On November 14, 2009 we left Canada to start our Around the World trip. Now, on June 14 we’ll be leaving Bangkok and Asia to continue our trip to Greece. It is incredible that it had been seven months since we started. We visited so many wonderful countries and places. We met awesome new friends and relatives. We learned so much about Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. The colourful cultures, the friendly people, the language, the culinary experience, were all terrific! We are so happy we got to experience all that.
Asia was a treat: it opened our minds to new ideas and to new ways of thinking. Our reference base from home has no bearing here because the oriental way is so different from what we are used to. It is much simpler and sometimes a lot more efficient. Asia challenged us big time during our four months journey: we did not always have a full understanding or even less, control, of what was happening because we did not speak the local language; the standard hotel room with clean bathroom, shower and A/C has a different meaning here and many times, lunch is whatever you could manage to mime or point out from the menu... In those situations, we had to trust life and trust ourselves and let fate take over and lead us the way, we simply went with the flow. So far things have always worked out just fine :o) Asia also enriched us with stronger family ties. We met and spent time with relatives we haven’t met or have not seen in decades. We had a memorable time here and we’ll definitely miss her. Thank you to all the new friends we met during the four fantastic months, you made our travels so much more enjoyable.
Now we are ready for a new chapter: Europe. We look forward to discovering the European culture, people, languages and food. If South East Asia was any indication of what awaits us in Europe, then we are very much looking forward to being there. It’s going to be a whirlwind of a trip. We only planned two months to visit Greece, Croatia, Spain and Portugal. That’s and average of two weeks for each country... What is even more exciting is the people we’ll visit and the people meeting us in Europe. Two high school friends of mine moved back to Greece, I can’t wait to see them again and to meet their family. Another Calgary friend is joining us in Greece. After spending time with my side of the family in Vietnam, I really look forward to spending time with Gen’s family who will be joining us in Spain.
This is giving us a renewed energy. Although it had been exciting and awesome for the last seven months to leisurely roam the globe, we noticed a change in our travelling momentum. We’re a little tired and slow to visit the main sites at the last couple of places we’ve been to. So the change of decor and food in Europe will be very welcoming. I’ll check back with you in Greece :o) Have a great summer everyone!
Oh and one more thing: GO SPAIN GO!!!
