Another Short Visit to Vietnam

Linda Weaver, a friend of many years had a chance to join me in Cambodia for a couple months. Here are some pictures while traveling the Mekong River from Cambodia to Vietnam.

Kids and their parents are always fascinated by foreigners. Long noses as we are sometimes known.

Our little cruise ship.

The three step process to get under a foot bridge.

Vietnamese Christmas Spirit for the kids.

A dog only a mother could love? No. On this small street, everybody knows and loves this little fellow.

Quail eggs.

THE FOLLOWING ARE EXAMPLES OF THE SIMPLE YET EFFECTIVE MANNER NORTH VIETNAM MADE 1965 - 1973 HELL FOR AMERICAN TROOPS. WITH ALL OUR MONEY, TECHNOLOGY AND TROOPS (50,000+ U.S. solders killed), THESE ARE THE SIMPLE TOOLS THAT MET THE UNITED STATES AT EVERY TURN. We were out of our element and didn't have a good handle on who we were dealing with and paid a grave price.

Here are some pictures on a brighter note.

Sok Phea's New Bio Digester

Sok Phea is my full-time driver, administrative assistant, handler and 'fixer' for two-years now. Besides working for me full-time, Phea runs a small ranch at his home about 20-minutes outside the city center of Phnom Penh, Cambodia where I live. At any given time he has between 25 and 50 pigs, hundreds of fish in a pond and a garden. He, his wife and three children (one in high school, two in college) never go to a grocery store as Westerner's do. They eat what they produce and barter or sell their excess production for cash, rice, sauces, clothes - just about everything else they need.

A couple months ago, I came across a non-profit organization that specializes in turning farm animal waste into natural gas for cooking and lighting. I loved the idea. So did Phea. We did our research, interviewed engineers and contractors and built a Bio Digester at Phea's home. This was Phea's 2009 end of year bonus.

The bio digester is up and running and is more than ample to light Phea's home at night and provide gas for three meals a day. Cost? Including cost over-runs, $460.00. It is a beautiful green thing. Not only that, there are no complex moving parts and by design this bio digester will serve several generations to come.

Here are some pictures of the construction. While not sexy, this simple technology is very important to our earth's future. There are billions of wood fires burning in villages across the globe unneccessarily. This is a viable alternative I support and encourage.