Around the Southern World or RTSW or better yet "The endless summer tour" Part 2

The second country in our RTSW will be in the Land Down Under - Australia. Why you may ask. Well when you go around the world you need to pick a direction and stick with it. Yes, we did head east first to go to Rio but the cruise has us in Chile at the end, so go west. Besides it takes less time to fly to Oz from South America than it does from SFO.

The name Australia (pronounced [əˈstɹæɪljə, -liə] in Australian English, is derived from the Latin Terra Australis ("southern land") a name used for lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times. We are not really spending that much time in Oz and will only go to Sydney (New South Wales), Cairns (Queensland), the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), and Perth (Western Australia). We will not see Uluru (also known as Ayers Rock), nor Melbourne or Darwin. We should still see lots of marsupials. For the GBR portion we will be out on a boat for 3 nights but it will be jellyfish season so snorkling will require the use of 'Stinger suits". Dick will try a scuba dive and I won't as I can't clear my ears well enough not to get seasick. Yeah it does happen and it ain't pretty.

From Oz we fly to Indonesia to the island of Bali. Below is a map of Indonesia and you really need to look to find the tiny island of Bali.

Okay find Bali and Singapore

It has been a lifelong dream for me to go to Bali. I don't really know why I have this desire but I do like Gamelan music. And besides what is not to like to sit on a sandy warm beach.  As we are a bit more mature now I have chosen to stay in Sanur or as some like to call it Snore for its lad back quality. We may take a trip to Kuta to see the over commercialization and nightclubs but probably won't.

The next stop will have us flying to just above the Equator to Singapore. This is the one stop that will be above the Equator until we head back home through France.

 

I don't know much about Singapore other than what I have seen on the news and I don't chew gum much anymore. Dick has been to Singapore back in his Navy days but he expects the City/Country to have changed a lot. 

Singapore has done much to expand its size by dredging and adding new land. The airport is built on such land.

The next country on our RTSW is Africa. We were in Northern Africa in 2014 so now we will get to see what the southern portion is like. More in Part 3.

Soy what's this all about?

I know that many of you are wondering what I am writing about and what does a fan have to do with soy. Well the Chinese character for cooked rice is 飯 (fàn) and Dick and I are about to embark on another travel adventure, this time in Asia for the month of February. 

What part of Asia you may ask...well if you ask Dick he will say all of it but not really. The current plan is for us to go to Japan where I will try to find the house I was born in, see many of the historical sites in the Osaka/Kyoto area (hey wasn't my being born there historical enough), Tokyo, Sapporo Snow Festival, travel to China -Shanghai, Harbin for their Snow and Ice Festival, then just to get the chill off we go to Viet Nam -Saigon (okay Ho Chi Minh City), up the Mekong River, Siem Reap, and Bangkok. 

Not knowing what type of internet restrictions or connections we will experience in China and the lack of connections during the river cruise portion, the postings will be sporadic and delayed. But as we did for Part 1 and 2 of our European adventures there will be albums posted for all to see and many other photos will be included in the blog. For those who were tortured by my blog ''Adventures in Europe - Part 3''
will be thrilled to know that I will be publishing some more photos that I have ''improved'' and the link to my Adventures in Europe - Part 3 blog can be found on the right of this blog page. 

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So here's to adventure and a happy and exciting 2013.