Summary of our 3 Month Spring Adventures:
We have now returned from our 3-month Spring travels. We loved “living” in Bangkok for a month and seeing Kelvin, Chris, Ron & Tod plus their 3 children, as well as Vorapak & Jaa.
As I previously wrote, Bhutan was such a moving experience and one we cherish. The innate spirituality, the peacefulness, the wonderful people and their love of their King & his family, our guide Tandin who shared so much about his beloved country, and our new friend Sherab, who is about to expand his life fantastically by setting out on an educational venture in India, all contributed to a unique and special adventure.
In Singapore we were fortunate to catch up with Greg & Ivan, Sasha & Raymond, Herston, and Roseanne & Jerry.
We then joined the Regent Mariner. We love cruising, sleeping with the door to the terrace open listening to the sea. During this cruise we concluded that Regent Seven Seas doesn’t match our style. That said, we can’t complement our fearless leader, Captain Abhi, and his entire outstanding crew enough as they all are superb!
During our two months onboard we also enjoyed spending time with old friends, Colleen & Steve, Melanie & Becki, Elaine, Stephen & Allen, Annabelle & Ron, plus making many new friends along the way who we hope to see again.
We had some great ports and experiences, such as Cape Town and the South African wine regions where we had a blast with JP & Sally (and meeting Nicolette), were thrilled driving the sand dunes of Namibia, snorkeled in the Seychelles and Maldives, and enjoyed the beauty of the islands of Spain and Portugal.
Our itinerary was most heavily focused on Africa, particularly the cities and towns of West Africa. And the experiences there linger now at the top of our thoughts.
It’s important to remember that these are our own observations and feelings. However, we have been exposed to poverty over our many years of travel, and we anticipated a similar situation here. That said, what we saw there left us with heavy hearts.
We visited many places where West African’s were kidnaped into slavery and unwillingly shipped to the United States and the Caribbean. We saw first-hand the lingering effects of colonialism on these countries. We were disheartened to see the ruthlessness of our ancestors and recognize that much of Africa’s current economic situation is related to our actions in the past.
The population of West Africa is already very young, with an average age in most countries of about 17 years old, and in so many places we were told that the average family sizes are 10 children as this enhances the father’s legacy in the community. At the same time, most places we visited are experiencing 35 to 50% employment, and we learned of several examples where those that work are severely underemployed. We saw many children not in school but rather doing adult jobs to bring the family food. And at the same time we witnessed significant unsanitary conditions and terrible pollution.
We first experienced poverty in many developing countries in Asia 25+ years ago, and on subsequent visits we have seen huge progress. In India and Vietnam, for instance, the country’s had thriving economic growth from industry to lift them up; in Africa we didn’t see much industry, but we did see huge investment by the Chinese, predominately in infrastructure.
It is our personal concern that, with the challenges of the past, stories of corruption compounded by climate change and job elimination by AI, we wonder if Africa can ever follow in Asia’s footsteps.
We know we are very fortunate to have experienced a glimpse into these many African countries, and it reinforces our acknowledgement of how truly lucky we are to have been born where we were born, and all the opportunities it has afforded us.
It was a rough ride (literally often, and figuratively) and we are pleased to now be home and anticipate future adventures.