About
Farpoints Vietnam is the brainchild of a Vietnamese-American couple who are educators in the US.
Hien Nguyen Larson fled Vietnam in 1980 with the “second wave” of boat people. She made it to the US after a harrowing year bouncing between refugee camps all over Indonesia. Landing in Los Angeles without knowing a word of English, she is a testament to our “land of opportunity”. She holds two masters degrees in education, and she is currently a teacher and assistant principal in Truckee, California.
J. Derek Larson is a part-time professor of Biology at Sierra College in Truckee. He has been a teacher and outdoor guide since 1988. He has traveled extensively all over Southeast Asia, including mountaineering expeditions in Tibet and Pakistan.
After marrying in 1998, Hien and Derek moved to Lake Tahoe and have been blending their love of travel, education, and outdoor adventure ever since. After scouting Vietnam first on their own, they began leading trips there in 2002. It was an emotional experience for Hien to return after such political upheaval, but she found a country eager to put the past behind it and a people warm and welcoming to Americans and their entrepreneurial spirit. Hien’s uncle in Ho Ch Minh City (Saigon) is Farpoints’ “point person”. Through “Uncle Loi” and the many contacts developed all over Vietnam, Hien and Derek can provide you with a much more intimate tour experience than most travel providers.
After leading a number of successful tours all over Vietnam and Cambodia, Hien and Derek wanted to build more than just a tour business. They wanted to share travel advice and experience with a wider audience of travelers. This is why they decided to launch their new web-site in a blog platform!
We are near 40 and we have kids, so our travel advice is aimed more at family and small group travel in the middle-end budget range, though we are certainly not strangers to backpacker-style travel. We hope that participation in our blog will bring valuable travel advice to ALL budget ranges.
Hien & Derek Larson with their kids on idyllic Long Beach, Phu Quoc Island, South Vietnam