Author: Robert

After hitting snooze from our early morning wake-up call we,  reluctantly, got out of bed and took a short drive to the boat pier.  Well – not a pier per say but to the boats pulled onto the shore.  We walked across the dirt/sand beach in the dark to walk a 1 foot plank over the water carrying our luggage.  From one boat to another to reach our destination – the RV Panorama.  The passenger ship was our home for the next 12 hours.  We watched the sun rise and then set again.  In between we enjoyed watching the fisherman and families on the Ayeyarwaddy River.

For us, life on the river was tough – coffee and eggs were served for sunrise.  We were forced to drink cold beer and eat Myanmar peanuts (I may have a problem with the nuts – I could eat my body weight they are so good.)  We were given a fantastic lunch and a sundowner cocktail to enjoy the sunset.  The struggle is certainly real.

After a restful night we were picked up for our tour by our guide.  Fortunate for us the guide we were assigned was one who normally does private photo tours of the country not just simple city tours, she was fantastic.

The city was filled with some of the most fantastic sites we have ever experienced.  The following barely scratches the surface of the beauty that this city has to offer.

At the Mahagandayon Monastery we observed the 1000+ monks line up to receive their second, and final, meal for the day at 10:30 AM (there is no food after noon).

The U Bein Bridge – longest teak bridge in the world 1.2 Km built over 2 centuries ago.

U Min Thonze (or Thirty Caves Pagoda)

The Kuthodaw Pagoda – surrounded by 729 inscribed marble slabs, known as the worlds largest book.

Mandalay Palace – Missy and our guide, San San

Local nun with fallen Buddha image

At the Mahamuni Buddha Temple I was able to go into the men only area, leaving Missy and our guide behind to see the worshipers put gold leaf on the Buddha image.

At the temple we were fortunate enough to witness another Novice Ceremony.  This one was a little smaller than the one we saw in Bagan but still impressive.

Local Life

On our final day we took a boat up the Ayeyarwaddy River to the town of Mingun so we could see the massive unfinished pagoda, which has been ravaged by earthquakes, and the beautiful white Hsinbyume Pagoda.  Our guide arranged to have a local novice walk with us, which added to the scene.

Unfortunately, our time in Myanmar had to come to an end.  We saw so much more than can be put into words or pictures – otherwise this would be even longer.  The beautiful people, amazing history, culture, food, and architecture have made this one of our all time favorite countries that we have visited.

But, as one experience ends-another will begin.  Our next stop is to Pamper some Pacaderms in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Our flight from Beijing was PACKED.  I have never seen an airport so busy at 5:00AM.  Travel during the Chinese New Year tries your patience as the lines to do anything are so long.

But, we made it to Chengdu.  Our health is at . . . lets say 83.2% – good, then bad, then good again.  I think it may be a while before we are completely free from this bug.

Chengdu is best known for the Chengdu Giant Panda Research and Breeding Center.  The Giant Panda has come to symbolize vulnerable species world-wide with only approximately 1,864 Giant Pandas left in the wild and only 266 living in captivity.  Of these 266 in captivity – over half are at the Panda Breeding Center in Chengdu.

It was fun to watch the Giant Pandas eat, play and hang in the trees. The center was flooded with people. There is a lot of pushing and shoving to see the pandas up close as well as to make your way through the park. We learned to be more aggressive in order to make the most of our visit.

Along with the Giant Pandas the park is home to several Red Pandas. They are closely related to raccoons not bears, like the Giant Pandas. Both animals are native to the same areas of the world and both have bamboo as the main part of their diet.

Once we completed a trip through the whole park and had our fill of all the people, we took a shuttle and then the metro back to the old part of the city.

While in Chengdu, we were able to go to one of the Temple Fairs on the last day of the New Year.  Talk about crowds!!!  The fair had wonderful lanterns, lights and great people watching. We were very happy to join in a bit of the New Year’s celebrations after all.

 

We were fortunate enough to be able to attend a Chinese Sichuan Opera.  The Sichuan Opera is a composite performance of many art forms, music, dance, comedy and drama.

Our time in Chengdu and China had to come to an end so we are off to Bangkok, Thailand for some much needed warmth and hopefully be able to kill this bug that has been bothering us for over a week.

