C’est Fini

Now, as we prepare to land, I am looking out my window and seeing the United States. We have gone around the world, not in 80 days, but in 26, and this last leg, from Dubai to Washington D.C.  is actually a third of the whole way around the world.

I think that what will remain in my heart and mind is just how incredibly fortunate we are. Not just to be able to make this trip, but to be who we are; to live how we live; and to have family and friends who join us on our travels, either in person or through their support and enjoyment of the stories and pictures we share.

As I wrap up this edition of the “Drive by Tourists” I want to share with you the observations, likes, and dislikes, that we have been talking about  among ourselves.  We shared a great adventure and without a doubt, Japan was the favorite of all of us. 

I think Phil and I were amazed at how the positive things we remember from our childhood still remain, such as how safe this country is. We remember the freedom we had as children because of this safety, and it remains that way today. You still see young children out and about on their own, personal property left unlocked in public, and the “honor” system everywhere. People respect each other and show it in their everyday lives. Ordinary people don’t carry guns, or leave their homes worrying about getting shot in random or mass shootings. 

This respect for others manifests in their conservative, modest manner of dress; in the cleanliness of the whole country; in the lack of visible trash or trash cans; in their courtesy; and in their lack of homeless people. The streams and rivers are clear and clean and their gardens are so beautiful that they are copied all over the world. 

Japanese technology leads the world.  Public transportation is user friendly, readily available everywhere, on time, and innovative. There are vending machines everywhere selling bottled water, soft drinks, energy drinks, and even beer. The rear view mirrors in cars are high definition video cameras.

And deserving of special recognition are the Smart commodes located everywhere, always immaculate and well maintained.

Japan even has Wagyu beef, which is almost indescribable in its flavor and tenderness. 

Japan has always been a beautiful and friendly country and in spite of their overcrowding, among the most civilized in the world. Just an amazing place.

Other things that we liked and disliked in Thailand, Cambodia, and  Singapore

Likes:

Nice people, friendly, helpful everywhere

Lush tropical vegetation  

Chaing Mai is cleaner than Bangkok and w/o as much obvious poverty

All our hotels were very nice and not terribly expensive

GRAB (a better version of Uber) was everywhere except Dubai

Taxis everywhere were honest and cheap 

Riding in the vintage Mercedes limousine at our Chaing Mai hotel 

The excellent driver, Kim Peng and the car at Siem Reap

Woaht, pronounced Wat, our guide at Anchor Wat

The Siem Reap hotel’s tuk tuk and Sambo the driver.

Check in process with refreshing drink in the Kyoto and Siem Reap hotels

Thailand and Cambodia are very inexpensive to visit 

Spirit houses in Thailand 

Good excursions everywhere  

Fresh fruits everywhere and the new fruits we tried in Thailand and Cambodia 

Elephants in Thailand 

ICON SIAM, the gigantic department store in Bangkok 

The traditional dancing on dinner cruise in Bangkok

Beautiful traditional clothes

Not wasteful people (salt farms and using every bit of the pig) 

Lots of really long moving sidewalks in airports and the free baggage trolleys

Getting sent to priority lanes because I looked old

Singapore’s ethnic neighborhoods 

Singapore Apple Store

Ice water and frozen towels on hot excursions 

Written language in Thailand is lovely 

Being met by Thai air officer and escorted to where we needed to be, when changing      

        planes in Bangkok headed to Singapore. We wouldn’t have figured it out  by   

        ourselves

Changi Airport in Singapore is so well organized

Showers outside of tubs w/drain in the floor everywhere 

Economy class gets fed even on short flights and even on hour prop flights

Emirates First Class - simply unbelievable.

Didn’t Like:

Namaste bows incessantly - although I found myself doing them in Dubai and on 

          Emirates Air

Not being able to drink tap water in Thailand or Cambodia 

Bangkok is dirty

Hotel rooms with windows or glass doors into bathroom 

Lack of charging stations at airports & hotels 

Shower wands 

Massage or pedicure in Cambodia, even though the massage was free 

My iPad battery died

Toilets everywhere else compared to Japan

Not enough western toilets out in country in Thailand 

Food got repetitive 

Excessive Gold and jewels in temples

Thai King and all his pictures

Lost my cuticle trimmers and thread snippers at security after multiple airports    

            cleared them

Thai is a hard language to learn. We only “got” one word - thank you

Singapore’s bidet toilets 

 Nearly the end

Our last stop on what has been an amazing and incredible journey was Dubai — and for the first and only time on the whole trip, we ran into a glitch in reservations. We had booked an evening trip to a desert Bedouin camp for dinner and a show, preceded by dune bashing. We never got picked up and when we called, the vendor was rude and lied about our reservation. Oh well, we decided. We probably had no business going dune bashing anyway! So we rebooked a nice sedate dinner cruise and they didn’t pick us up either. That was also very likely for the best, since it was advertised as being from 6:30 to 8:30 and turned out to be 8:30 to 10:30. Our bodies were still on Thailand time and it would have been 3 am to us, by the time we got back to the hotel. 

