What I knew about Vietnam in the 1960s amounted to what I saw on the nightly news. I did not want to go there after high school and, because of the luck of the draw, then the winding down of America’s involvement in the war, I didn’t have to. In 2016 I had the opportunity to travel there and experience its culture, landscape and people.

I joined a group of 18 other bicyclists from throughout the United States in a two-week tour, from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, with stops in Hoi An, Hue and Da Nang and smaller villages in between. We saw some of the scars of war...Hanoi prison cells, American planes, tanks and cluster bombs left behind, bomb craters, missing limbs, booby traps in museums and land minds that still explode. Things I had only heard about, but now saw with my own eyes.

While some parts of the trip were by plane or bus, most of these photographs were taken on the ground, close up and personal, eye to eye..."street photography." We pedaled leisurely through small towns and villages, where many of the locals came out to welcome us, flash the peace sign or simply to wave as we passed by. We got at least a glimpse of who they were and how they lived. Their hospitality, their smiles, their small gifts softened the visions of so many years ago and made the visit pleasing, comforting and hopeful...unlike the newsreels I still can recall.

As the tour progressed, I found myself thinking about societal and cultural values, differences and similarities, and wondering whether I would trade places with any of these people, and asking, would they, if they could, trade places with me? These were not easy questions to answer.