Betsy's Blog

We flew into India late at night and then took a 90 minute rainy taxi ride to the historic town of Ft. Kochi, India. It was a free flight layovers on Air Asia. We were pleasantly surprised to wake up to the colorful Hindu Holiday celebration of 'Onam'. Beautiful saris, cultural Temple dances and food carts made a festive day.  Local crowds took beach walks, but no one went swimming. It is monsoon time and the ocean is dangerous. There were hardly any tourists. The local restaurant owners asked us to write Google reviews to attract new customers. I felt sorry for them. Hopefully, more people will return to this historic city soon.  This official floral design was displayed at all the city building entrances for the holiday. We watched the hotel employee create this  design from a bagful of flower petals with an Internet pattern grid. She told us this was her first time. Good job! 👍 The next day we flew on two crowded flights to the magical city of Goa. We arrived late at ...

How has this charming city changed over the past nine months? My husband and I were here at the end of the Pandemic. Chiang Mai is busier than ever now with many restaurants, hotels and stores reopening. The tourists are slowly returning. There is a feeling of hope and revival in this historic city surrounded by a canal. Last night we listened to a Thai cowboy band perform country songs at an outdoor food court. All ages danced to their lively music dressed in flowing dresses and blue jeans. A guitar player sang 70's hits in the opposite corner of this venue. Our favorite Thai rock singer at the Night Bazaar is injured. His band still plays, but he broke his finger. It is not the same without him. 🎸  I am impressed with the Thai's ability to remember people. Yesterday we returned to our former hotel and were greeted like royalty. The front desk clerk wanted to hear all about where we have been and what we have done. Then we went to our favorite tiny Thai restaurant. The waitre...

  ' Choum Reap Sur' Hello Cambodia! '   Wow! This is the first time in the past three months that we fully unpacked. We arrived in this second-largest city 'Siam Reap' at a new, but empty airport. It is the gateway to the 9th-century ruins of Angkor, the seat of the Khmer Kingdom in the 9th-15th century. We were first off the plane and out of Customs in two minutes. Now that's a record! A tiny taxi 'Tuk Tuk' picked us up for our $9 ride into town. We drove past skinny cows in the surrounding rice fields. Our driver explained that cows have parasites and a poor diet which cause health problems here. Cows only cost $220 in Cambodia which is a low price. There are mostly working cows here that are not sold for meat.  Ten minutes later, we arrived at our next home away from home. We were greeted by the French owner of a large expat home. We met a British guest who works online here for months. We have  a poolside room with a refrigerator and two burners for ...

  After a six-hour flight from Bangkok, we landed at a tiny open-air airport on a tiny island in the Maldives. 💦We then proceeded to Customs where we needed an online Customs Form. Hmm...we never saw that on the Internet. So we found the QR code on the wall to fill out the form, but there was no Internet in the airport. Then an employee offered to complete our form on his phone and then we took a photo of the form. He had to do that for other passengers too. Luckily, we returned to Customs and passed through successfully. It was the beginning of our rough entrance to this country. Over an hour later, the boat captain ⛵showed up from the Ferry. He said he can't take us to the island for a couple of hours because of the rough sea. Then he told us to buy sea sickness pills at the airport pharmacy which was a mob scene. Ugh! We waited in the storm that was blowing rain into the airport. Things were about to get wilder! Finally, the ferry boat arrived at the airport dock!🛥 After ...

Sawadee Kha! 📿🛕🐉⿓ Eight months have gone by and we are back in Bangkok Thailand.🌄In my previous blog, "More Thank One Night in Bangkok", this bustling city had just reopened. Bangkok is still the 'Same, Same' as Thais say often. However, I have noticed some changes. Two years ago, Thailand closed its borders during the Covid 19 Pandemic. We saw the first Chinese tour bus return eight months ago when we were last in Thailand. The Chinese borders are wide open now. When our plane landed at midnight nights ago at the Bangkok Airport, there were long Custom lines and additional lines had to be opened. At our previous visit, the only places open in Bangkok were Starbucks and McDonald's. Last night, this resilient city was full of lights, loud music, and street crowds. I felt overwhelmed when I got out of the taxi at our downtown hotel. I just looked around in shock! Bangkok is back with a vengeance. It is almost too crowded for me.  It is still the "Land of Sm...

  We arrived at almost midnight in the busy Bali, Indonesai Airport. We had an Uber driver waiting for us holding a sign with our name on it. Now that is service! He drove us three hours on dark, windy roads through tiny towns perched on cliffs overlooking the ocean. Our Bali teacher friend is impressed that we survived that notoriously dangerous island drive. Our corner of the island if filled with tiny, one room homes made of concrete that has weathered many storms. The highlight of each village is a colorful, ornate Hindu Temple. Bali is a very busy with cars, motorcycles, and chickens running wild in the streets. What a pleasant surprise to escape this chaos and drive into our modern bungalow resort perched high above the ocean with two pools. Each bungalow has its own sundeck has a couch and table overlooking the ocean. I think I could easily stay here for a while.  For our daily lunch, we order fresh watermelon juice and eggrolls delivered to our deck. I feel like a movi...

It's a wild adventure to jump onto a plane in the middle of the night in Kuala Lumpur and wake up five hours later in amazing Australia!  The airport was empty as we made our way into the Customs area. Only one employee was on duty and she looked very bored. I guess we gave her something to do. So she proceeded to empty my backpack and examine every item carefully. Then she smiled and held up a sealed bag of Macadamia Nuts that I had never opened. She asked if the nuts were mine and I nodded nervously. Then she pointed to Item #11 on my Australian Customs Form. Nuts were on the long list of forbidden items in this country, Why? "Keep them", I muttered while shaking my head in disbelief. "No, you can keep them," she said and then returned my disheveled backpack. I pushed everything back inside quickly before she changed her mind.  What a nutty interrogation.       Our stormy beach hotel is located in a tiny town outside of Perth. Even though its winter, time...