dolly725

For the past two weeks, on the final leg of this retirement journey, Scot and I have have been watching as daily — almost hourly- the flights take off from Honolulu back to the US. This has been making me reflect on what our return after such a once-in-a-lifetime experience will mean. Indeed, it’s caused…

On our travels so far, Scot and I have read many, many very good books, among them works like The Transit of Venus, A Canticle for Leibowitz, short stories by Janet Frame, etc. We’ve also encountered a number of nearly perfect works like When the Emperor Was Divine, Hill by Jean Gino, and Young Once…

In the past, I used to hear people complain about the difficulty of obtaining foreign currency in advance of travel. But this is a part of travel I have always loved. In recent years, the Euro has made this aspect easier, but something has been lost when the history and character of various nations –…

Tomorrow, it will be two months since Scot and I officially retired. Perhaps because we started this new phase with a trip ( which we’re still very much in the middle of), nothing felt very different. We were using the word retired to describe our new status, but it was like when you’re on the…

Since our retirement adventure began, Scot and I have traveled to five countries, switching currencies each time. We’ve taken 10 different flights, and also changed hotels 10 times. We’re currently in Auckland, New Zealand, where we’ll be for a month before heading to the South Island, where we’ll be for another month. All these changes…

Visiting the Buddhist Temple in Thailand yesterday, we were confronted with the fascinating sight of people praying in front of this crystal orb, which inverts the skyline of the city, to make it look like an inverted world- a kind of dream. Based on my limited understanding of Buddhism, I think this is meant to…

On our last day in Cairo we went to the National Museum of Egyptian Culture (NMEC). The highlight here was the display of many famous mummies including Nefertari, Amenhotep and Ramses 2, among many others On the wall was a list of their achievements, and the mummies were startlingly well preserved: skin, hair , teeth.…

Every day on the trip so far , Scot and I have been up before 6:30 a.m. One morning we were up at 3:45 in order to make a n early morning tour. Some people would hate this: they want to go on a trip and relax, do nothing. We like this to a certain…