Well, we have been in Toronto
2 weeks now and it is strange trying to settle in such a modern city. Everywhere we have travelled has been full of
historical buildings with interesting features and stories behind them. Toronto’s skyline is just full of towering
skyscrapers and their old buildings are few and far between. I think that the Melbourne town planners
should come and visit Toronto and see if this is what they really want for
Melbourne.
Still, it is nice to be in an
English speaking country for the first time since we left Singapore (even if
they do mangle it something shocking). It
is also nice to be able to drink water straight from the tap for the first time
since leaving home. Amazing what we take
for granted.
I thought that it was time to
reflect on our travels and recall some of the highlights of what has been an
incredible journey. I will include both
Michael’s and my views of the places we have visited as invariably two people
experience the same places in their own way and take away their own
interpretation of events.
Happiest Moment
Me – Visiting the bear
sanctuary in Cambodia. Amazing to see
such beautiful creatures being so lovingly cared for after being rescued from
such cruelty.
Michael – Bayon Temple in
Siem Reap looking at an advanced civilisation that had long gone.
Saddest Moment
Me- The Killing Fields in
Cambodia. I still cannot fathom the
horrors perpetrated against their own people.
Michael – Auschwitz seeing
the shorn hair piled up to be made into padding and material
Scariest Moment
Me – being medivaced out of
Vietnam and wondering if this was going to be the end of more than our holiday
Michael – Watching Annette
getting sick.
Funniest Moment
Me – Michael ordering two
bowls of soup at a restaurant in Beijing.
When one bowl arrived it was large enough to bathe in and was obviously
meant to be ordered for a table of eight or more people. Therein followed a pantomime involving Michael
and 4 non-english speaking waiters as he tried to cancel the other bowl of
soup.
Michael – Watching a bear cub
try to get banana and honey out of a rubber toy
Strangest Place
Me– The Kostice Ossuary with
chandeliers made from human bones.
Really creepy.
Michael – Crazy House in Da Lat
Vietnam.
Most Touching
Me – Holding hands with a
gibbon. Such a beautiful animal.
Michael – Stories from Tony
the TUk Tuk driver in Phonm Pehn
Most Awesome
Me – Bayon Temple in Siem
Reap. All of those temples have to be
seen to be believed. The shear scale and
number of the temples is incredible.
Michael – Diving lake Baikal
in fresh water and cold water.
Most Exhilarating
Me - Standing on top of the
Great Wall. Truly amazing as it was one
place I never thought I would see.
Michael – Diving in Koh Tao
Thailand and seeing lots of marine life.
Biggest Surprise
Me – How much Moscow has
changed. The people and shops bear no
resemblance to the colourless, drab and poor that I remember from my last
visit. I have never seen such ostentatious
displays of wealth from the cars people drove to furs and jewellery worn by the
women.
Michael – Tiananmen Square. The
size of buildings in China and being able to retain their perspective in
grandness with roads and pavements also matching the scale.
Biggest Disappointment
Me – Unter Den Linden. I have always wanted to visit there since
learning about this magnificent boulevard in German lessons at school. Unfortunately it was being dug up at the time
of our visit as they are adding yet another underground railway link to the
already superb Berlin network. I shall
just have to go back again. The nerpas
in Lake Baikal were also a disappointment.
They were so fat they resembled bowling balls more than seals!
Michael – None really, all
fun and new
Best Place Visited
Me – St Petersburg. The world’s most beautiful and fascinating
city. (Followed closely by Prague).
Michael – Siem Reap or St
Petersburg, both were fascinating but for different reasons.
Wouldn’t go back there if you
paid me
Me – Mongolia. A filthy, polluted country with major social
problems due in part to high employment.
I have never seen so many drunk people.
Michael – Mongolia, not the
prettiest of places, but at least I can say I have been.
Best Accommodation
Me – Miss Sophie’s Hotel in
Prague. Lovely, modern apartment with
the best cooked breakfasts. Our
apartment in the Marais in Paris was also good.
Michael – Miss Sohpie’s or
the first apartment in Paris
Worst Accommodation
Me – The Happy Dragon
Courtyard in Beijing. Bed was damp and
there was a permanent, strong stench of drains and sewerage coming from our
bathroom. To be fair, wherever we
travelled in Beijing, the smell of drains was ever present.
Michael – Zenobia Hotel the first
hotel in Singapore, good area just an old run down hotel with miniscule rooms.
Best Train Trip
Me – Moscow to St
Petersburg. Fantastic fast, modern train
that travelled smoothly with excellent service.
Why would you fly Aeroflot?
Michael – Trans Mongolian
there was something to see all the way.
Worst Train Trip
Me – Hard to pick. The one from Hoi An to Danang with the
screaming woman was a doozy however the excruciating 18 hour journey from
Danang to Hanoi while being violently ill takes the biscuit. The train guard kept locking the toilet every
time we came to a station (which was frequently), just to add to my fun.
Michael – Enjoyed them all
Michael and I joked before
heading off on our trip that we were looking for an epiphany. I think that my epiphany came when I became
so ill and it was simple really – life is short.
Michael’s epiphany - What’s
an epiphany?
What I have learned
Dingo, our tour guide for
Long Tan, was a boy in South Vietnam when the war broke out. His family lost everything and it has been a
struggle to rebuild a life when there is such discrimination from the
victorious North Vietnamese. He lost a
sister who drowned on a refugee boat, which sank on the way to Australia. He was amazed that Australians have the
freedom and wealth to travel overseas, something that he could only dream
of. He said to us “Honour your ancestors
because they chose a land where you are free”.
I have learned that Australia really is the lucky country.
Michael has learned that the
world is a big place and he should have travelled sooner. He intends to make up for lost time now.
Quotes from Michael
To lighten up after the deep
reflections of the previous paragraph, I have included some classic quotes from
Michael.
“How many hard faced Russian
women do you have here?”
This was Michael speaking to
our tour guide in Irkutsk. To be fair, Michael had just had his first
experience with the Provodnistas on the Trans-Mongolian (they were scary).
“Stop that right now and
speak English”. This was Michael
speaking to the ticket officer in Munich.
Michael had greeted him with “Guten Tag” & the poor man made the
mistake of thinking that Michael could speak German, so responded with a
mouthful of German.
Our estate agent was showing
us around our apartment in the Marais in Paris when he pointed to the lounge
and said “It is, ‘ow you say, sofa bed?”
Michael responded dead-pan,
“Sofa bed”. I thought I was
in an episode of “Allo, Allo!”
Well, that about sums up our
trip. There is so much more that could
be said and many more incidents and places which could be described however I
don’t want to run the risk of boring you all.
I will say that I have already mentally started planning our next trip,
which will go something along these lines:
England – one month (I am
getting this in first as we missed out this time)
France – one month. Paris briefly and then onto the French
countryside taking in the battlefields and wineries
Russia – one month. St Petersburg again (I love that city)
followed by the Golden Ring.
One month in China & Vietnam. This is mainly to see what we missed out on
this time, chiefly the Terracotta Warriors and the panda sanctuary. I also want to see Hanoi although Michael
isn’t keen.
Only a four month trip this
time (5 months is too long to live out of a suitcase). Well, one can dream.
