Summary of My International Travel 2018 – Part 1

From some conversations I had recently I believe I should write about my travels in 2018. To do this I first must start at the beginning by talking about events in 2016 & 2017 first to provide the full background as the basis for my new adventures of travelling.

For those that know me just a little bit I secured my Australian Passport when I turned 60 (2016). A very late starter I know. I always thought travelling was beyond me .. looking back, I had resources to do this but my structured upbringing, work, family and keeping everything and everyone afloat financially always rang loud and concreted; and always the perception to the need of travelling with someone beside me. Travelling alone was too risky .. that was my understanding over all those previous years. Weird I know but travelling was never hard on my radar due to the above.

Living with my slightly younger brother Kerry, and being part of the Wyndham Vacation Resort Group (Participants are called “Owner”) we discussed one night what have I planned to celebrate my 60^th year. Never really crossed my mind for doing a huge celebration, however my wonderful daughter, Kate organised a birthday ‘gathering’ of some immediate family, friends and co-workers over the past 20+ years to be held at my home. By the way, it was quite an awesome gathering and so grateful in seeing so many wonderful people attend. The night of such questioning of what I should do to celebrate the milestone, Kerry said where would you like to go seeing you have vacation points to use? I was puzzled and empty in thought. I served the question back at him. Where would you go if you were me? He replied New York. What!!!! WOW!!! Hence, the request for an Australian Passport at 60.

Jumping forward, I haven’t done a blog on this USA trip so please comment if you wish for me to do so. I did a quick 18-day trip taking my brother, Kerry to Las Vegas, New York & Hawaii in celebration of my 60th. I was in awe of what a different exciting world I experienced and realised I could do this again. I was beside myself that I achieved something so huge.

Stepping to 2017 I had a year of trauma and severe turmoil to the heart and soul of my being. First, I lost a dear co-worker and mentor I knew for over 30+ years to brain tumours in that April. He was just 68yrs old and a very dear friend with amazing capacity for humans and life. I was lucky enough to fly to Sydney and spend an emotional weekend with Michael and his wife Mary a month before he passed. A time most treasured.

A month later we lost our youngest brother, Rod to a severe cardiac arrest at just 54yrs of age. Rod lived 2 doors up from us with his wife and 5 children. I saw him the night before, as I always did frequently and after this date my life imploded; and exploded, along with my brother Kerry. At the same time, I was heavily in love with an unbelievably beautiful, articulate and life changing woman (Dale) 19years my junior. Dale is a popular girl’s name in New Zealand. She was in love too and was able to get me through Rod’s passing but ‘escaped’, as she could not deal with me now being the same age as her Mother’s passing (61). Apparently, I was a ticking timebomb and this rocked her to her core. The consensus was, it was I that had the criteria for a cardiac arrest, not Rod. She went to a girlfriend’s place for a week to see the beach (she loved the beach) and she never ever returned so I could not contact her in a way to resolve anything. It would be a year or so later when I saw her face again but no conversation available. I had to find a way somehow to fall out of love … in silence. Very hard for this Taurean.

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Discussing such life events with some of my children (I have 4 mature children) a month or so later and with some Wyndham points to use up, we agreed to do a circumnavigation of the South Island of New Zealand with a 6 berth Winnebago in late October as a means of getting away and call it a ‘soft’ travel experience with little stress, etc and something special. As things would happen after booking the 3weeks rental, one of my sons and daughter in law had to cancel last minute to run her Dad’s dental clinic. One of my sons, Scott, could still go but it didn’t feel right, with too much room for 2 people.

A very long story short, I managed to seek out a female backpacker to tag along. OK .. you gutter judges! Male backpackers can be a real downer with their booze ups, irresponsibility’s and lack of commitment; so, a female is a far better & wiser choice. We were very lucky to secure a young German backpacker, Anita, who had just finished the North Island but didn’t know how to do the South Island (a much harder challenge).  Anita scored the bunk area above the front seating for her privacy. Scott had the rear bed setup. I scored the kitchen table setup (painful). To sum up, we all had the best time ever (2,425klms from memory)!!! No issues, hassles or arguments. Anita is a beautiful person inside and out and her parents were also thrilled that we looked after her so well and hardly cost her a cent. Anita remains in contact with me to this day. She has great English where my German sucks .. LOL!!! I was in awe again of such a wonderful world; and meeting such a variety of good people. Another travel achievement that I was becoming more confident in. Again, if people out there wish to hear about this amazing NZ trip please comment a request.