We did get lucky when we first arrived at our hotel. We had to wait in line a little too long to check in, and when the desk clerk apologized I assured him that it was fine and don’t worry about. He then upgraded us to a suite, with balcony and a great view because we had to wait. Then he noticed that we have VIP and gold star status with Expedia and said, “oh you were entitled to the upgrade anyway” . I don’t book through Expedia but I guess Hotels.com must be part of them. The funny thing is that although we are heading to the airport tomorrow night, we booked it for tonight and tomorrow so we can leave the luggage here and hang out till time for the chauffeur to pick us up, and I just redeemed points for the two nights. 

The next day was our only day to see Dubai, so we pre-ordered our Hop On Hop Off tickets with admission to the Burj Khalifa.  We took an Uber from the hotel, intending to be dropped off at the main entrance to the Dubai Mall - the base stop for the hop on hop off. Instead, the driver took us into a deserted parking garage, up to the 6th level and told us that’s where he was dropping us - and the mall wasn’t even open then. We finally got him to the correct spot and that’s when he confessed that it was his first day on the job. 

After reading about The Museum of the Future, we decided to make that the first stop. With my usual brilliant planning, I went on line to order our tickets. You know, just so we wouldn’t have to stand in line. Ummmm, next available - end of the month. So much for that idea. 

  

We ended up only getting off the bus twice. The first time was to go to the top of the Dubai Frame and that’s where we very nearly committed a major faux pas. Looking for toilets we both headed for our respective doors only to realize in the nick of time that instead of toilets they were men’s and women’s prayer rooms. 

 

The Dubai Frame was built to make a gigantic picture frame of the city. A huge rectangular building, empty in the center, has elevators in both vertical sides, and across the top are windows and a glass floor. Cindy and Amy had done a glass floor tower in Bangkok, Brian had no trouble on this one. But one of my feet accidentally stepped on it, I looked down and nearly passed out.

The other stop was the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. Our tickets were for 1:30, but we did arrive early so we decided to check to see if we could move our appointment up. The entrance to the observation deck is in the Dubai Mall.  With no clear idea which way to go, we set out by inadvertently taking the long way from the Mall entrance. By the time we finally found it the entrance to the Burj Khalifa, I was somewhat bedraggled and worse for the wear. Not to mention my dehydration and incipient heat stroke. But fortunately (in this case), everything shows on my face. That, plus just being old, made the staff take one look at me and pull us out of line to send us as priority through security and up to 124th floor. After my vertigo at the Frame, I was nervous about being so high, and the building is thin and needle - like  and doesn’t look steady and solid. But surprisingly, it wasn’t at all scary, no doubt because it doesn’t have a glass floor. 

  

The best thing to me about the Burj Khalifa is the light show it puts on at night.

                                         

And speaking of looking old and haggard - this was the second time that I’ve been in a line looking old and tired, only to be rewarded by a diversion to the head of an empty priority line. Being haggard pays off, apparently. Of course the two times I was diverted to the restroom for the elderly and handicapped was a bit insulting. But hey, I may have discovered a great way to travel!

 

Dubai is a bit overwhelming. There are tall, new buildings everywhere with the most inventive architecture that I’ve ever seen. Yet unlike other cities, we saw no slums, no indications of extreme poverty. There are a multitude of different types of souks such as the gold souk, the spice souk, the fabric souk, and some crowded streets full of differing types of shops, but none of these places reek of the poverty seen in many places.  There are also “heritage neighborhoods” and they all look like Disney stage sets, or places in Epcot. Dubai is a very clean and wealthy city, with several malls that carry very upscale, foreign, merchandise. The Mall of the Emirates has an indoor ski slope, another has the Dubai Aquarium and the entrance to Burj Khalifa. There are man made islands; one is shaped like a giant palm tree. Another holds the iconic Burj Al Arab, a hotel shaped like a sail. 

                 

                                                                         

But over it all is the 100 degree heat, which zapped all my strength and energy, but doesn’t seem to faze the multitude of devout men who dress in floor length, long sleeved white robes and large headscarves, while the devout woman are completely covered in black robes and usually heavy veils that often cover every thing except the eyes. I can’t understand how they do it. By mid afternoon, before we could complete the second bus route, I was feeling as bad as Brian had been on the elephant. Heat stroke, dehydration,

dizziness left me exhausted and sick, so we abandoned the bus and caught a cab. 

