We had a fantastic time exploring Hong Kong and will never forget this fascinating little corner of the world. There is so much here and so many people packed into this little space it’s not surprising why the average building level is about 30 to 50 stories. For so many millions of people, it all seemed to work so smoothly. What was surprising is how much green space there is around Hong Kong and how many Rolex watch stores can be squeezed into one city block. Flying out of Hong Kong we had a great panoramic view of the city and surrounding mountains and Islands below.
After experiencing the somewhat chaotic cities of Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi, Tokyo was a shock to the system. I don’t think we’ve ever experienced a more orderly, polite, respectful or clean city. The people are so friendly and helpful that ones personal safety and well-being when walking about is never even a consideration. Tokyo however can be a bit expensive if you let yourself go and forget to watch the budget. Lots of things to see and do in town but our favourite day was when we took a bus/bullet train tour to visit Mt. Fuji. Often covered in cloud, we lucked out and saw it in its full and splendid glory despite the fact that it was a little on the cool and crisp side. The fish market, the Imperial Palace, many temples and cool shopping districts are great places to explore when walking about this pedestrian friendly city. But, get ready for a steep learning curve when it comes time to sorting out the most complex and complicated metro systems we have ever seen.

Road Ramble:

All good things, and some great, must eventually come to an end. Our amazing twelve month “around the world trip” is about to conclude and we end it with so many things still left on the agenda to do. It seems that the more you see, the more you want to see. As we’ve shifted about from location to location we’ve rarely moved on from one destination to another without having some degree of regret about what we’ve missed. The trip home through Asia-Pacific turned out to be great decision and has really given us the opportunity to encounter a vastly different cultural experience then that of Europe. But, no matter how much time you plan for, it’s never enough and as these final few minutes of this wonderful year-long adventure quickly slip away we find ourselves in shock about how incredibly fast it all went by. We are definitely excited about returning home and seeing family and friends but also a little sad about having to end this addictive nomadic lifestyle… at least for now. Ever mindful of how fortunate we’ve been to have had this opportunity we truly hope that others may be encouraged to take an adventurous little expedition of their own. And, if that is the case, and we can be of any assistance in helping you plan a similar adventure, please give us a call and we’ll share what we’ve learned along the way including ideas that worked and some that didn’t. This will be the final “on the road” post for this particular adventure of ours and I want to thank all those that followed the blog and put up with its shortcomings and quirkiness. Once we’ve reestablished ourselves back home and get settled in I would like to send out one more trip related post regarding the “Nuts & Bolts” aspect of our trip. This post will focus on the facts, figures and some observations that MAY be of interest to some that are thinking of getting away themselves.

We’ve been moving so fast and doing so much lately that it’s been really difficult finding adequate time to prepare my blog material for posting. This update therefore is a hastily assembled collection of photos with a short overview of our recent travels.
We took an interesting tour just outside of Bangkok to see the “Death Railway” with its famous WWII bridge over the River Kwai. We actually had an opportunity to ride the rail on an old, but still actively operating local train. Back in Bangkok we visited the Royal Palace, explored many temples and had a great time around the city before heading off to celebrate the New Year at a very nice resort hotel on Pattaya Bay beach. From Thailand we flew to Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) city in Vietnam. We took a trip up the Saigon river to visit the very large underground complex of war tunnels called Cu Chi that were used for years to battle the US military forces nearby. This very crude yet effective complex was literally an underground city for thousands of determined Vietcong fighters. To pay tribute to the era we stopped in for a few “cold-ones” at the three favoured Saigon watering holes of the 1970’s war correspondents and military commanders. Hanoi was an eye opener. We’ll never forget the crazy suicidal motorbike traffic in both Saigon and Hanoi where crossing a street is not recommended for the faint of heart. A visit to the “Hanoi Hilton” POW Camp and the war museum was an interesting experience and with all these painful reminders around you’d think that the local people would still be bitter but that’s not the case. Almost everyone we came in contact with was fantastic and the service we received was truly exceptional. An overnight cruise on a unique 17 cabin wooden ship on Ha Long Bay was the highlight of our trip to Vietnam. Hundreds of majestic islands floating about casting their reflection on the calm water seemed far too picturesque to be real. The food was fantastic and the boat’s crew made us feel like royalty. This is a breathtaking part of the world that everyone should have the opportunity to see at least once. The four-hour drive to Ha Long Bay through the countryside was also a memorable experience but in a much different way and it was not quite as majestic.
We’ve just arrived in Hong Kong and we’re very impressed with how clean and orderly things are. We plan on exploring this impressively tall city for a few more days before flying off to our final travel destination, Tokyo. If all goes well we should be home in Victoria before the end of the month and we’re really getting excited about that.
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