow his own head off.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 13/January/2026 @ 4:47 pm
And whatever the hell that’s supposed to be. A lion or tiger, perhaps?
I think that, in colloquial English, we’d call that a “fu dog” or a “foo dog.” In Chinese, it’s a “shishi,” a sort of lion-shaped (石獅 = literally “stone lion”) guardian divinity. I don’t know what the Vietnamese term for it is (ah, here we go: “sư tử đá,” stone lion). It has a lot in common with a Korean haetae/haechi, but it’s not quite the same thing. Still, the presence of a shishi in Da Nang speaks to the heavy Chinese influence in Vietnam.
OMG! They had birria tacos! And guacamole, just the way Swan likes it. They were damn good, too.
Did they succeed in making the shells crunchy? At a guess, “damn good” means yes. The shells look as though they might’ve been dipped in fatty consommé, which is a good sign compared to the bland, white tortillas you seem to get in Barretto.
Do you plan to visit Vietnam’s equivalent to Barretto, wherever that might be? I mean a (relatively) quiet town or village, a bit run down, filled with tasteless girly bars and old Western guys shootin’ the shit.
Open wide!
See the email I just sent you. Don’t do it, John! Don’t do it!
A clean well-lighted place.
Spot the error!
And it’s a fire-breathing dragon.
Asian dragons are usually powerful, benevolent water/wind/sky creatures; Western dragons are greedy, evil, cave-dwelling, treasure-hoarding fire-breathers. I sense a mix of mythologies happening here. A long time ago, the Korean movie “D-War” featured a Korean dragon that breathed fire as well. I recall my buddy Charles, a folklore expert, being confused. So was I.
…and will spend a night up high in the Ba Na Hills. I’ve been looking forward to that the most on our vacation itinerary. After that, we have stays in Hoi An and Hue before returning to Da Nang next week. Let the adventure continue!
So you’re checking out of your current hotel. Good luck with the next phase.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 12/January/2026 @ 7:52 pm
The sign that greeted us as we arrived at Dirty Fingers for some grub.
Note the irony of the skeletal fingers representing death.
One thing you don’t see here is girly bars.
I know the lack of trashy stuff weighs on you.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 11/January/2026 @ 5:10 pm
Interesting. Let me help you: here are pics of regular Buddha statues, and here are pics of starving-Buddha statues. Here, meanwhile, are pics of Podae-daesa.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 11/January/2026 @ 10:47 pm
Yeah, “Laughing Buddha” is a label I see often, and it’s a bunch of tourist-marketing crap. “Laughing Buddha” is also the reason so many Westerners think the Buddha himself was fat. According to legend/tradition, he started out as a hardcore ascetic before turning to a more “middle way” path of disciplined eating. One scripture has the Buddha reminiscing about the ascetic he used to be, saying that, at one point, he could touch his belly and feel his spine. Probably legend, but I’ve seen video of yogis who do some crazy shit with their bodies, all through extreme self-discipline. There’s a video of Arnold Schwarzenegger doing the yogic trick of sucking in his belly to look super-thin, what bodybuilders call the “vacuum pose” (see Arnold here.).
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 11/January/2026 @ 5:02 pm
“…this large and loud group playing that game, the name of which I don’t recall…it’s sort of like soccer, I think”
“Looks like foosball to me.”
I’m guessing I missed your sarcasm here.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 11/January/2026 @ 3:44 am
Sorry to read about your blog-related travails.
Buddha ain’t got nothin’ on me!
That’s who Koreans call Podae-sunim (포대 스님 Podae-sunim, where “sunim” means “monk” or “brother”). He’s an incarnation of Maitreya Bodhisattva (Bodhisattva of the future, called Mireuk-bosal/미륵보살 in Korean). A buddy of mine calls this “happy Buddha,” who represents compassion and abundance, “Happy Charlie.”
In Mahayana Buddhism, where everything is infused with buddha-nature (even the unwise, drunken beer-drinkers and the fat assholes with heart failure), I suppose you could loosely call Podae “a Buddha,” but he’d be a Buddha in the same way that you or I or your dogs are Buddhas—we are all expressions of buddha-nature.
this large and loud group playing that game, the name of which I don’t recall…it’s sort of like soccer, I think
Looks like foosball to me.
