Vietnam

After two weeks of intense traveling in India and Cambodia, we took a needed “vacation” in Vietnam and headed to a fancy resort.  Reverting back to our “traveler” days, we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City with no flights or hotel reservations but some ideas that we wanted to head to a beach resort either in Nha Trang or an island in Southern Vietnam.  Since all the flights to the South for the day had already departed, we decided to go to Nha Trang and hoped that the resort we had heard of called Vinpearl would have some rooms.

After an interesting wait on the stand-by list (for a flight that was only 1/2 full) and an hour taxi ride through the rain in the dark, we arrived at the shuttle boat to VinPearl Island.  Luckily they had room for us and we were able to reserve a room for a couple of nights.

The Vinpearl was a mini-Disney land with an amusement & water park, arcade, kid’s club, beach, and the largest pool in SE Asia.  They had one of the longest cable cars in Asia and you could take that or the shuttle boats to the island.  A typhoon had come through the area 2 days before we arrived, so the weather was not great, but we still had fun and relaxed.   Luke and Ryan terrorized crabs on the beach, splashed in the pool, checked out the rides, arcade and water park, and played games at the kids club. 

Before leaving Vietnam, we spent a day exploring Ho Chi Minh City.  It is a modern city with great bargain shopping.  With such a short time there, we only touched the surface of Vietnam during our short visit.  After being away from the ship for 16 days, we were actually excited to see the ship again.  It was amazing how much we missed our little cabin, friends and shipboard routine!   

Cambodia: Exploring Angkor Wat

From India, we moved on to one of our favorite countries, Cambodia.  We flew to Siem Reap, home to the famous temples of Angkor Wat.  We predicted that exploring these temples would be one of the highlights of our trip for the boys.    When Jay and Christy had visited Siem Reap in 2000, there was only 1 large hotel in town.  Many investors have identified Angkor Wat as the next big destination and have invested in over 50 large hotels.  The Cambodian government is also making large investments in rebuilding and preserving the temples. 

We felt like Indiana Jones as we explored the temples.  Our favorite temples where the ones that the trees had overtaken and that were in ruins.  They boys were little monkeys and climbed the steep stone steps without fear.  They loved using their rock climbing skills and being free to be crazy boys. 

One highlight was riding elephants amongst the ruins.  We learned that horses are much more comfortable to ride.  After our ride, we fed the elephants whole bananas that they grabbed by the end of their trunks and popped in their mouths. 

The Cambodian people are warm and friendly and it was the easiest country to travel in so far this trip.  They use US dollars and lots of people speak English.  Entrepreneurship starts early and we met many young children who were expert sales people.  We stayed in 2 small bungalows at a bed & breakfast only walking distance to town.  It was great to get away from the large hotels.  

India

India was Christy’s most memorable country when she went on Semester at Sea in 1990 and it rates highly on our current voyage.  We experienced India as tourists in Agra/New Delhi, business people in Bangalore, and through the eyes of our expatriate friends in Mumbai.

India is a country of 1.2 Billion people with extremes of poverty and prosperity; pre-industrial and modern at the same time; and facing some of the world’s biggest opportunities and challenges at the same time.

New Delhi/Agra

Our previous travel prepared us well for the vibrant traffic, sights and sounds of India.  After flying from Chennai to New Delhi, we went to take the train to Agra.  After a roundabout path that took us to the train station, a chaotic auto-rickshaw ride and a chance encounter with an Indian travel agent who lives half-time in Vancouver, we found ourselves with a driver and car for the 5 hour car ride to see the Taj Mahal, in Agra.  The car ride was entertaining as we watched all the cows (which are sacred and roam freely), auto rickshaws, pedal and motorbikes, cars, trucks and pedestrians intermingle along the crowded streets.  At home we only use our horn at most once a month.  In India, hardly 10 seconds go by without blowing the car horn.   The distance to Agra was not far, but the traffic was awful coming out of New Delhi and the pollution from the traffic and trash fires gave Christy a hacking cough.

We visited the Taj Mahal in both the evening and at sunrise.  Its magnificence and grandeur are all the more impressive knowing it was built in 1653 by the Emperor Shah Jahn for his wife who died giving birth to their 14^th child.  20,000 people worked on the Taj for over 22 years.  Their creation was a beautiful sight to see and admire.   

