We lived the dream on our round-the-world trip
WHEN I retired last year, my wife Helene decided I was not ready to limit my wanderings to the golf course so she began planning a once-in-a-lifetime holiday to visit our ultimate dream destinations. I traded in my golf buggy for 53 flights, 30 trains, eight boats, three cruise ships, one light aircraft, one hot air balloon, a motorbike and sidecar, countless speedboats, taxis, tuk-tuks and bicycles.
And a disobedient horse.
Our holiday or, more accurately, our adventure, included some of the “must-sees” we had read about in the tower of Traveller magazines Helene had been hoarding over the years. The Great Wall and the Terracotta Army in China were magnificent, Ayers Rock and Mount Fuji were breathtaking, while the Galápagos Islands and Amazon jungle exceeded our expectations.
It was often challenging because we deliberately pushed ourselves out of our comfort zone – Helene’s first time on a horse (that very disobedient one!), feeding sharks in Fiji, crossing Amazon jungle rope bridges 80 metres above the ground and staying in a former POW camp tested our mettle.
But I’m so glad we did them all.
It is the stories behind the scenes that I treasure just as much as the magnificent sights.
The genius of the Inca king Pachacutec and the tragedy of his Machu Picchu, the incredible Moai statues of Easter Island and the personal account of Phnom Penh Prison told to me by one of only seven survivors from the 20,000 who died. It was these and others that inspired me to write the book.
It is almost impossible to pick a favourite country, but it was the people of wonderful Myanmar who surprised me the most.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from a country that has the world’s longestrunning civil war, having been under military rule off and on since 1962. They are poor yet proud and happy people with some quite extraordinary customs and rituals, little changed over centuries.