The nature of blog posting is “LIFO” or “last in, first out.” When more than one topic is discussed non-sequentially, the resulting entries can seem disjointed an out of context. This is why,on the top and along the side we have an index. The index serves to group entries by subject matter and is sequential in terms of the course of our trip. So, if you start at La Mesa and end in Kuala Lumpur, you will end up covering things in order. And, any new entries as we are now doing some mopping up of places we missed will beindex

Travel Tech
It would have been impossible to manage such a complex itinerary, all the currency converions and time zone changes, all the unexpected plan changes, and even driving route selection without our smart phones, iPads, a half dozen cables, chargers, converters, adapters, and a few amazing apps. “TripIt” stored our entire itinerary (flights, hotels, confirmations and record locator numbers, contact numbers, payment information, inclusions/exclusions, layover details, connections, etc.) in chronological order. It sent us reminders when it was time to check in, and informed us of flight delays and gate changes even before they hit the airline service desks. 

By buying a chip for the iPad in Australia, we were able to engage Google Maps, which provided real time traffic information and re-routed us around construction and traffic delays, cutting hours off of our travel time. And, at the airport in Bangkok, Andy discovered yet another Google app that can translate signs from non-Arabic languages such as Chinese or Thai into English. (Note: Although tech was an invaluable travel aid for us, it was also invaluable to have paper copies of e-ticketed itineraries as well, since many airlines and hotels weren’t as sophisticated as we were and seemed to only trust actual pieces of paper. The night before we left, I decided to print screen shots of all our reservations. Boy, am I glad I listened to that little “just in case” voice in my head…

We also found the new e-passports invaluable. They are barcoded and allow one to skip immigration lines and get processed at kiosks in advanced countries such as Australia. In the U.S., our Global Pass trusted traveller cards in combination with the new passports saved us from waiting on long lines, filling out forms and going through screenings. Some airports triple screen now, so anything that simplifies the process is well worth it.

Low/no-cost phone plans
One doesn’t think about the cost of phone calls overseas until one finds oneself on hold with 3 different airlines for 2 hours each at $2 per minute. Andy’s prescience in setting up a 20 cents a minute plan with T-mobile before we left the U.S. really paid off. Somewhere in Tasmania he found a way to beat even that with wi-fi calling that was free, although it didn’t work all the time. One thing we didn’t think of, however, was the fact that our mobile number was useless to others. We might have been able to call on the cheap, but locals in foreign countries had to pay overseas rates on their phones to call us. This was a significant realization when trying to get a live person to return our phone calls relating to our lost luggage. Once we understood this, we could work around it, but it took a few days for that particular light bulb to go off.

Travel insurance
After this trip, we would never consider travelling without it. While purchased mainly to cover a real medical emergency, the brush with even a small medical problem in Slovakia plus the cascading effect of just one cancelled Etihad flight that resulted in 4 lost days (and affected pre-paid cars, hotels, ferries, as well as baggage delays)–well, let’s just say this trip made us believers. Although i still have to do the math, I suspect our policy paid for itself and then some. A caveat…be aware of coverage limits such as only one incident per trip, low daily maximums and exclusions (anything not specifically stated isn’t covered). Example: Before we left, we learned that our policy would cover us medically if we contracted Ebola, but would not allow us to cancel if an Ebola outbreak occurred at any of our planned destinations (plague was not specifically listed as a covered cause of delay/cancellation.) Don’t you just love insurance companies?

Credit cards
Most credit cards levy a 3% surcharge for foreign transactions. Plus, some overseas vendors tack on an additional 3% for Amex or non-Maestro (the European equivalent of MasterCard) cards. Plus there are hefty fees charged by your friendly U.S. banks/credit unions for ATM use. All of these fees really add up. We found the Barclay Arrival Card to be invaluable on this trip and used it, or cash, exclusively. It does not charge any foreign transaction fees, provides double points for travel expenditures, plus credits any accumulated points as cash back. I think we only had to hit an ATM only once (our compensation from Etihad for delayed baggage helped out too).

Time Zones
It is important to get a handle on times zones, and how they affect body rhythms (all of a sudden, with hardly any warning,you keel over into your soup), med schedules (someone needs to invent an app for that!) and cancellation policies (one is expected to provide sufficient cancellation notice based on that location’s time zone, not the one you happen to be in. British Air expected us to advise them of flight delays before they even happened in our time zone.

Over the course of our trip, we’ve been to three Muslim countries: Turkey, Abu Dhabi, and Malaysia. Meanwhile, the French, Belgians, and Germans have been battling terrorist incidents. There is a disconnect. The people we have met–and I’m not just talking about those in the service industries catering to western tourists, but those we meet as fellow visitors and citizens on the street–have been unfailingly friendly, kind, and helpful. Sure, you can’t see a smile behind a burka, but you can hear it in a voice or the crinkle of a smile in the eyes. 

