It’s now Tuesday night Feb 23rd, and I’m relaxing with a nightcap in the lounge at the Sofitel Ho Chi Mihn City (Saigon) Hotel. This is the last night of our cruise/tour and it’s bittersweet. Yes, we’re glad to be going home as we’re a bit tired out from the three weeks of touring, but sad to be saying goodbye to our new-found touring friends, and all that we have experienced in Bangkok, Vietnam and Cambodia.
I wrote several posts, which I will post later, as we cruised down the Mekong River, but unfortunately the internet was abysmally slow or nonexistent on parts of the cruise, so I haven’t had a chance to post our many adventures. Suffice it so say, this trip has been a trip of a lifetime, and every day has been special, with new-found adventures.
We fly back late tomorrow night at 11:05pm, so we’ll probably just hang out at the hotel tomorrow until our shuttle picks us up at 8pm, although DOS wants to go shopping again (not that we have any room left in our luggage!) and we’re planning on having dinner at 5:30pm at SHRI, high atop one of the skyscrapers near our hotel.
I will post photos and details of our travels when I get home. Until then, we have a lot of flying to do! SGN to ICN to ATL to MCO, and we should arrive back Thursday night by 6pm.
It’s been a WONDERFUL trip, and like nothing I could have ever expected or planned for!
Later . . .
Ok, so I didn’t get to post the above post – having to much fun my last night! It’s now 9:06pm Wednesday night, and we’re in the SASCO CIP Lounge in Ho Cho Minh City (Saigon) airport. DOS and I had a really fun day shopping at a lacquer store, and then back at the hotel had lunch with friends from the trip at a fun local pizza place. I will blog later about DOS’s shopping adventure; it was quite hilarious! We had a wonderful farewell dinner for the two of us at a rooftop restaurant near our Sofitel Hotel in Ho Chi Mihn City before heading to the airport at 8pm.
We’re now relaxing a bit before our 11:05pm overnight Korean Airways Boeing 747 flight to Seoul (5 1/2 hours) and then connecting to our long-haul 14 hour flight to Atlanta tomorrow (Thursday morning), and ultimately to Orlando tomorrow (Thursday afternoon).
As I sit here writing this, a bit tired from the 3 week trip, DOS and I are reflecting on the many happy adventures we’ve had. I leave here with a totally different view of the daily life in the Asian countries we have visited, and while we had a wonderful vacation, fell truly blessed to our many things we take for granted at home. We’ve made many new like-minded friends on this trip, and we all feel so fortunate we could take this trip. Travel is not only exciting, but it’s an eye-opener to the world, and opportunity to see the diversity of God’s creation and people. We sometimes live so comfortably in our ‘shell’ of everyday life that we become closed-minded to the outside world. Travel is not about bragging about where you’ve been, but a chance to educate others about a world beyond their own. The people we have met on this trip, both fellow travelers and locals, tour guides, shipboard staff, shopkeepers, children, teachers and others, have all been so gracious in welcoming us to their country and even communities and homes, and we feel honored to have had a small part of it with our travels. We leave here tonight with a bit of sadness for going home, but a prayer of happiness and hope for the people we have met along the way and hope to one day meet again.
I will follow-up on my posts when I get home in a couple days, as some I have written offline, but could not post due to internet speeds and busy ‘touring schedules’.
So for now, I’m signing off, and will soon be flying home. What a trip, what an adventure, and thank you God for allowing us to come on this journey, as well as having such a wonderful and peaceful life at home. Go in Peace! Thank you!