Highlights of Travel to Asia
It has been a long time since I have done an update, but a lot has happened since then. My last post was about our time in Philippines but we left there on February 4, 2020 and it is now March 28, 2020 and we are currently in isolation in Naramata, British Columbia, Canada. To make this manageable I will break down the last two months into three posts: Singapore...
We flew into Manila, Philippines on January 8th. Moire arrived very early on the 9th. We booked a very small room for three near the airport. Moire’s flight arrived at about 4 am but she did not make it to the hotel until about 5:30 am. We told her to message us when she arrived but we never received a message. She got someone to call the hotel and they eventually...
We flew from Hanoi to Luang Prabang, Laos. This was just a quick visit, only 6 days, over New Year’s Eve. We were running out of time given that we needed to get to the Philippines by January 9th when Moire arrived. We had booked a flight from Chiang Mai, Thailand to Manilla on January 8th. So, the plan was December 27th to January 2nd in Luang Prabang; then two days...
I am so far behind in writing my posts… sorry. We took a bus from Phnom Penh, Cambodia to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam on December 8, 2019. The place we stayed in HCM was a good location, central for everything, but a very small room. After we checked in we wandered around looking for a place for dinner. Actually, what we were looking for was a specific ATM that gave...
If you recall, we had to book an onward ticket out of Thailand when we were at the airport in Mauritius. So, we took the bus which we booked from Bangkok to Siem Reap, Cambodia. The bus went from Bangkok to the border where the bus company took charge of getting us through customs. We had done an eVisa but if you didn’t you could do it all at the border upon arrival...
From Mauritius we flew to Bangkok. Actually, we flew from Mauritius to Reunion to Bangkok including a six hour layover in Reunion. Upon arrival at the airport in Mauritius we hit a snag. This is the first time this has happened to us on this trip… and in fact ever. The Air Austral check in lady would not check us in without proof that we had an onward ticket out of...
Several months ago we did a cruise along the Norwegian fjords and up to Svalbard. On that cruise, one of the waiters was from Madagascar. We asked him tonnes of questions and our desire to visit Madagascar began to grow. Getting there is expensive though; especially as we started to look at flights to island hop including Seychelles, Reunion and Mauritius. These are...
Good morning from Aqaba, Jordan. Down at the south end of Jordan, Aqaba is a port town on the Red Sea. We are very close to Eilat, Israel and in fact directly across the bay is Israel. To the south about 26 kilometers is Saudi Arabia. This may be the closest we ever get to Saudi Arabia as they are not open to tourists… not at this point in time anyway. Maybe at some...
Kerala Frustration and Craziness We are now out of India. In my last post, we were on an overnight bus to Cochin. I had booked a week long tour with car and driver while we were in Bangalore. I paid for a deluxe package which meant that our hotels would be a little better and would include breakfast, air conditioning and wifi. I guesswe could not truly experience...
Hampi Birthday Nicola and Many Bangalore Returns In my last we had just arrived in Hampi after a night bus… quite a horrid experience. I am now writing soon to arrive in Cochin after another night bus. Another airborne experience but perhaps not as bad. It is a long story why we took another night bus to get here but nonetheless we did. When we arrived in...