I’m not saying my individual observations are more accurate than our media, necessarily. But, I don’t have a political agenda to push, a constituency to please, or an axe to grind. From the outside looking in, it would appear the U.S. media, at least, is promoting confrontation. 

Are there protesters upset with the depiction of their prophet by non-believers? I haven’t seen any, but the world is a large place, and I am sure that out of millions of Muslims there are hundreds in the streets for the cameras. But, anyone see any anti-Christ cartoons lately? Wonder why? Maybe we have our taboos too.

I’m beginning to think that governments and media prejudice their citizens and consumers for their own ends. They’re not the statesmen or newsmen they pretend to be, but ranting Archie Bunkers and we all are too disconnected from the rest of the world to realize it.

One of the main reasons we travel is to shake up our take on things. Beliefs, expectations and assumptions that we leave with are often not the same ones we return with. In no particular order, the following stand out as things we have observed during this trip that have the power to change how we think, who we are and what is important to us.

1) In the past, wherever our world travels took us–Europe, Asia, South America, Africa–we always bumped into tons of Americans (predominantly from New York, California and Florida), as well as Germans, Brits, and Japanese. On this trip, in addition to Brits, who are still among the world’s most avid travellers, we’ve encountered mostly Australians (oddly enough from the less-populated Perth, not Sydney), Canadians and Chinese. The smattering of Americans we’ve met were mostly from the midwest. I don’t think we’ve come across one northeastener yet. Even with a few Californians and Floridians thrown in, the U.S. has been way under-represented this trip. We found this very strange. Is there a shift in the travelling population?  Everywhere we visited, the locals spoke about Chinese travellers wanting to buy up everything from art to jewelry to wine to real estate. There seems to be a great deal of wealth in mainland China seeking a home abroad. And American influence appears to be waning. Hmmmm…..

2) Speaking of wealth, the disparity been the haves and have nots, especially in travel, has become positively alarming. Basically, one is either a prince or cattle. It’s not just about leg room, in flight meals or flat bed seats anymore, although all of these make long haul flights more tolerable. These days, a Business Class ticket literally gets you to the head of the line at check in, at security checks, at customs and on transfer buses. And it can be a matter of survival when things go wrong. Witness our saga as “paid” Economy Class passengers vs. “free” award ticket First Class passengers during the 4 days we were at the mercy of Etihad and Qantas. Our free ticket was our entry pass into prince-dom and made a huge difference in how (and how quickly) we were rerouted; how we were fed, sheltered, and transported to and from airports; the amount of cash provided for “pain and suffering” and even lost luggage delivery. I can’t forget the crowd at the Etihad counter in Abu Dhabi when the plane arrived too late to make any connecting flights. It was so chaotic we fully expected to see flapping chickens and squealing pigs emerge from the mob. Instead, we waved our magic ticket and were whisked away to the Etihad lounge to be soothed with liquor, a lavish international buffet, a shower if desired, and an assigned airline rep to rearrange our lives while we relaxed.

Andy and I googled the cost of a First Class ticket from Abu Dhabi to Sydney–a staggering $20,000 per person. I suspect Business Class isn’t much more approachable (which might explain why there were so many shieks in the lounge with us). Alas, when our miles run out, we will once again become part of the herd. However we will certainly spring for lounge acess on long or multiple leg trips–a compromise which seems to be well worth it, if only to escape even briefly from the madding crowds.

One more observation on money and travel. In Tasmania, we met a Singaporean couple who were heading off to Cradle Mountain, where we had just spent 3 glorious days hiking in the national park. To save money, they had opted to stay in a small town 40 kilometers outside the park. That decision would likely cost them the entire park experience. Those 40 kilometers will take them over 1 1/2 hours to drive each way, on a narrow 2-lane road with dozens of switchbacks, hairpin turns and the constant threat of wallabies, wombats and wandering cows around each one. Add fog, nighttime and the threat of rain to the mix, and that drive will be the last thing they will want to take after a day hiking in the park. What a shame–less than $100 per night more would have made all the difference. We dodged many such bullets in planning this trip, often opting not to do something at all if we couldn’t do it in a way that would maximize the experience. From this point forward, I will always think of that couple when budgeting a trip.

3) Birds, animals and flowers. Given that it is summer in Australia, I was surprised at the dearth of flora and fauna, both in number and variety. We came across crows, currawongs and ducks, a wallaby or two, sheep, and cows. Plant life consisted mostly of agapanthus, roses and hydrangas and huge stands of every kind of euculpytus one could imagine. Of course, in wine country, vineyards went on for miles. But so far, that’s about it. Drought and changing weather patterns worldwide may be responsible.