Bangalore

Bangalore, the garden city of India, is the country’s Silicon Valley.  Most internationally known technology companies like Google and Dell are there.   We went to Bangalore to visit a Young President’s Organization contact of Christy’s.  Dinesh Puri, his wife Geeta, and his kids Uday and Ankita helped us with hotel arrangements, took us around town and hosted us for 3 amazing days.   Christy visited their medical company that makes pacemakers, the first implantable device being made in India.  She also visited GE Healthcare and another Indian device maker.  The Puri’s even threw a large party at their home so we could meet some of their YPO friends and other leaders in the community.  A highlight was playing golf at the Karnataka Golf Association Club where Thomas Friedman got his inspiration for his book title, “The World is Flat.”  

Mumbai

In Mumbai, we stayed with Brooks and Laura Entwistle and their 3 lovely daughters who are around Luke and Ryan’s ages.  Christy and Brooks, who runs Goldman Sachs India, are in the same class of Henry Crown Fellows from the Aspen Institute.    We saw a unique perspective of Mumbai though the Entwistle’s eyes. 

A highlight for the boys was visiting the expat school.  Luke got to join Kayla in 1^st grade for the day.  It was the day they celebrated Halloween, so Luke got to make Halloween crafts and be in a holiday parade.  That was followed by a Halloween party at the Entwistle’s house and then we went trick-or-treating at the teacher’s apartments. 

Mumbai is the financial hub of India.  It is the most densely populated city in the world with half the population living in slums that are interspersed around the city.  We toured the Dhavari Slum, the one featured in Slumdog Millionaire.  We expected to see a very sad situation.  Instead, our experience was quite the opposite.  The slum is a bustling community of entrepreneurs and families.  They are the recycling center for Mumbai and sort, clean, and melt down the materials.  They build their own chipping machines that cut up plastics.  Then they wash, dry, melt and extrude the plastics into new plastic pellets that they sell to manufacturers.  The same is true for metals, including an aluminum recycling operation! 

In other sections of the slum, we found potters, cookie makers, seamstresses, and ladies making papadams.  They even let the boys try rolling a papadam - the boys should keep their day jobs!  Although the homes were small and simple, most were made out of cement and were clean.  Narrow alleys with open sewers connected the homes and it was an adventure walking through the community. 

In contrast to the slum, we had lunch at the iconic Taj Hotel that was the site of the Mumbai terrorist attacks last year.  While he food was great, it was hard to imagine how 4 terrorists were able to kill so many people in the hotel.  It is mostly rebuilt and fully back in business. 

Overall our India visit was special because of the friends we visited and the new friends we made.  The Entwistle and Puri families made us very welcome in India.  It is a country with warm, friendly people who are striving for a better life.  They have made amazing advances but now they must tackle their remaining challenges of sustainability (water, energy, pollution), building an infrastructure that can keep up with the exploding population, and living peacefully next to Pakistan.    

Mauritius - an island paradise!

Mauritius was a short stop for us, just two nights in this island paradise. We arrived at the port in the early morning and were greeted with spectacular view of this mountainous island.

Mauritius, Africa’s wealthiest country on a per capita income basis, is a honeymooner’s paradise, primarily for Europeans and South Africans. The population is half Hindu (from India) with a mix of other groups (Chinese, French, etc) making up the balance. As a result there is a mix of food, language and culture that is unique to the island. Along with the growing tourist trade, the Mauritians main industries are sugar cane harvesting and palm oil.

We ended up staying at a beautiful resort, where the boys could play unsupervised in the calm surf of the pristine beach. The ocean was so calm here that it took us a couple of days to realize that there was no sound you typically associate with a beach resort – no surf sound. We built sand castles, strolled the beach, chased crabs, swam and kayaked. Christy even got to take a few turns on skis – water skis of course!

The highlight of our visit was the afternoon with Greg and Veronique, close friends of Christy’s friend from YPO. We had a wonderful Indian lunch at their home on the beach and enjoyed letting the boys run around while we had great conversation about life in Mauritius. We finished the day at Greg and Veronique’s bar, Banana Beach Club, where a jazz band was playing. This club is the party place of Mauritius and as the night went on, we found ourselves hanging out with more and more students from the ship. Although many offered to buy us a beer (as a “reward” for actually making it out to party!), we managed to head home by 1 am, about 3 hours before the students shut the place down!

A second highlight was our mini-submarine trip. We managed to end up in our own submarine for five and took it down to about 110 feet. We saw lots of fish, some less than spectacular coral and a really cool octopus. We also did some snorkeling so the next step with be to take the boys scuba diving!

We enjoyed our time in Mauritius – a nice beach holiday between Africa and India.