Hello again, Australia

Well, we left New Zealand today.  I doubt that we will ever see a place again that is so naturally beautiful.  We truly loved our time there.

We flew Air New Zealand from Queenstown to Melbourne. The flight was about 3 hours long and uneventful.  Justin edited some pictures while I took a nap and watched The Office and Parks and Recreation.

In Melbourne, we are staying at The Park Hyatt.  Justin warned me that we may not get some of the “perks” that we got at the other Hyatt properties because his diamond status expired a couple of days ago, although he knew that we were booked for the base level suite.  Well……move over Tokyo and Sydney, we have a new hotel front runner! Somehow, we got upgraded several levels, and we are staying in the “ambassador suite!”  This place is crazy!  It is about 1800 square feet with a huge living room, giant bedroom, kitchen, guest bathroom, enormous walk-in closet, and ridiculous master bathroom.  I spent the first several minutes jumping on the bed.  I’m pretty sure that’s what most of the guests in this suite do, right?

DSC01980  DSC01959

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Singapore Wrap Up

Singapore was a very quick stop for us.  We were there for 3 nights, and one of our two full days was raining.  That said, we liked what we experienced of Singapore.

Singapore culture is a blend of many different cultures.  Per Wikipedia, the majority of the country is of Chinese ancestry with “significant minorities” of Indian and Malay people.  We definitely noticed the Indian population; the Malaysians were probably pretty difficult to distinguish from the Chinese.

As a result of all the different backgrounds, Singapore has four official languages – English, Malay, Mandarin, and Tamil.  English is the most common with roughly 80% of the country literate in English.  Also, all official government business is conducted in English.

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Singapore

We made it to Singapore!

We left Koh Lanta at 11:00 am and took a car to the Krabi airport. We didn’t have any issues with the ferries and we made good time to the airport.

Our flight was delayed about 40 minutes because the Thai princess was arriving at the airport (at least that’s what the rumor was) and there was a good bit of commotion going on– lots of extra security and people trying to catch a glimpse!

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Japan Wrap Up

Disclaimer:  The following is thorough…extremely thorough.  I write so much on my trip reports (and always have – I’ll probably post some retro reviews when things get slow) for several reasons:  As a journal/report for myself, to help others who may be planning trips to  the same destinations, and (now) to benefit anyone who finds our blog while searching for specific terms (I know I relied on others’ blogs in planning).  The point is, the post is long.  If you don’t feel like reading, scroll through and find the pictures you like then read about them…there will not be a quiz when I return…unless that is a trick.  So here it is, the Japan wrap up:

Arriving in Japan after a 2 hour 45 minute flight in Cathay Pacific business class (which was excellent), it quickly became evident that we were not in Hong Kong any longer…The country’s respective cross walk sounds do a better job of describing the difference than I could:  Hong Kong was like an old time bell/ringing fire alarm going off when it was time to cross the street; Japan was like a pleasant, occasional intercom chime.

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Hong Kong Wrap Up

We have departed Hong Kong, and it was a lot of fun on the whole.  Getting around was surprisingly easy.  The MTR is easy to navigate and is very cheap and efficient.  The city buses were a little more complicated – but not too bad.  Taxis are also plentiful and relatively inexpensive.

Navigating

Navigating

Hong Kong is extremely safe.  At no point did we feel even the slightest bit threatened.  I would not have any hesitation walking around the city in the middle of the night.

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