TRAVEL ADVENTURE JOURNAL

Touchdown!

posted by Carol

November 23, 2011

Hanoi -- halfway round the world to get here. 

An 18 hour 45 minute flight.  Little sleep.  Touchdown in Hong Kong with a two hour layover.  We five made it, the Roses and I!

A walk out on the streets in the dizzying chaos:  motorbikes with heeled ladies, buses, cars, taxis, pedestrians.   Traffic flowing in all directions: motorbikes on the sidewalks and in the street, vendors with stick-stick carriers balancing their fruits.  Book vendors and fresh-fried donut holes and huge soup pots abrew.  Shop doors are open with foodstuffs laid out or closed with air conditioning to cool fine fashions.  Toots and horns beeping everywhere as traffic spins off in all directions.  Electrical wires converge in spider web clumps overhead and attached to building facades continuously.  Tourists are tall and blonde and stand out against the locals.  Ordered chaos.  It works!  No one flattened during our walk.  Why not?  Let's try again.  At the ATM one hundred dollars equals 2,100,000 dong.  A bottle of water for 35 cents. 

Let's see... what's  next?                                                             

Kien, our driver who works at Thao's hotel, picks us up for an hour long ride, threading continuously around motorbikes, buses, trucks and pedestrians...  the entire trip spent agape in the back seat!  Only one slight mishap... to a motorbike.  Why not more?

We arrive at Thao's parent's house, remove shoes, don slippers, and drink honey-flower tea while seated on the emperor's couch - gloriously carved red hardwood furniture, with American TV playing nearby.   Large straw mats laid on the floor and the hot pots begin.  Soup made to order with squid, huge shrimp, beef, chicken, mushrooms, spinach of sorts, rice noodles, and homemade rice wine made specially for the occasion... and Thao's friend Trang, with a friendly smile, keeping the little bowls full.  Two cooks cooking... men and women at opposite ends.  House tour upstairs... four floors with a surprise Buddhist altar atop.  Plumbing ready on the top floor for the next generation.  Exhaustions reigns. 

One day down!

xx

THE SOUTHEAST ASIA TOUR

October 14, 2011

Teresa has never been to Southeast Asia.

She made the mistake of mentioning this last month!

So you can imagine my reaction.  So predictable...

I thought about all the great adventures I've had with Christopher and Katie in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam - trekking in Chiang Mai, the wedding in Luang Prabang, the junk in Halong Bay...

So I put together a "must-see" list and came to the conclusion that we'd need at least six weeks to cover it all!

But after a bit of reality testing, I reluctantly cut back on the list to something that could be doable  in about three weeks!  Well, twenty-four days if you count travel time and crossing the international dateline!

So here's what I've put together:

We'll fly to Hanoi from San Francisco via Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific Airlines (http://www.cathaypacific.com/).  We'll take the Hanoi city tour first then make two side trips, one to Halong Bay (http://sinhcafetravel.com.vn/) and the other to Sapa to explore the hill-tribe region up north. (http://www.vietlandexplore.com/)

We'll then fly to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) via budget airline Jetstar (http://www.jetstar.com/vn/en/home), and check out the Reunification Palace, where the former South Vietnamese government operated, then board the L'Amant Riverboat (http://www.lamant-cruises.com/) for a Mekong River cruise to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, stopping at towns along the way.

From Phnom Penh it's a five hour bus ride to Siem Riep, the gateway to the ancient temples of Angkor Wat.

Two short flights on Bangkok Airways (http://www.bangkokair.com/) will get us to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, where we'll join a trekking tour (http://www.allchiangmaitours.com/trekking) to visit several Thai villages, while sleeping in grass huts, riding elephants and rafting down the river.

Our last stop is Bangkok, a one hour flight south from Chiang Mai, where we'll explore the many temples scattered throughout Banglamphu, plus Chinatown, the Royal Palace and Khao San Road

We'll be joined by both our sons - both seasoned travelers:  Christopher is already a pro when it comes to handling Vietnam - he even speaks a bit of the language, but for Brandon it'll be a novelty - not quite as challenging as India!

Our good friend Carol, an artist who lives in South Lake Tahoe, has also agreed to join us - this should make for some very interesting observations - she so often sees things from such a different perspective.

And it all starts on November 20^th !

TURKEY AND GREECE!

To put together our Turkey itinerary, Teresa and I have been working closely with the most amazing person -- she is Katie Meyer and she is the owner of the Meyer Travel Group: http://www.meyertravelgroup.com/.   Teresa met Katie through her work and was immediately impressed by her enthusiasm and vast fund of travel-related knowledge.  Katie designs tours which she personally arranges and leads utilizing her many contacts throughout Europe, Asia and elsewhere.

Although I usually plan my own travel adventures, when Katie offered to help us put together this trip, the chance to tap into her experience and know-how was irresistible.  She was able to recommend the best hotels in the most convenient locations, at extremely affordable prices.  She also urged us to take the opportunity to add time in Athens and the Greek islands, and after much consideration, we have included an additional week in Greece! 

We will be flying on Delta Airlines from San Francisco, departing July 10th, with a flight change at New York's JFK then nonstop to Istanbul.  From California, the only nonstop flight to Istanbul is on Turkish Airlines from Los Angeles.  I would have preferred this flight, but since this is the height of the travel season I found it impossible to get a reasonably priced flight, and had to settle for the single stop in New York.

We'll be in Istanbul for four nights which should give us plenty of time to see the main sights, including the Grand Bazaar, St. Sophia's cathedral, the Blue Mosque, the Topkapi Palace, the Hippodrome, and a ferry ride on the Bosphorus Strait, with extra time for just wandering and exploring the city. 

To save time we are flying to Izmir - I'm not a fan of long bus rides, and Turkey has several budget airlines, including Pegasus  http://www.flypgs.com/ and Sun Express http://www.sunexpress.com/ which offer exceptionally inexpensive flights within Turkey.

As arranged by Katie Meyer, we will tour the archaeological ruins of Ephesus with local archaeological expert Cingiz Itchen, who has been excavating there for more than 40 years. The following day we will explore the seaside resort and port at Bodrum before boarding a gulat for a four day sailing cruise on the Aegean, stopping at Çökertme, the Seven Islands and Tusla Bay:  http://www.barbarosyachting.com/cabin_charters_turkey.asp .

From Karacasögðüt we will head to Pamukkale, and the next day we will explore Pamukkale, Hieropolis, and Aphrodisias before returning to Izmir.  From Izmir we will fly to Cappadocia to view the bizarre rock formations, fairy chimneys and surreal landscapes, then visit the underground city of Kaymakli .

From Cappadocia we fly to Athens via Istanbul and spend the night at the port of Piraeus, boarding the cruise ship Louis Majesty the next morning, for a four night cruise of the Greek Islands, including Mykonos, Patmos, Rhodes, Crete and Santorini:  http://www.louiscruises.com/

Our final three days will be spent sightseeing in Athens, staying close to the Acropolis at Tony's Hotel: http://www.hoteltony.gr/.  (Yes, there really is a Tony and I spoke with him!)  TripAdvisor rates Tony's at #7 of more than 300 Athens hotels, but you have to make your reservations the old-fashioned way!

I'm hoping that the political situation in Athens settles down by the time we get there!  Suffice it to say we'll be keeping our distance from any angry mobs!! 

We fly back to the U.S. on August 2nd and should be home the next day. 

As our adventure progresses I'll post updates as often as I can , so check back here after July 10th!