Our around-the-Pacific adventure started in Florida.

The first leg was on board the M.S. Amsterdamm cruise ship which took us (and 1,300 other passengers) from Ft. Lauderdale to the Panama Canal and the Pacific.

The Panama Canal opened in 1914, but an earlier attempt to build a canal in 1890 is still clearly visible along the route to the Pacific.

On the the 30-day trip to Sydney, we passed Ecuador, Peru, Easter Island, Pitcairn Island, (Mutiny of the Bounty fame) Bora-Bora, Tahiti, American Samoa, Fiji and New Caledonia. We were really spoiled with the luxurious accommodation, food, entertainment and other activities. We were treated to life and cultures on the many different islands by live shows and met a lot of interesting people on islands such as Bora, Tahiti and Nouvelle Caledonie.

For exercise, most people walked 10 times around the deck for a distance of 4 kilometres. We were glad when we landed in Sydney and left the ship because from there did our own things, all of which we had planned via the computer.

From Sydney we flew to the northeast coast and spent a week touring the Great Barrier Reef and the surrounding territory. We took a boat trip to do some wonderful snorkeling and visited Kuranda, accessible by steam rain and Gondolas through/over the jungles. Dangers persist in the jungle in the form of spiders and snakes so we proceeded with caution.

We traveled back by plane across the barren, hot and dry desert of the Australian Outback to Adelaide on the Tasmanian Sea. We had a wonderful B&B (with steak dinner, the overnight cost about $140 Aus or $120 Can.)

From Adelaide we took the Indian Pacific train for a stretch of almost 3, 000 km to Perth on the west coast, going mostly through desert for two days and nights. There is a place where the tracks go completely straight (no curves) for 780 km. It’s in the area “Cook” (population four). Here we stopped for a while and saw signs “If you are a crook, come to Cook” and “Our Hospital needs help, so get sick”!

The night before we arrived in Perth we stopped four hours in Kalgoorlie, an old gold-mining town. Once at our destination of Perth, we rented a car and drove 120 km south to our B&B directly on the Indian Ocean with golden sandy beaches and no people. This stretches for over 2, 000 km to the north. And here you can go for a swim (with dolphins). Talking about areas, the state of West Australia has 2.5 million sq.-kms (compare that to Ontario’s 1.1 million sq.-kms). All of Australia has 5.5 million and is only the fifth largest country in the world. There are a lot of deserts and very little precipitation. Perth is a new and growing city.

Time came to board the plane heading North to Singapore via Jakarta. In all these destinations prior to landing (also Malaysia) you are warned that drug offences carry the death penalty.

Singapore is an island nation/state and very congested with high humidity and traffic density.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia was next, and what a big surprise. It’s a very modern country, with fast electric trains and six-lane super-highways. Chinese New Year was still going on with lots of celebrations, we saw the Palace, the Valley of the Golden Horses (a resort area) and the Batu Caves with 272 triple-side stairs leading into a cave where you could get lost. Downtown Kuala Lumpur has a monorail circling it and is free and there is the “Petronas” twin tower at 452 m. On the upper floor there is a sign that mentions Toronto’s CN Tower as the worlds largest (so far). There are graphic “no spitting” signs with a red line down.

Next was Bangkok, Thailand. The first thing one notices are the “Wai“ - greetings - folding hands in front of your head and bowing. Much better than shaking hands all the time full of germs, I think. 95 per cent of Thais are Buddhists and are very friendly.

We visited the Grand Palace complex, which is huge with some 300 temples and they cover 3 sq.-kms. In Thailand there is immense respect for King Rama, who has ruled for 60 years. In the temple of the “Emerald Buddha” the exquisite small figure sits high above everything, always dressed in one of four costumes (each one depicting the season of the year). These costumes are changed by the King himself who comes privately to the temple to do this during a ceremony. The thing to do in Bangkok is to travel by boats along the river from one market to another.

Something of interest: The musical and the film “ The King and I “ is banned in Thailand because it shows the King in a very poor light and also very bad manners. An area you should not miss is the north of Thailand around Chiang Mai near the Laos and Burma (Myanmar) border. Driving along the highways are large marijuana plants hidden by new embankments, flowers and monuments.