Retrospective

Now that we've been home for a while and had a chance to reflect, I wanted to share a few more photos from the trip. Maybe reflect on the things we saw and did. We both agreed that this was a really great trip. One of our best. There is very little we would change. Maybe we would stay in different neighborhoods in Cambodia or Hong Kong. There are probably a few things we wouldn't bother to see. But that's minor. It was a great trip. We had a lot of fun and experienced some great cultures.



The Top 5 Highlights:

1. Mekong Delta speedboat cruise. This was such a unique opportunity to see life outside the city in Vietnam. We got to experience a taste of how farmers and villagers live in Vietnam. The contrast with Ho Chi Minh City was stark. The tour we chose was perfect. We didn't see any other tour groups on the trip, and the guides were great. We spent the whole day on a boat rather than a bus like many similar tours. We tasted authentic food and met some great people. A great tour for sure.

2. Angkor Wat and the rest of the temples. It was amazing to see these structures built so long ago. You could experience a bit of what it was like to live in the Khmer Empire centuries ago. The art and architecture of these temples was fantastic. There was a great mix of preserved temples alongside temples that have been given over to the effects of the jungle and human hands. The temples themselves were testament to what people can build, while the ruined state of many were a display of nature's dominance in the long run. It was a once in a lifetime experience

3. Hong Kong's skyline. It's iconic, known the world around. The blending of Chinese and European cultures in Hong Kong makes for a unique and vibrant city. The fact that the usable land is so small means that they have undertaken great feats of construction. Some of the largest skyscrapers were literally built on top of what used to be water. Others are nestled into the sides of mountains. The buildings themselves are designed with aesthetics in mind, which makes it one of the greatest skylines in the world. At night, the skyline lights up with led billboards and light shows. It's easy to ignore the advertisement and just enjoy the lights.

 4. Kowloon and Mongkok. In Hong Kong, there are neighborhoods all over the city. After visiting many of them, we decided that our favorite was an area known as Mongkok. It is located in the Kowloon area, across the harbor from the Central business district. This area was full of markets, shops, restaurants, malls, etc. The food was great, much of it served from street-side vendors. We ate fish balls, wontons, random hunks of meat that may have been pork tenderloin or tongue or something else. We also discovered egg balls, which were fantastic, and we hope to learn to make them ourselves soon.

5. Cooking school in Siem Reap. We really enjoyed spending a few hours learning about Khmer food. Our instructor was patient and thorough. We got to experience the market with a local, and then taste the food that we made with the ingredients we saw in the marketplace. We learned a lot about this cuisine that is not commonly found in the US. It was delicious and fun.

We've been home for about a week now. We're mostly re-adjusted to our home time zone, and somewhat readjusted to the weather. We knew about the massive snowstorm that hit Madison while we were gone. When we got home, we assessed the damage. Our big pine tree lost a couple of medium sized branches. That was the extent of most of the damage in our yard. The fruits were all ok. Some shrubs were squished, but hopefully will be ok. Our arbor vitae shrubs were splayed and squashed. I had to don my boots and coat and clear them off and tied all the limbs together. Hopefully they stay that way when we remove the twine in a few months. Our neighbor told us that he had come over to our house when he saw the power go out. Turns out a branch or something knocked down our service wire that feeds the house. Probably was our neighbor's pine tree that drops branches every time the wind gets strong. This time there was about a third of the tree down. That tree has got to go. Many thanks to Dave and Rebecca, who took care of our snow and our house while we were gone. We are truly blessed to have good neighbors. We're back at work and things are pretty much back to normal. Amazing how we can go half-way around the world, experience unique cultures and see amazing sights, then come home to our regular life and jump right back in.