Our China Southern A-320 from Bangkok to Guangzhou was a very smooth ride. The Business Class section had only two rows and one side of one of them was totally unoccupied. The two hour flight was uneventful and well attended. The cabin attendants did not speak much English, but helped with the pronunciation of the Chinese phrases that our grandsons provided in advance. As most of you are aware, all 10 of our grandchildren are extremely good looking, intelligent and well-mannered. Two of the boys, Dillon and Burleigh, are taking Chinese in their high school. It’s natural that they&rsq [View Full Entry]

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We flew to Phuket (pronounced POO ket), Thailand and were picked up by car from Phi Phi Island Village Resort & Spa for the 1 hour trip to the seaside and to await the speedboat to take us to the island. Since our flight was early and the boat didn’t leave until 1:30, we had a chance to have lunch at a little seaside restaurant where we were the only people who spoke English. The menu was in Thai with pictures and English subtitles. We ordered what we thought would be one moderately spicy dish (Chicken Cashew) and one bland dish [View Full Entry]

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We left Siem Reap at a reasonable hour on Tuesday on a Bangkok Air A319 and arrived in Bangkok mid to late morning. Waiting there to meet us after we cleared customs and immigration was our tour guide, Chob Panma, who came highly recommended by our friend, Kent. Chob had everything well in hand and escorted us to a private air-conditioned (very necessary in Bangkok’s heat) vehicle for the ride downtown. He first took us to the Imperial Palace and Museum and the adjacent temple where he explained the history and significance of the buildings and the grounds. Although this is [View Full Entry]

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Tuesday marked what was to be the longest, hottest, most grueling day of touring to date. Our tuk-tuk driver and our guide picked us up and started the 20 minute trip to the Temples of Angkor. First stop was Ta Phrom (sounds like “tap room”), the only temple with trees growing around the stones of the ruins. It’s not that this is the only place where that occurred; it’s the only place where the archaeologists doing the restoration have decided to leave the trees in place rather than removing them. The spung tree is an interesting variety. As it grows the [View Full Entry]

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Bright and early (for us) Monday morning we started off for the tourist town of Siem Reap in north central Cambodia. The sole reason for Siem Reap’s existence is the tremendous number of Buddhist and Hindu temples nearby. Most of them date from the 10th to 12th century AD. The taxi arranged by our Battambang hotel picked us up right on time and we set off north on National Highway 5 (the same one we took from Phnom Penh) past Boung Priene and the church for about an hour north to Sisophong. I characterize Sisophong as sort of a Wild West [View Full Entry]

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Well, the quick shopping trip in Battambang turned into an hour and a half ordeal, but we got makeup galore for the girls and toy trucks for the boys. Rey explained that these were things that their parents would not be able to afford to buy then, so these items would be greatly appreciated. Church supposedly starts at 10:00 and runs until noon. We arrived at about 10:30 and there was no one around. We came in and miraculously, people started streaming in. Within 10 minutes the place was full and the singing started. There are probably about 30 people in [View Full Entry]

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I had emailed Som a couple of months ago asking him to arrange for a driver and car or van to take us to Battambang on Saturday, take him along with Rey and the kids to Boung Priene for the night and pick us up on Sunday morning to take us to Boung Priene for church. Rey’s dad is the pastor of New Life Church there. It is where I stayed while I was in Cambodia in 2004. There is no hotel in the village and the facilities there - well, let’s just say camping would be an upgrade. Hence, the [View Full Entry]

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We left Moscow about 4 PM on Wednesday and arrived in Phnom Penh about 4 PM Thursday. It sounds worse than it was, because we flew overnight on an Aeroflot Illyusin Il-96, a Russian jumbo jet. We were well cared for and the in-flight movie was a portable video player, just for me. Cheryl could have had her own, but she declined in order to do something silly like sleep. One has to live with one’s choices, I guess. We spent a few hours getting to know and love Bangkok’s new Suvarnabhumi airport (built since I was in Bangkok in November [View Full Entry]

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Another early morning, another early flight and it’s off to Moscow. Our Aeroflot Tupelov TU-154 was comfortable and well attended. Aeroflot is the old Soviet commercial airline. Since the fall of communism, they’ve done a marvelous job of bringing the airlines into the 21st century. The flight was pleasant, uneventful and right on time into Moscow Sheremetievo airport by about 11 AM. After a quick stop at an ATM to get some Rubles we took a 90 minute cab ride through some of the most depressing apartments, stores, offices and just plain Soviet drech you can imagine. When we [View Full Entry]

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The following day, Tracy and Zachary took us on the Metro to downtown Kyiv and tours of interesting sites. We saw the Golden Gate (gate in the city walls dating back to the Middle Ages), St. Sophia’s Cathedral & Museum, St. Michael’s Cathedral and Museum, plus Independence Square. It was a delightful day, far less “heavy” than Jon’s “Dark Day” tour. St. Sophia’s was probably the highlight as we’ve seen St. Sophia’s in what seems like a dozen other European cities. I found the Kyiv Metro to be quite a contrast from other Metro& [View Full Entry]

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