Some of the local kids we met in a village in Cambodia. Very warm and friendly people.

This “bike” is called a rickshaw. The driver gave me a chance to drive him around except the bikes are small and my knees kept hitting the handlebars -ouch! The Lamborghini rickshaw was pretty awesome too.

We were able to get up close and personal with some animals. These elephants in Angkor were the “trucks” of our day. Riding them made you realize how big these things were…

This band comprised of people that lost limbs due to all of the mines that were dropped in Cambodia during the 1970’s.

Believe it or not, this is a “gas station” in rural Cambodia. Most people drive scooters and this is where they fuel up.

This temple in Angkor Wat was a thousand years old but the design and complexity of it was simply amazing!

Taking a well deserved break in Angkor Wat. We put in 15,000+ steps a day!

What an amazing sunset on the Mekong River.

The “Viking Mekong” was the boat we took up the Mekong River through Vietnam and Cambodia. We were served Tarantula (it tasted like a mix of crab and shrimp), crickets (not bad), and frogs (I did not enjoy).

Our tai chi class on the boat…Way harder than it looks!

A bamboo bridge across the Mekong River. This is how people got over rivers and gorges for thousands of years (and still do).

They have street fairs in Vietnam on the weekends where kids get to play with toys.

Two Vietnamese HS students stopped to meet and interview us to practice their English!

Look at this beautiful tree in the capital city of Vietnam, Hanoi.

Outside the Hanoi operations house. Everyone loved having their pictures taken there!

What an amazing time we have had. Such an incredible place.

The Grand Mosque

Originally built in 1900, demolished and built again in 1960. Then it then underwent a further rebuilding in 1998 (to what you see now). The mosque is the hub of Dubai’s religious and cultural life.

Such beautiful architecture…

What a sweet ride.

Cityscape.

Day #3 of our amazing adventure in Dubai.

The beautiful Indian Ocean.

Desert Driving! What a blast!

Gordie Naughton recommended a book I am reading called Countdown to Pearl Harbor. Good book.

Here is an excerpt that I thought was relevant to how things work/don’t work.

“I have been concerned for many years,” he wrote to his boss, Stark, “over the increasing tendency—now grown almost to ‘standard practice’—of flag officers and group commanders to issue orders and instructions in which their subordinates are told ‘how’ as well as ‘what’ to do to such an extent and in such detail that the ‘custom of the service’ has virtually become the antithesis of that essential element of command, ‘initiative of the subordinate.’ ” If officers “are not habituated to think, to judge, to decide and to act for themselves,” King warned, the navy “shall be in sorry case when the time of ‘active operations’ arrives.” It had to “stop nursing them.”

Excerpt From
Countdown to Pearl Harbor
Steve Twomey

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/countdown-to-pearl-harbor/id1091031634?mt=11
This material may be protected by copyright.

Basically, it means giving people direction and letting THEM figure out how to get the job done rather than TELLING them how to do it. Not that any one way is right all the time, but allowing (and unleashing) people’s creative abilities and empowering them to “get ‘er done” brings more thought to the table than just having people be trained monkeys.

I’m sure some may disagree, but something to think about.