4) Stuff. We wisely limited ourselves to what we each could carry/lug without help–namely one suitcase and a backpack apiece. Given that we had to accomodate a range of dress codes (from a fancy New Years Eve gala to hiking gear), and all types of weather, from from frigid cold (Iceland), rain and snow (Europe), and heat/humidity (Malaysia), packing was no small feat. (Especially when one travels with someone who has big feet!) While we used practically everything we brought, we could have gotten away with far less. This became apparent after 4 days with no luggage. Packing and repacking and repacking yet again got old real fast. I found we yearned for simplicity when it came to stuff and don’t need much variety at all when it comes to things.

5) Experiences. The opposite seems to be true when it comes to experiences. People we met asked us which was the best part of our trip. As we near the end, we’ve concluded that no one experience stands out as much as the variety of it all…zigging and zagging between elegant restaurants, art museums, pizza joints, Viennese waltz lessons, hiking trails, opera and symphony houses, midnight jeep adventures, boat cruising, road trips, historical and geological side trips, wine tastings, organ recitals, city touring and cosy cabins in the woods. The ability to rough it and luxuriate with equal pleasure is what has made this trip so memorable and special for us.

6) Resiliancy, socialability and compatability. Being gone for such a long time, we’ve had to become pretty adept at dealing with unexpected detours. And we’ve had to interface with a wide range of people from very different backgrounds. This has been far easier than we expected, given that socialability isn’t something that comes naturally to either one of us. However, our eclectic interests, perverse sense of humor and travel background have seemingly turned us into charming conversationalists. Who would have thunk! We’ve had engaging discussions with a farmer from Oklahoma, an Austrailian CEO of a space technology company, a fusion glass artist, a gay horticulturist and his professional photographer partner, to name a few. And we quickly bonded with two Aussie couples from Perth, with whom we had the pleasure of dining (and closing the bar) on the riverboat every day. We exchanged emails and have promised each other to meet again at our respective home turfs in California and in Perth. We fully intend to live up to our part of the pact. As far as compatability goes, after 40 years of marriage, and 35 years working together, you’d think compatability between Andy and me would be a given. But on this trip, we realized how much of a team we really are, and how well our interests, skills and personalities mesh together and are complementary. It is surprising how rarely we snapped at each other, how patient and forgiving we’ve been with each other, and how much we have enjoyed all of the different experiences, even, and perhaps especially, the ones that tested us. 

As I said when I began this installment, travel broadens, but it also has the ability to narrow and focus one on what’s most important. And travel, for us, is inthe top 3. We would do this again in a heartbeat.

The nature of a blog is posting-date sequential, but my writing is tends to be more stream-of-conscious in terms of when I write about things. Some have emailed me asking why certain places were left out. Just haven’t gotten to them yet. The menu will let you choose which areas you wish instead of being subjected to the tyranny of post order.

P.S. Food and entertainment portions of this blog are Marcia’s responsibility and She promises to stop eating soon enough to start writing.

Let’s put an end to squinting. Based on some emails I received, some of you might not know that if you click on a photo it will enlarge to fill your screen.

Well, it was supposed to take 40 nights to celebrate our 40th anniversary although, as in the past, trips like this are actually corporate retreats to determine the company’s course for the upcoming year. But going around the world with the international dateline to contend with, airlines to battle, and our inability to add correctly, we got 38. Of course, with a total of 19 flights to catch, it might just end up being 41 nights.

Things really begin in Iceland in mid-December. With only a few hours a day of sunlight, it is the perfect place to view the northern lights. Or get buried in the snow.

Then on to Munich and Passau Germany where we pick up a Uniworld 10-day Christmas to New Year’s boat trip down the Danube. We’ll visit Vienna, Saltzburg, and Budapest among other places. Great dining, music, museums glowing in holiday lights and decorations.

We debark at Budapest and fly to Istanbul en route to Abu Dhabi, en route to Sydney Australia.  This is what happens when you use miles instead of money to book flights.

We’ve been on the mainland before, so this time, we go to Tasmania for hiking (working off some of that weight from all those dinners on board the boat). Maria Island, Cradle Mountain, and Freycinet national parks are the main sights.

Then, off to the Barossa Valley wine country near Adelaide to sample some of Australia’s best wines and food. We’ve been there before–that’s why we’re going back. It’s like Napa and Sonoma, but with an Aussie accent, and a more generous pour.

Lastly, on our circuitous way home,  we’ll spend a couple of days in Kuala Lumpur, home of the Petronas Twin Towers. It’s actually the sixth most-visited city in the world. We’ll be there to see why.