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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