The mother of all trips

We are finally off on vacation. It’s been a long and very difficult year, but now it’s time to relax and be happy. Or rather, since we are going both to the US and Sweden, it’s time to spend time with our families … People have died, gotten married, divorced and remarried, and we’ve only heard about it through emails.  Diane hasn’t been in the US for seven long years, and the American family hasn’t even seen Rima, our youngest.

As you can imagine, moving 6 people from the South China Sea to Europe, to the US and then back again, is both costly and complicated, and trying to make the trip cheaper only adds complexity. Thus the following itinerary:

June 26, Taipei-Singapore, hotel in Singapore.
June 27, night train Singapore-Kuala Lumpur.
June 28, flight Kuala Lumpur-London, hotel at Stanstead.
June 29, London, staying with our friend Vicky.
June 30, flight London-New York.

We’re staying in the US some three weeks and then we’re going to Sweden via London.  After a month in Sweden we are flying back to East Asia, reversing the itinerary above. We will, as Saga points out, do more than our share for global warming. Apparently it’s 290 dollars per person to offset the carbon emissions. Such arguments, however, don’t work with mothers and mother-in-laws.

I will miss Taiwan. Strange to take time out from our oriental adventure to visit that other, all-too-familiar, world. I’ll keep my Chinese lessons on my mp3 player. We’re back here at the end of August.

Reports will follow.

The mother of all trips

We are finally off on vacation. It’s been a long and very difficult year, but now it’s time to relax and be happy. Or rather, since we are going both to the US and Sweden, it’s time to spend time with our families … People have died, gotten married, divorced and remarried, and we’ve only heard about it through emails.  Diane hasn’t been in the US for seven long years, and the American family hasn’t even seen Rima, our youngest.

As you can imagine, moving 6 people from the South China Sea to Europe, to the US and then back again, is both costly and complicated, and trying to make the trip cheaper only adds complexity. Thus the following itinerary:

June 26, Taipei-Singapore, hotel in Singapore.
June 27, night train Singapore-Kuala Lumpur.
June 28, flight Kuala Lumpur-London, hotel at Stanstead.
June 29, London, staying with our friend Vicky.
June 30, flight London-New York.

We’re staying in the US some three weeks and then we’re going to Sweden via London.  After a month in Sweden we are flying back to East Asia, reversing the itinerary above. We will, as Saga points out, do more than our share for global warming. Apparently it’s 290 dollars per person to offset the carbon emissions. Such arguments, however, don’t work with mothers and mother-in-laws.

I will miss Taiwan. Strange to take time out from our oriental adventure to visit that other, all-too-familiar, world. I’ll keep my Chinese lessons on my mp3 player. We’re back here at the end of August.

Reports will follow.