PlanPhilly: Planning Philadelphia's Future

Southeast Asia

Thursday, February 11, 12 Noon

PHS Auditorium

Eva Ray and Blaine Bonham’s trip to Southeast Asia in 2008 was more than a year in planning – with a lot of research, and discussions with recent travelers to those countries.   With their partners, Suresh Ghosh and Rick Spitzborg, the middle-aged four of them looked for an interesting trip in comfort.  Not any of them anticipated the exciting adventure and the trip of a life-time they experienced: from the major cities - with the rumbling of hundreds of thousands of motorcycles and scooters at mid-night through the streets of Hanoi after Vietnam won big in soccer, to the tiny villages, travelling on non-existent roads to see the spectacular one-day-a-week market of the Hmong near the Chinese border.  The border crossing by dinghy, slipping down muddy banks to board the boats, and the two day chilly but spectacular trip down the Mekong River, and arrival by boat at the ancient capital of Luang Prabang are experiences for which nothing could have prepared them.  All four took pictures, so they will work hard to show you the best while they tell you much more.

 

J. Blaine Bonham Jr. serves as executive vice president of PHS and founded its urban greening program, Philadelphia Green, in 1974. Under Bonham’s aegis, Philadelphia Green moved from a small, grassroots initiative to the forefront of urban greening in the nation and now serves as a model for programs in other cities.  Eva Ray is a former Education Director at PHS. An Art Historian by training and she has studied Asian Art at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University and have organized several exhibitions of Indian Art and Craft in the Philadelphia area.  She is the chair of the board of the Asian Arts Initiative.