Saturday, April 28, 2012

Watch This Space

Why? Because soon we're going to west to head to the far east one more time.  My personal odometer is about to turn 60 (!) around the same time that Eleanor and I celebrate our first year complete go round after getting married and we're going to see those days in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and then we cool off with 5 days in Tokyo.

Assuming we survive another killer trans Pacific flight we'll be eating tropical fruits such as mangosteen and durian, dine on Nasi Kandar food and shop at Tokyu Hands.

Sure, we've been to these 3 Asian countries before, how about some new ones for a change?  I gave some thought to going to the Philippines.  I've read that the people are friendly, they speak something resembling English and it's as tropical as anywhere in Thailand.  But I've also read that the Philippines is the street and petty crime capital of Asia and how the city of Hong Kong (population 7 million) has more police than the entire Philippines (population 94 million).  Some of my wife's family lives in the Philippines and in one breath they've told me how beautiful it is and in the next breath told me of neighbors or friends who were robbed, mugged or carjacked. 

Indonesia sounds interesting, kind of like Malaysia, but with less English and more Islam.  There are still some countries in Asia on my to do list such as India, Myanmar and Sri Lanka but they're just too big, difficult and too damned far for a 60 year old guy to do them justice during a 2+ weeks off of the work leash.  Good health willing that's what retirement years are for.