 

 

I will begin with the end.  We have spent the last four days in the hotel because one or the other or both of us have had the flu.  It was bound to happen and we are actually lucky it happened in Beijing because this was not our first time here.  I, of course, got the flu first- Missy stood strong for the first 48 hours and then she succumbed.  Now I am at 95% and she is sleeping trying to get rid of this thing.  Makes you really miss home when you are sick.  Chinese noodle bowls are not the same as chicken noodle soup and are a poor replacement when you aren’t at 100%.  At least the hotel had Olympics (in Chinese) and HBO (in English).

The year of the dog started on February 16.  There are parades and fairs in all of the cities and towns in China.  The Temple Fairs, as they are called, have traditional dragon and lion dances, acrobatics, storytelling and more.  We, as you read in paragraph one, did not partake in any.  We did see the decorations all over the country for the last 24 days.  Many Chinese will travel during this time to see their families.  If fact, It is the largest human migration on earth – over 1.3 Billion people travel during the week of the New Year.

The first couple of days in Beijing were great.  We enjoyed some low air Quality Index days before we got sick and had a great time exploring the city.  We took a tour which highlights included the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace, the Forbidden City, the Ming Tombs and the Great Wall of China.

SUMMER PALACE

FORBIDDEN CITY

The Ming Tomb of Changling is the oldest and most important the Ming Dynasty. The gate leading to the tomb is called the “ghost gate.” During the ceremony of the Emperors burial,  his body would be carried through the gate. In the processional all of the workers who built  the tomb would pass through the gate. At the conclusion of the ceremony, all of the workers would be offered as a sacrifice both for religious significance but also to ensure the location of the Emperors body would never be shared. Therefore, the only way they could pass back through the gate is as a ghost. Our guide was very superstitious about it and encouraged us not to walk through the gate in either direction.

GREAT WALL AT BADALING

We visited the most visited part of the Great Wall, Badaling. We chose this because it was different from where we went on a previous visit. It was New Year’s Day and it was packed! In order to reach the top of the mountain you must take a gondola ride. The ticket is 140 RMB ($22.07 USD)per person. Once at the top, we climbed up and down the wall for about 2 hours. Many parts were very steep and hard to navigate with all of the people. However, the views were amazing and we could see parts of the wall that stretched out for miles. Seeing it in person makes you realize why it’s one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

We have been to two different parts of the Great Wall. Given our experience we would suggest if you have to choose only one to visit, go to Mutianyu. It is easy to find a tour to that part of the walk as well. It is much less crowded and they have a luge that you can ride from top to bottom.

Tomorrow, at 4:50 AM, we are off to our final stop in China – Chengdu to visit the Panda Research Center and see these wonderful animals in their natural habitat.

Upon arrival in the Falkland Islands we queued up for our tour.  The tour we chose to Seal Bay was new, only open to the public for 3 months and had no reviews, it was also fairly exclusive with only 6 vehicles allowed onto the private ranch per day – so needless to say we were a little uneasy.  Our fears were quickly put to rest when we were promptly picked up by Sue Luxton a driver for Jimmy Curtis Tours.   We were told to buckle up because we were set for  an amazing adventure to see the penguin rookeries at Seal Bay.  We drove for about 20-30 minutes on paved roads before we got to gravel.  I was thinking that the advertisement was a little false saying a 4X4 off-road adventure.  Sue said not to worry we would soon be truly off-roading.  Off-roading we did – for over an hour we twisted and turned over the peat and mud avoiding the rocks and ponds.  If getting there is half the fun – this was going to be a fantastic day.

Our first stop was at a Rockhopper penguin rookery.  The numbers of penguins were amazing with heaps of little penguin chicks huddling together for warmth.  The Rockhoppers, with their punk rock yellow feathers were happy to pose for us even after we all ran for the Land Rover when the  rain/sleet started to come down.

Our next stop was at the aptly named “loo with a view”.  Where we took a little break and had our lunch.  We then went down to the beach to watch some Megellanic Penguins and some Gentoo Penguins playing in the surf.  The weather was still deciding what to do so we had to protect the camera from the elements.  The penguins did not care at all that we were there and just kept swimming and playing on the beach.

The day continued at a Gentoo rookery where their was tons of Gentoos and one “lost” King penguin.  This rookery was 2 kilometers from the ocean which protected them from any seals that happen to be in the area and were hungry.  It also allowed for some fantastic views of them waddling back and forth to the ocean.