A lovely, very air conditioned cab, and that’s when we had our last interesting conversation with a Pakistani driver. Things must be beyond horrible in Pakistan. This man earned a degree in electrical engineering, couldn’t find work, became a mathematics schoolteacher for the government, but couldn’t support his family on his meager salary. He came to Dubai and the only job he has found is driving a cab. This is earning him a visa, but he hasn’t been able to afford a trip home to see his family in over 2 years. Those of us lucky enough to be born American and able to live and work in our native land can’t begin to imagine the misery that so many people all over the world share. 

 Siem Reap 

In the last entry I mentioned how tired we are. Part of that is cumulative, and part is that today is Angkor Wat day. We arrived in Siem Reap, Cambodia last night, and it was “different” from our lives in America from the start.  When is the last time any airline from the U.S. served a complete hot meal to everyone including the economy section in a flight less than 2 hours long?  And I can’t remember when I last exited a plane by an outside wheel up staircase because the planes park out on the tarmac. The Siem Reap airport does not have jetways so tomorrow we will be boarding by climbing back up those stairs.

We are in a charming hotel, with an open air dining room, lush, tropical landscaping, a beautiful infinity pool, and a spa. We each get an hour free massage and because it’s free and his dad taught him never to pass up a freebie, Brian has decided to get his first professional massage this afternoon. 

Last night, the hotel tuk-tuk took us to a night market and then on a ride around town. Siem Reap comes alive at night; markets everywhere; everything lit up; hordes of people and motorcyclists (mostly women); very colorful; very exciting; very vibrant; and very alive. 

The best way to see Angkor Wat (which is the main reason to come to Siem Reap) is to go at sunrise to take pictures as the sun rises behind the huge temple and the reflection appears in the water of a pond that is in front of the actual temple.  We had the hotel arrange a guide, a driver, and an air conditioned car that came with icy cold water and frozen wash cloths each time we re entered the car. Because breakfast is included and we would miss it, the hotel packed our breakfast so we could take it with us. 

We left the hotel at 4:45 am and even that early the tourists just kept pouring in. Although it was still dark, the heat and humidity steamed up my glasses. It was a long  walk from where we were dropped off and an even longer one back to where our driver had to park. Because of the shear size of this temple and the fact that there are lots of stairs, only Brian went inside. I sat outside where I kept busy looking at things like the two buildings in the courtyard. They were libraries way back when, and this temple, Angkor Wat had four more libraries inside. The monks had no paper so they wrote on palm leaves. And then the hot air balloon came into view as did a huge tribe of monkeys with new born babies.   

 

                                                                                     

                                                                                                                             

We went to another temple and drove by lots more, before getting to Ta Prohm the one that was the real reason to add Cambodia to the itinerary. This is the famous one with the huge trees and jungle all around. We explored this one thoroughly and by the time we finally got back to the car, neither one of us could stay awake on the drive back to the hotel. And it was only 9 am when we returned.

  

 

 

The rest of this day we are free to nap, lounge around, catch up with this blog, read, relax, and get our massages. Tomorrow we return to Bangkok for a night at an airport hotel. Day after tomorrow we start our Emirates finale to this long anticipated trip.

SINGAPORE 

We have been on the go continuously since we left home nearly 3 weeks ago, and lately this has caused me to skip adding to the blog. It feels like I’m tired all the time, which is a good thing since I’m walking a lot. Today, however is the first day that Brian is as tired as I am. 

In spite of ourselves, we did get entry into Singapore. We had heard that Singapore is kind of boring and that there isn’t anything to do. We didn’t find that to be true at all. There is much to like in this city that is also a country. 

Although Malay is the official language, only about 13% speak it. English is the primary language and that’s a relief to those of us who struggled in Japan and Thailand. There are lots and lots of tall, pretty, and modern buildings, but there are also definite ethic neighborhoods like Little India, the Muslim section, and Chinatown. Orchard Road is an upscale shopping area, with one huge mall after another, but these malls aren’t like American malls. From the stores to the restaurants and food courts it’s like a miniature U.N.  This part of town Is near the areas where the wealthy have homes and these are definitely not the stores to look for refrigerator magnets and shot glasses. 

We found those in a neighborhood where the Muslims were next to Little India, in a store unlike any I’ve ever seen. The Mustafa Center has 3 or 4 floors of densely packed groceries and everything else you could possibly imagine. Many of the foodstuffs, and dry goods came from India and were not for tourists hunting trashy souvenirs. But they did have a section of souvenirs and we found exactly what we were seeking. The whole store was packed with Indians and Muslims and just listening to the conversations around me was anything but boring. There is also the whole Marina Sands area, a recreational island, and a huge tropical botanical garden. Nope, nothing boring about this place.