We wanted to experience some part of Vietnam by train and read that the three hour stretch between Huế and Da Nang was among the prettiest the country had to offer, so we decided to make our way to our next destination, Hoi An, using that method of travel. When we went to book, all…

Was it the food from the Saigon night market? An errant sip of tap water from the hotel? Whatever the cause, by the time our flight from Ho Chi Minh City to the ancient capital of Huế landed in the early afternoon, Tom was definitely feeling the effects of some kind of food poisoning, which…

Our early morning flight to Ho Chi Minh City was the last of our business class flights until our return to Britain in two months. The Singapore airport is renowned for its ‘Jewel’ domestic terminal featuring a multistory waterfall. We didn’t get to see that this time, but even the international terminal was gorgeous with…

While we were in Singapore, we decided to send some unnecessary clothing and accumulated souvenirs back to England. This was actually the second round of lightening our load—while in Melbourne, we sent a 10kg box of clothing and acquired items home in what turned out to be quite an ordeal. Assuming from prior experience that…

Singapore is a multi-national city-state with an interesting history reflected in its many ethnic and historic neighborhoods-each one uniquely defined by its architecture, shops, markets and inhabitants. We made it a point to visit several of these, starting with the most heavily trafficked—Chinatown. Situated right in the center of the city, its streets, though crammed…

The first thing I discovered in Singapore: the equator is not my climate zone. Singapore is one of the few major cities (well, it’s actually a city-state) that sits on or nearly on the equator. At 1°N latitude, that’s close enough for me. The combination of heat and humidity was a shock to our systems—we…

Despite my having covid, we kept to our plan to take the high speed train to Tainan, the ancient capital, located on the southwest coast of Taiwan. We were surprised (and happy) that the hotel near the train station that we would be staying at for one night on our return to Taipei agreed to…

Taiwan, the entry point for the Asian half of our trip, was on our itinerary primarily because Tom’s nephew, John, lives there with his wife Hui Ching and son Max and it seemed crazy to go halfway around the world and not go there to see them. We had not seen them since 2016, when…

It goes without saying that I would visit whatever Jewish/Holocaust museums New South Wales and Victoria had to offer while we were in Australia. As it happens, Tom’s cousin Catherine is a volunteer at the Sydney Jewish Museum, and was slated to help with a survivor presentation on our first day in Australia, so we…

One thing we hadn’t expected to enjoy so much in Australia were its many botanical gardens, all different, but all spectacular in their own ways. We spent a good amount of time in the Sydney and Melbourne gardens and as a bonus, also visited the very different and wonderful Eurobodalla Botanical Garden while we were…