Hi. My name is Steve. I don't normally do this blogging thing, but Audrey somehow twisted my arm into doing it. Wives have a funny way of doing that. So here is my first post EVER...

... against my will.

Recently I decided to leave my manipulative wife for a couple weeks and take off to Asia.

Okay, not really. I actually just returned from a business trip to Vietnam and the Philippines.

There were a couple cool things worth sharing:




The Cuchi Tunnels, Vietnam:

We snuck out of Ho Chi Minh City and took a tour of the old tunnels the Vietnamese used against the GI during the war. It was cool, but I can't imagine living down in a space this small for a few months at a time! Crazy...


They had these tiny openings they would use for entrances that were too small for Americans to get in... unless you happen to be a scrawny 5'8" white boy from Utah. It was pretty cool.



Needless to say, this guy was a little better at it than I was.




Wax.




... and what trip to Vietnam would be complete without shooting an M60 machine gun?






Manila, Philippines:

On the last day of the trade show in Manila, a friend I made there offered to take me around and show me the city. We left the trade show irresponsibly early and took off.

He insisted on showing me the temple there. Crazy pretty.




Then we went around the city and rode in what they call "Jeepneys". These were old jeeps left over from the war that they revamped and basically turned into poor men's buses. They're awesome... so long as you're not claustrophobic.




We ate some good food and saw the non-commercial side of town...






We even found the "great and spacious building!"


Manila's a cool place, but there were several times I was just glad I was with a local.

In the end it was a pretty cool trip, very eye-opening. I love traveling and seeing new things. Heck, I usually even love flying. But after a 28-hour journey back home (11 of which was spent with a broken audio panel on my Delta coach class arm rest, and a shouting Japanese kid kicking the back of my seat from Nagoya to Detroit) I was ready to just be home.

Good to be back with a loving wife...

...even if she makes me blog.