Category: Vietnam

The journey has begun. Andy our driver is fantastic. He is also Vietnamese. He shared where to eat, marriage rituals, and how to say happy new years in Vietnamese. Here he is loading our bags.

The result of his efforts. He is available to organize closets and kitchens on the side. A great packer.

Here are two of our traveling companions. Let me introduce you. The lady, my second wife and more on that later, is known as the GOAT. The guy, a fellow traveling vest guy, is known as Mikey.

Off to the airport where we start our 8 plus hour layover with lunch.

I have to make a correction. Yesterday I introduced you to The Hair. I was mistaken. He was baptised Omaha, not the Hair. Here he is in case you forgot the most interesting man at the boulders.

Today I have a poll. Does Mikey look like the former President Harry Truman? Here are their pictures. Let me know.

Vote!

What did we do before cell phones?

We are now on the Polaris lounge. Dirk and his young bride join us. Dirk has purchased a Fly Kit. He has to take all the pills, no drinking and wear those special glasses. He swears his body will better adapt than cookies and beer. My dinner.

What a full day. Only a 17 and half hour flight to go. Wish me luck. Until our paths cross.

We are now 16 hours away from the friendly skies taking us from Phoenix to San Francisco. There, a lovely eight hour plus layover awaits us. The small group I am with as captain will decide what we do. My vote is lunch of sourdough bread bowl. Fish soup and a fantastic Napa Cabernet at the water bar in San Francisco. I’ll report tomorrow.

Today was a tough day. One of the most unpleasant things we do for a trip happened today. We had to drop Maui off. Here is a picture of Maui with her trainer saying goodbye. I still have tears in my eyes. 

Yesterday I introduced you to Dirk and the hair. They are two of our travelling companions. Today I’m going to introduce you to another of our travelling companions. I have named him Marky Mark here is his picture. This was taken on one of our earlier trips with him when he was practising his colouring between the lines. He received an A+ from our instructor. But he gets an A+ in anything he does.

Not much else to report today. The bags are packed we are ready to go. Leaving on a jet plane. Remember that song? Stay tuned. What an adventure it will be. 

As you know, my princess does not mark off the calendar by how many days to go before we leave. She does it by how many sleeps she has before the car comes to take us to the airport. So as she told me today, two more sleeps.

I know you’re wondering, are we packed and ready to go. Up to Saturday, here was the princess suitcase.

Now here is the captain suitcase. By the way, a dear friend has nicknamed me the captain, thus the reference. More nicknames of fellow travellers will be revealed in future additions of my blog.

All of this changed on Sunday. We are both packed and ready to go now.

Some of the guys are into new things. We bought those travel vests that have 16 to 21 pockets. This will provide plenty of room for the knickknacks we bargain for at the various local markets. Here is the most interesting man in The boulders modelling our vest. His nickname is the hair.

Last night, the crew from The boulders going on the trip had a party to clean out their refrigerators and have a drink to get some practice in for all of the upcoming Happy hours.

Let me introduce you to Dirk. He was not up for playing the game. Note the empty glass. That explains the look on his face. You will hear more about Dirk in the weeks ahead.

See the Vietnamese banners by the door? The captain thought they said” happy birthday Matt.” Not true. The captain found out it was just a menu from some local Vietnamese restaurant.

Okay. I have to tell you. I learned to blog from this lady. She taught me all I know. She has graduated now from blogger to influencer. She is on the trip too. You can follow her blog by responding to mine and I will share her website. If you want to feel like you’re on the trip with us, I encourage you to read mine though. Yes, there is a blogging competition!

Thanks for reading and now you will get these daily. Two more sleeps!