I cooked dinner for her, then we did an Itaewon bar crawl. You can’t have an ending without a beginning. [ … ] She was nice when sober.
So you could have minimized your problems with NO BAR CRAWLS.
Yeah, that comma after wife isn’t funny.
That entire meme is rife with retarded errors. Stealing it for Substack.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 10/January/2026 @ 4:12 pm
Ten minutes later, a couple of women in Philippines Air uniforms approached and asked to see my [return-flight] information. They took my paperwork and walked away. Oh shit, I’m going to be deported! They returned after a bit and had me follow them to the [visa-on-arrivals] desk at immigration. Americans are not eligible for a visa on arrival, but apparently, an exception was going to be made for me. I had to fill out a new visa application (in duplicate), and I was so stressed that my hands were shaking. Then, out of nowhere, a young man in civilian clothes told me he was there to assist me in getting my visa approved. But it was going to cost me $135, around three million Vietnamese dong. I asked if I could use a credit card, but he said no. I said I’d need to go to an ATM, but since I couldn’t leave the immigration area, that wasn’t possible. I had given Swan four million dong I had gotten at an exchange booth in Manila. She was anxiously waiting in the [baggage-claim] area for my situation to be resolved, so I sent the “agent/fixer” over there. Jeff had dong from his previous [trip and] gave the necessary funds to secure my visa. Once the money had changed hands[,] and the visa was issued, I was a free man again.
Damn, that’s a lotta “dong”s! Not to mention a lotta [errors].
So was it worth it, not worrying about your printed visa dates? Maybe be more careful next time when filling out your visa info. Now, if the website doesn’t give you any spaces to fill out your intended travel dates and visa-duration dates, then the country is basically trapping you into paying $135 (or whatever) every time you come into its borders. Back in the 80s, South Korea used to charge people leaving the country an “exit tax,” but these days, that tax is gone, and the country has other ways to grab your money.
Vietnam looks nice—another “socialist paradise” that really seems to be thriving on capitalism. And Da Nang seems very pretty, not to mention very tourist-trappy, like a gigantic Itaewon. What are the most famous local beers, and are they any good? That guy’s video has some good recommendations for where to eat, especially if you’re vegan (which I know you aren’t). But vegan food ain’t all bad.
Anyway, today is only your first full day in country. Enjoy. And if you have the chance, slap the Buddha’s belly for me. Vietnam is that rare SE Asian country whose Buddhism is more Mahayana than Theravada—unlike Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Burma, etc.
Oh, yeah—one thing the guy’s video mentions is cooking classes for tourists. If that’s not too corny-sounding for you and Swan, why not join one and pick up a new skill? You’ll be the talk of Barretto when you come back able to make perfect bánh mì for twenty people.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 09/January/2026 @ 6:52 pm
I sense a joke in here somewhere.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 09/January/2026 @ 1:25 pm
Safe travels.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 08/January/2026 @ 3:04 pm
Just hand-wash your stinkiest clothes in the hotel-room sink. That’s what I do when I’m walking across the country. The hotel room usually has a spot for things to hang-dry, even if it’s just a chair back or a random hook on the wall. Hotel-provided shampoo or body wash is good enough as detergent, or I guess you can buy your own detergent at a local convenience store. Just do it yourself!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 07/January/2026 @ 5:40 pm
«« Back To Stats PageWe need to pause and put a stop to this.
You could’ve made that into a joke by not including the period at the end of your caption. As for Gen Z thinking the presence of a period is somehow passive-aggressive… that just goes to show what a generation of pussies they are. Affected that much by a period?
We gathered at the Alta Vista Clubhouse, which made things easy for me (a five-minute walk from home).
Elevated position makes that look like a drone photo. Cool.
I hope the cycle-crash guy is okay. Welcome to the PI, right? Was this his first time there? At least he’ll come away with a memory of the place.
Congrats on doing an orthodox walk… even if it was the short option.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 06/January/2026 @ 8:39 pm