Richard and Francine

Laos This will be the last country we will visit on this tour. 6 weeks have flown by pretty quickly! To say hello here, one says Sabaidee. The currency is the “Kip”. Approx 8450 Kip per U.S. dollar. Laos, was formerly known as the country of one million elephants. It has become the Lao people’s Democratic Republic in 1975. The country that has been opened to tourism for only the last 10 years, but the people of Laos are very welcoming. The wildlife is apparently diverse, but they do not promote safaris that we know of. Their main source of revenue is farming. They own a large hydroelectric dam which in theory could produce 50 times more than current output. Only 10% of the country’s roads are paved. 20 years ago, . The tourism industry is ... read more

Siem Reap, Feb. 2010 What an amazing part of the World! This region is considered by many as the gem of Cambodia. Siem Reap is the location of the great temples of Angkor, the ancient capital of the Khmer Empire which flourished between the 09th and 13th centuries. The Khmer Empire was extremely prosperous because of its resources: endless fish supply, exotic game, exotic woods, agricultural products and precious gems. In the Angkor region, the Khmer created an intricate network of canals, basins and immense rice paddies that sustained as much as one million people living in the region. The Khmer kings were wise and warlike rulers that inspired themselves from Indian concepts and local beliefs to build temples that rival, in my view, the Pyramids and some of the most famous temples of Egypt. Some ... read more

What an amazing country. 1/30th the size of Canada, with a population of over 85 million. 80% of people live in rural Viet Nam. In 1945, the population was approximately 20 million, and the country has been in wars for close to 30 years since then. Viet Nam has been occupied for approx 1000 years by the Chinese, and French. These are tough, hard working people that are now looking to make a better life for themselves and their children. The French called this, Cambodia and Laos “Indochina”, because it was the merging of Chinese and Indian culture. Viet Nam more heavily influenced by China, and Laos/Cambodia by india. The first thing that hits you whilst looking out the airplane window, are the lush green rice fields, transected by roads. The majority of houses seem to ... read more

17 to 23rd of January. Sabah (North Eastern Borneo), and Sarawak (North Western Borneo) are the two largest states in the Malaysian Federation. They also represent approx 1/3 of the area of the island of Borneo. Borneo is the 3rd largest island in the World. The locals call it “the land below the wind”. It is a region that has not been hit by earthquakes, typhoons, hurricanes, or volcanoes. This pair of states is fascinating, and is a must see for your bucket list. Especially the Niah Caves located just West of Miri, Sarawak. I’ll describe the caves later. Sabah, and especially Sarawak are home to HUGE palm plantations. Hundreds of square kilometers. Palm oil, a big export item, is produced from the fruit of the palm tree. It is used for applications ranging from cooking ... read more

January 15th, 2010, Sepang Circuit, The goal of the visit was to be able to swap ideas on track operations with the management team from Sepang, and experience the joy of driving on the F1 circuit. The Sepang Circuit is 10 years old. It was originally designed and built for the Malaysian government by Herman Tilka. He is a close associate of Bernie Ecclestone’s, and designs F1 tracks. In the late 90’s, Malaysia wanted the World to take note that it was no longer just a third World country. The F1 track was to become a National Icon. At the time, Malaysia had become a strong Asian economy, with manufacturing as its number one industry. The government saw hosting F1 races as being a significant tourist draw to the country. Auto racing was not a significant ... read more

January 09th, 2010 Greetings to all, The following blog represents a short overview of the Asian tour that will take us to 7 countries in the next 2 months. We hope you will enjoy our description of what we are experiencing. Some parts of this trip will be in an urban setting, whilst others will be deep in the jungles of the island of Borneo. We will not be able to make daily entries into the blog, because some of the locations we plan to visit have no internet access. We will include photos as often as we can. Some will be spectacular, others more ordinary. Enjoy the ride! Ottawa to Singapore, Jan 05th to 07th. Ottawa to Montreal to Frankfort to Singapore. 19 ½ hours of flying, 7 hours of airport lounging, and 4 ½ ... read more