November 13 --- Mekong Delta The day commenced when we exited the hotel in the morning, naturally there were street vendors pedaling wares. One chap offered 3 golf shirts for $20; Mare got him down to 5 for $10. (Hence forth Mare is going to do all the bargaining, my skill resulted in an average price of $6.50 versus her average price of $2, I know when I am outclassed). On our drive to the Mekong Delta we stopped for a bathroom break at a very nice spot. They were selling small bottles of wine with either snakes or scorpions and [View Full Entry]

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November 12 - Saigon / Ho Chi Minh City What can I say other than I have never seen anything approaching Saigon traffic. The city is scooter heaven, it seems that virtually everyone has one, they are used for everything, also when it comes to driving anything and everything goes. Shortly after arriving at Saigon and finally getting processed by some of the slowest stoic custom officials we arrived at our hotel the Hotel Equatoral; our room is not as High Teck as either that is Kyoto or Hong Kong but more comfortable. Only a couple of days ago Saigon experience [View Full Entry]

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November 10th - Hong Kong One thing that we will be pleased to leave behind in Japan are the heated toilets. It is one thing to say someone has a hot ass, but quite another when yours is being heated up. The toilet in our hotel seemed like it could do everything for your behind (had to use that word again). Last year when we did our tour, the crew would be dressed in clothing representative of the place we had just visited, well they are doing it again this year. When we boarded the plane the stewardess were dressed as [View Full Entry]

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November 9th - Kyoto Today we were off to Nara Park, stopping first at the Gekkeikan Okura Museum, where they explained the process of how to make Japanese Sake. This distiller has been making sake for over 400 years. One thing that I found interesting was that the best sake was only 500 yen more than the next best. Naturally I bought a bottle, unfortunately after sharing a couple of glasses I will have to leave a half full bottle in the room; the maid can have a good day. When we got back on the bus they had small sealed [View Full Entry]

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November 8th - Kyoto Our hotel in Kyoto is the Rihga Royal Hotel. Today we were off to visit Nizo Castle, the Nishijin Textile Hall, followed by a visit to Kinkakujii Temple (Golden Pavilion). Nijo Castle was originally built in 1603 by the first Tokugawa Shogun, Ieyasu and finally completed in 1626 with some additional structures. It was the meeting place where the Shogun met with different feudal lords and on occasion with the Emperor. It gained its place in Japanese history in 1867 when the Shogun returned sovereignty to the Emperor. One unique feature of the castle is that the [View Full Entry]

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November 5 - 6/7, 2007 -- Whitehorse --- Siberia Well we are off. At 11 am, the flight left Toronto for Whitehorse the capital of the Yukon. If was nice to get on the plane and see Odny the head stewardess. She was the head stewardess on our trip last year around the Southern Hemisphere. In addition there are a number of people that were on the trip with us last year so it was a little bit like a home-coming reunion. Like last year we were spoiled on IcelandAir. Our lunch would be the equivalent of several dinners on Air [View Full Entry]

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Well in 3 more days we begin our Around the World Tour (Northern Hemisphere). I add the latter classification since last year's tour was classified as Southern Hemisphere, although some of the places we will be visiting are quite south in comparision to Toronto. Here is the agenda, Nov 5 -- Toronto to Whitehorse in the Yukon Nov 6 -- Whitehorse to Osaka (Kyoto) Nov 8 -- Osaka (we lost a day crossing the date-line) We will be touring Kyoto, visting Nizo Castle, Kinkakuji Temple, Nishiji Testile Hall, Sanjyusangendo Temple and Heian Shrine. Diner will be at the famous revolving restaur [View Full Entry]

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October 13thth to 16th, 2006 An interesting mix with some stately Victorian buildings nestled in with newer large imposing office buildings combined with more than enough shops to bring tears to a shop-alcoholic, combined with terrific restaurants etc plus activity at all hours. This was the Sydney that greeted us. On the 13th and 14th the tempature was over 30C and then dropped by about 10 degrees on the 15th and 16th. On the 14th we ventured forth for a sightseeing tour but the air-conditioning in the bus wasn’t working properly and with some complaints the driver pulled over to cal [View Full Entry]

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October 9th to the 13th 2006 We crossed the international date line and immediately jumped from Oct 9 to Oct 10. TAlk about a difference in temperature; Tahiti was over 30 C and humid, New Zealand 10C in the morning rising to about 15C. What a country, the first thing that hits you is how green everything is and flowers everywhere. In addition to regular flowers bushes and trees were blooming as if to show New Zealand at its finest. On arrival in Auckland our bus-driver told us that New Zealand was about 25 years behind everyone-else and that street [View Full Entry]

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Tuesday, October 24, 2006 Ayers Rock -- October 16th There are definite advantages to having your own chartered plane, as we approached Ayers Rock the pilot dropped to a lower altitude, used partial flpas to slow the plane down and flew a figure 8 formation over Ayers Rock and another rock formation ‘Olgas’ so that no matter where one sat they got a good aerial view of the rock formations. Upon landing our luggage was forwarded to the Sails in the Desert Hotel while we went on a bus tour out to Ayers Rock circling the Rock to see it from [View Full Entry]

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