And so the day had to end.  Sue drove through the capital city and showed us the sites and then we had to all say good-bye.

We boarded our ship for a NYE celebration and ended 2017 with one of the most memorable days we have had to date.

Stay tuned the Allen World tour continues with more Penguins in Argentina!!

 

Traveling north from Sicily we flew to Rome and met up with Missy’s mother and her husband for an Italian adventure.  The four of us (The Fab Four) toured the Amalfi coast, Tuscany, and Umbria for 13 days in our Opal Mokka, Sergio the 6th.

The Amalfi coast is known for its beautiful views and quaint little towns.  What people fail to  mention about the Amalfi coast is the roads.  They twist and turn, blind corner after blind corner with the Italian drivers caring little for which side of the road they drive.  I say which side of the road but the truth is in many parts of the road the width is barely enough for one car, let alone 2 with one Italian driver driving at breakneck speed down the middle.

Amalfi is truly one of the most beautiful places Missy and I have ever been.  The rugged coastline with towns and building placed wherever they could fit and the beautiful road carved into the cliff face winding from one town to the next.  Our base of operations was a fantastic villa in the town of Minori.

From our Minori hub we toured the coastal towns of Minori, Amalfi, Positano,  Ravello, Salerno and Maiori.

We visited the city of Pompeii  and saw the beautifully preserved buildings under the shadow of Mount Vesuvius.

The next day we made the drive to the Greek temples of Paestum. We were able to compare them to the Greek temples we visited in Sicily just a few weeks ago, as well as the Parthenon itself in Athens.  We also got to hang out with the Italian President (well sort of). He and Mateo Renzi arrived for a quick visit to Paestum while we were eating our lunch on a park bench. The parade of people walked right past us.

From  Amalfi we made our way to Umbria on a full day drive.  One stopover of note is the little town of Spoleto . Our goal was to visit the winner of the 3 year world competition of the world’s best gelato – Gelateria Crispini. The winning flavor was Pistachio. We sampled that as well as several others.

 

The fall colors in Tuscany were incredible, they changed daily showing yellows and reds all the way up the hills.

Our 17th century villa was a converted tobacco drying loft.  Renovated by an architect couple the loft mixed 17th century charm with modern conveniences.

In Tuscany we did . . . . what you should do in Tuscany.  We visited the charming hillside towns, went to the wineries in Chianti, took a cooking class in Florence, bathed in in the natural hot springs, went to the fall festivals, visited Deruta – the ceramics capital of Italy and enjoyed the beautiful views.

Leaving southern Tuscany we headed to the coastal city of Cinquale, a town on the very northwestern tip of the Tuscan region.  From our home base we toured Cinque Terre, the Carrara marble mines, Pisa and the little towns along the way.

Our time with the Fab Four had to come to an end when we dropped Susan and Ken at the Rome airport, turned in Sergio and took the train to Rome.  That finally catches us up to today.  We are waiting to board our cruise ship for our 15 day Atlantic crossing which ends in Miami on November 20. We can’t wait to see our family and friends in a few weeks.  We will catch everyone up from the USA.

Arrivederci

 

 

Our travels have continued.  The good and the bad of them.  I like ending on a high note so lets start with the bad.

Our trip out of Orlando started like any other day.  The flight was  delayed by 45 minutes but hey, our layover was 4 hours in Dusseldorf so who cares.  The flight was without incident (which is how I like them).

We landed in Dusseldorf and were both exhausted so we found a quite area for a 1 hour nap.  We got up went through passport control to get ready for our next leg.  The gate was listed as B – yep no number following (not a good sign).  You guessed it the flight was canceled – as we mentioned on the last post, Air Berlin had declared bankruptcy so not too surprising.  We were told to collect our bags and go to customer service for

them to rebook us.  The line was stupid long, Universal Studios at Christmas long, people who I spoke to at the front were already in line for five and a half hours.  Not fun.  After a LONG wait we were rebooked 24 hours later and had to spend the night in Dusseldorf.  Not a terrible thing if you hadn’t prepaid for your room in Rome as well.  We decided to make the most of it. Only challenge was we only planned to be in Rome for 3 nights and this surely put a damper on our Italian plans. We did finally make it into Rome after another 1.5 hour delay on our rebooked flight approximately 27 hours late.

