On December 22nd of 2023 the MV Explorer, our home for five months, maneuvered into her slip at the new Bangkok cruise port terminal. We had packed everything up the day before and the crew had picked up our luggage before we woke up at 5 AM. We rose that final ship day at five and had our last ship breakfast of mediocre dorm food. That morning the ship buzzed as everyone was making their goodbyes and promises to keep in contact. It was bittersweet for the two of us as we had gotten close to our favorite shipmates, including a few students and faculty buds and the handful of life-long learners who made it through the last segment. An unexpected bonus was hugging and saying goodbye to a few of the children we had grown to love and know well.
It was our final port after a dozen previous dockings and we were scheduled to be the second group to leave the ship for the last walk down the gangway. The immigration and docking procedures went well and less than an hour after leaving the ship we were in a taxi with some friends; we were all in a weird lets get out of here mode so we could endure more than twenty hours in the air.
Alicia is a pro at finding us good business flights for the long hauls so it was good that she found us a consolidator for our return flight. It was a great deal and the Taiwanese airline had OK service although the food did not measure up to other flights, including our great long haul with Turkish Air from Istanbul to LA the year before. This was a treat for me as I still recalled my first trans-Atlantic flight via Icelandic Air more than fifty years ago. It felt decadent to go business class, but I’ve gotten over it since then. In this case the big Airbus we came home on was an older one. It kept us up but looked tired and ready for a face lift. I’m grateful that Alicia’s knows how to play the long-haul travel game as she knows how to deal with all the point, dollar, and special offerings. I just go along with it all as it makes our travel easier at the start and at the end of our adventures.
The flight from Bangkok to LA across the belly of the Pacific began and ended on the winter solstice. It was also the first new day of my seventy-seventh year. Once home we got sucked into our standard manic routine of unpacking everything before we went to bed and then we spent the new few days washing loads of clothes, checking the house for bugs, restocking the kitchen, and going through a box of mail, most of it junk. We worked well together during this crazy time, and it was all good except for the poor sleeping bouts. Two days after we arrived home, we spent a drowsy Christmas eve with the girls and a few days later we spent New Years with our best travel friends out in the desert. Our friends hosted a welcome home New Year’s celebration and I struggled to stay awake for the countdown to 2024. It was weirder than ever to return home after five months away and to already start thinking about leaving in a month for New Zealand.
I still don’t feel synced up yet. The signs of my unease are all around me. Maybe a dozen books lying around that I’ve started, not one holding my attention for more than a few pages. We ordered a new bed, a good one as it will be our last. Clearly a good decision. I can tell we’re anxious for the next leap as we’ve been tightening up our New Zealand itinerary and checking out potential month-long rentals in Spain and Portugal for our fall adventure. We’ve already made air arrangements to fly to and from Iberia this fall. Our focus is now on prepping for the rest of our 2024 travel cycles.
Now it’s time to focus on the real challenge, returning to my blog and book. The book has been gestating and uneasily gasping for attention for the last year and it’s past time for a rebirth. Then there’s the south, Latin America, pulling at me. I pray time remains for us to travel down the spine of the Americas, hopefully a 2025 adventure down the coast of Chile to Patagonia and the end of it all. Good to consider all this as the days race as the night offers little respite.
