Home-Sweet-Home, Jet Lag and LAST Learnings

After 32 hrs on the road we made it back to Durness Way in Houston. Sans problems. Halleluia! 2 days later we are still severely jet-lagged with 4 members of the household on 4 different schedules.

Trip One-Liner: Real memory-maker trip, which exceeded all expectations on all fronts

What about the missing blog entries and pictures? Gotta let it go! Can't go back and re-create all that now. Contact me, if you want the link to the full set of pics on KodakGallery.

LAST Trip Blogger Learnings for the record:
1. Devise an offline capture mechanism, so you can keep it going even when disconnected from the network. Spontaneous thoughts and comments are the best. Tedious recreations of events lose their spark
2. Blogging is more limiting than journaling. Lots of thoughts I would have put in a journal, where I controlled readership, that I didn't feel free to put in a public blog. So this didn't really replace the trip logs that we have done in the past, as I thought it might.
3. Send out a note in advance to everyone you want to share with, and explain to them the process for engaging. Don't expect everyone to just "get it". They don't always.
4. Set up a link to a photo album, or consider using a photoblog, if this might be better than a text focused blog.
5. Practice, practice before going public .... read some other blogs and get some tips on how they do this, styles, approaches, etc.
6. Make printouts of key screens in color in English interface to take with you, so you can easily navigate any language interface you encounter.

Thanks to Rhonda, Betsy and Karen for joining me on this ride ... Let's do some more of this in the future!

Signing out, Lynn & The Krausteads

Hong Kong - 19 days later

Back at the same internet PC in Hong Kong airport. Can't believe that it was 19 days ago that we landed full of excitement and anticipation, and we have certainly had a trip of a life-time. Amazing memories and great times had by all. The last night in Manila with Mei-Chiang, Kim-Hong (just flown in from Singapore) and Hendra, Rani and Nina, as well as Kim-Hong's brother Richard and family were a great way to close out the 3 weeks. Can't wait to post the pics once I get a USB port connection again.

We're in-transit from Manila to Chicago, connecting from Cebu Pacific Airlines to United. At first a bit leery of Cebu Pacific, we came to really love this new Asian airline. They are high spirited, young and no-nonsense, rather like our own Southwest Airlines. The cabin is full of lively chatter with groups of friends and maids travelling together. They even played games with prizes for the passengers. We were too slow on the uptake, but could have easily won one of the games where they asked for a picture of George Washington. I had $1 in my wallet, but couldn't reach it in time. One of the locals pulled out a $100 in the row in front of me. Don't believe that has old George on it, but they knew to look for US currency.

The TVs are full of the tragic news about the bridge in the Twin Cities. Have been thinking about all our friends and family in the north and wondering how this will be impacting them.

More from Chicago in 15 hours! Hope they have some good movies.

Checking out for several days - Off to CocoBeach

We're leaving at 0600 hours in the morning (Monday, July 30) for CocoBeach near Puerto Galero. Apparently we should expect no cell phone reception (Mei-Chiang came here not so long ago loaded up with Blackberry and laptop and had to endure a forced withdrawal period from connectivity). Soooo,,,, the phone numbers on the itinerary still stand for emergencies.

Check out the location --> http://www.cocobeach.com/web/index.htm

Will try to send sign of life in the 24 hrs that we are back in Manila before embarking on the long journey home on Friday.
Ciao for now! The Krausteads

p.s. entering week 3 now and beginning to think that we could really get used to this lifestyle.

This crew is ready for a few more days at the beach, don't you think?

Exploring the Old Walled Town in Manila

Went out this afternoon with Hendra, the real photographer amongst us, to explore the old town. (Take a look at Hendra's website, and you'll see what I mean - can't wait to see what he posts from our outing today --> www.hendralauw.com)
With no Starbucks in sight, and the heat rising in non-air conditioned cathedrals and museums, the kids chose to reveal the less graceful side of of their personalities. Haven't seen much of that in a long time, but somehow can remember giving my parents similar grief many years ago. I guess that's what they call "grandparent's revenge".

Purses, Pearls and Shoes in the land of Imelda Marcos

We have truly fulfilled our Asian shopping obligations the past 24 hrs. Bought pearls, handbags, shoes, and even some books that we wouldn't find at our local Borders at home (e.g., Rboert Goddard, a British author). Good thing we are constrained by the size of our luggage, or you could lose your grip on your wallet here. Great quality for amazing prices.

Hanging out with the Cool Crowd at "Fort Boniface" on a Sat night

Enjoyed delicious Vietnamese food and soaked up the "Fort Boniface" scene with Mei-Chiang, Hendra (another colleague from Sea-Stripes days now on the Chevron-Texaco project here too), Rina and their daughter Nina.
Very lively atmosphere, very warm, cozy and friendly feeling. Pinch me,,, are we really half-way around the world, or just down in Mexico for a quick weekend trip. Sure hard to tell the difference some of the time.
Heidi and Daniel are getting a bit weary of all this grown-up talk and socializing. "Can we please go back to Mei-Chiang's and watch the $3 DVDs we picked up at the market"

The Maid-Express is a winner

Arrived in Manila as planned before dawn on Saturday. The maid-express from Singapore was great. The perfect sleeping plane: no one bothered you with drinks, movies, etc. Everyone was sleeping - no annoying business travellers insisting that they have the lights on and clicking away on laptops. My kind of plane. Kip however will tell this story completely differently. His legs did not fit in the allotted space, the seats were very, very narrow, the plane was hot (oh, yeah that translates to perfect temp for Lynn!), no cold drinks, etc. You get the picture.
Anyway, we were delighted to be greeted by Mei-Chiang and her driver upon arrival, and once again thrilled to see all four pieces of luggage show up. That's 7 out of 7 so far on this trip.
Since Manila is on the far Eastern edge of their time zone, the sun was rising as we were driving into town around 5:30am. Even early Sat am we got caught up in traffic. Amazing sights to be seen out of the window. Evokes scenes from Bangkok in the East and Mazatlan in the West. Lots of similarities.
Mei-Chiang has a fabulous (huge) appartment on the 26th floor overlooking the business district of Makati City. The arrangements here provide for a breakfast buffet on the 31st floor everyone morning. So we indulged in yet another feast of Asian fruits, pastries, gracious service and lots of caffeine before letting everyone catch up on some rest in a real bed, before venturing out to see the sites.