Now for the good – Rome.  Even though we had an abbreviated trip we had a fantastic time.  Missy and I haven’t been to Rome in almost 7 years so we were excited because we love the city.  It did not disappoint.  We made sure to go to the Forum as Missy has wanted to go on each of her 2 previous trips but one thing or another has always gotten in the way.  TIP – even though closing times are posted you are not allowed entry after 1 hour prior to closing.  For the rest of our time we went to some of the Roman highlights.

We are now in Johannesburg, South Africa.  We are leaving for the bush tomorrow morning on our adventure tour though the country.  We will have sporadic internet at best (apparently elephants don’t need Wi-Fi) so we will update when we can.

This is truly a beautiful country with a rugged coast line and wonderful mountains.  We flew in on a propeller plane to Podgorica the capital and largest city in the country.  We stayed in a rented flat in the center of town.  The flat was wonderful – clean, well equipped, good A/C and even had a washer to do our cloths.  We walked to the old town and found that it was not a typical European old town, it just was the old rundown part of the city – a little depressing.

City 2 – Budva, or more accurately we stayed on Jaz beach – supposedly a super fantastic beach of the Montenegrin coast.  We were very much looking forward to our first 5 night stay at any hotel since we got of the cruise in Barcelona in May.  Our hotel – advertised as a beach hotel with a restaurant, casino, room service and more.  We were stoked for this relaxing 5 day vacation from our vacation.

So let me paint you a picture . . . We check into the room and the carpet – oh the carpet.  I am not the doctor of my family, that is my father, but the carpet I’m sure is contagious, someone may get Syphilis or some other Dingy Fever disease from the filthy carpet.  Okay, I sometimes can be a little picky on cleanliness so we give them another chance.  We go downstairs for dinner and we are told we have to wait because the chef does not come in until 7:00PM – no problem.  We play some cards and wait.  At 7:00pm a man wearing a stained tank top and smoking a cigarette comes to our table and says “I’m Chef what you want”  no menu, no options.  We order and the food comes.  Apparently cooking chicken all the way through is foreign to this cook  as is washing lettuce.  We are tired and anyone can have a bad day in the kitchen. So we go

to bed.  The next day we walk to the beach.  Oh,  I mean hike for over a mile on the side of the road with no sidewalk and drivers literally trying to run us down for sport.  We pay our ten Euros for a umbrella and two chairs and try to relax.  The family beside us had another opinion on what we should do.  Yelling, screaming and bouncing their beach ball against our chairs.  In one instance of note – the young girl must have told her father that she had to pee.  He, being the fantastic parental figure he is, told her something and next thing we know is she is dropping her pants and peeing right next to Missy,  like 3-4 inches away.  And so ended our relaxing 5 days on the beach.

Checking out and moving hotels was the best thing we could have done.  We left Jaz beach and went to the town of Bar.

Montenegro tried but did not knock us out – this is not the end.  Bar is fantastic.  But more of that next time ….

 

Wow!  Has it really been 100 days already?  We have been asked by multiple people what our favorites are.  So here it is – our top 100 places, memories and events that both Missy and I have put together which have made our trip so amazing.

Our top 10

Best of the rest (in no particular order):

We hope you have enjoyed sharing our memories over the past 100 days. We have visited 22 countries and had such an amazing time so far. We have met some wonderful people along our journey. We are jetting off to Greece for the start of our next 100 days.

Once upon a time their was a dragon.  This nasty beast lived in the caves below Wawel Hill.  He had a hunger for sheep and young maidens.  The legend is that the village ran out of both sheep and virgins and the King promised his young daughter to the hero who could vanquish the beast.  Wave upon wave of brave knights perished at the dragons fiery breath.  One lowly cobbler, named Krak, tricked the dragon by stuffing a sheep full with Sulphur – which ignited inside the dragons stomach.  Krak, of course, married the Kings daughter, became King and built his castle on the dragons lair.  The towns people continued to build a larger town around the new King and named the town  —-   Krakow — after their savior. 

During our visit we also took a day tour to Auschwitz.  The concentration camp, over 70 years later, is still a chilling site. It is a reminder of the worst thing man can do to one another. As they shared with us during our tour, keeping the history of what happened at that site be passed along to future generations and the memories of all those who perished be never forgotten.

After seeing the worst that mankind can do – We visited the Wieliczka salt mines to see some spectacular achievements of both engineering and art.

Leaving Krakow – we are heading south to Austria and Slovakia.