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Moving now to 2018. Dale continues to remain in my head, soul and heart like a ghost that keeps tapping on my shoulder. She changed my life so much and educated me in travel, etc. There is so much I could talk about here but I’ll keep this in my memory bank or maybe write about this much later; as time passes. Dale had been travelling solid for 4 years and had been in 56 countries with an emotional attachment to Cambodia where she used a seaside town called Sihanoukville as a base for writing her books.

Work was starting to dry up anyway for me due to the company’s poor direction. I went from working exceptionally well from home to being sent to the office each day some 1 hr 20mins each way due to a new manager of the division.  It was such a demeaning ritual of nothingness. I had trouble dealing with this useless stress and people of poor form. With Easter & the Commonwealth Games approaching it was a better time than ever to start another life change. I considered myself partly burned out for the 10+ hours per work day. Gulp!!!

For my business social network, I merely stated I’m taking a “Gap Year”. With so much death and heartache surrounding me I was driven to be ‘lost’. I also wanted to prove I can do something and at the same time with my absence my brother Kerry will be forced into doing something proactive. After our USA trip he immediately said he no longer wanted to travel. He was happy to remain at home and watch TV much to Rod’s annoyance (Rod dearly wanted to come with us  .. but marriage had a lot of constraints imposed). Even while I am away, I would still have to run the house accounts though due to Kerry’s forgetfulness in paying bills, etc.

With Cambodia firmly fixed in my mind (along with Dale); and with a lot of trepidation, I took the option of a guided 8-day tour of the major tourist destinations as a safety measure against my so-called limited ability of travel genius. The private tour package was provided by Indochinaodyssey  https://www.indochinaodysseytours.com/cambodia.html which has now changed its name and become Chinese owned. They were extremely helpful and responded to all concerns promptly prior to the journey which left me only to concentrate on the flight. Bit of an expense but as you will see moving forward .. money well spent. Asia is another world to the norm of English background was my initial thinking but I learnt to stop my previously ‘over thinking’. Dale said, Cambodia is a place where just the littlest things can make a difference & that has been my life’s drive .. “to make a positive difference to where it counted”.

The departure day came … “one small step … one massive leap for Brian” was my onboard mantra. Felt like I was taking a rocket to another moon and certainly unchartered waters. I left the Gold Coast airport only with my backpack (Black Wolf Grand Teton 65L Combo) which turned out to be an absolute perfect friend for all adventures forthcoming for Cambodia. Malaysian Airlines had the best deal and turned out to be another wise choice confirming my prudent research prior. After navigating the Kuala Lumpur 2 terminal airport and the endless timeframes of limited sleep I landed in Siem Reap Cambodia at 7.30am, 5^th April 2018 using Air Asia Airlines.

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Once I was through Siem Reap Customs (I obtained a Business Visa $35US upon entry which enabled me to later obtain a visa extension with multiple entries). Most travellers spend $30USD in getting a 30day tourist visa but that doesn’t allow you to extend your stay at a later date. Once overcoming Customs and Immigration I stepped through the large double doors to a sea of tut-tut drivers calling for passengers and waving signboards. Quite confronting to say the least. Not seeing my name waving at me I proceeded to the rear of drivers for Sun (pronounced S-une) to greet me with the most gleeful energy and smiles and great English. A greeting I will never forget and lucky I had provided my photo prior to the flight.

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Sun, with driver, John knowing I had not properly eaten for some 16hrs or so took me to a local cuisine café Sun knew and they sat with me. What a wonderful thing for them to do, free of charge on an unassigned tour day. I eventually was allowed to pay for all the food and drink such was my Australian stubbornness and gratefulness. They both thought I was too generous. After a great meal and drink they dropped me off at my hotel, Lotus Blanc Resort, a luxurious hotel (4 stars minimum) and the following morning we would set upon the 8-day “Best of Cambodia” tour starting with a volume of famous temples surrounding Siem Reap.

With the large remaining part of the day as my free time I perused the luxurious pool area for a few hours and then bravely took the hotels tut-tut (Driver – Mr Savet, who was amazing) to a local restaurant (Queen Cuisine) for a local culture dinner and return. Tut-tut journeys are a real eye opener, appears no set road rules and takes on a picnic race day feel with all jostling for race positions. Hang on .. & don’t have your phone in your hands .. your phone will disappear in a blink by passing scooter riders.

I’ll leave this here for you to digest and soon I will post Part 2 where I undertake the amazing 8-day tour of Cambodia and beyond. Please feel free to provide a comment and a sincerely thank you for taking the time to read my writing and enjoying photos attached. My very best wishes for you and your family for 2020. Apologies for the photograph standards. WordPress has given me some glitches I can’t seem to rectify. Arrghh!!!!