Final thoughts:
The highlight of the trip was the
people we came across in all the countries. Everyone was so friendly and
helpful, happy to talk to us and wanted photos of us with them. We didn’t see
many Western tourists, so I guess we were a novelty for them.
With 19 flights on this trip, we had
no cancelations and only one was late and kept our guide waiting.
Interesting translations at times like
a Danish was called a Denmark and many strangely worded signs.
We must look “old” as many younger
people were eager to help us with luggage on and off planes. We also directed
to the special lines at immigration.
We travelled through many time zones,
some countries only 15 to 30 minutes different from each other. That’s another
thing easier on a ship as they do a time change on sea days with time to
acclimate.
I think I mentioned before that many
of these countries brought me to tears more than once. A few of these countries
don’t get a lot of tourists and their need is great. We truly felt the sense of
just how privileged we are.
With a couple of the countries on the
“do not travel” list, we never felt unsafe. We dodged the freak snowstorm at
Mount Everest, we just missed the protesters burning many buildings in
Kathmandu, Myanmar has had civil unrest for many years, we just happened to be
in Bangladesh when the trial and verdict of their Prime Minister was going on,
and since she fled to India, they were on alert there as well.
The best “happy accident” was being
there during the Diwali festivals.
We learned we aren’t as young as we
used to be, and these long land trips are harder than cruising. Sitting on the
floor and sleeping in some less-than-ideal hotels aren’t as fun as they used to
be.
I have one more land trip planned for
the 5 Stans, the Caucuses, and Mongolia and I will try to make it shorter than
this one.
As always, we can never pick a
favorite country. Everyone always asks and honestly, I don’t know why one must
choose. There are always special moments that rise to the top. We had beautiful
views of Everest, and we were surprised at the beauty of Bhutan (architecture)
we got the clearest views of the Himalayas in Nepal; we marveled at how diverse
Myanmar is from place to place, Bangladesh was interesting and Kolkata being
Bengali was more like Bangladesh than the rest of India. (including the food)
It was disappointing not to see a
tiger, but it wasn’t meant to be on this trip. The guides tried hard to find
them.
Sitting on a yak in Tibet for a photo
op was a highlight. Cooking our meal in Lhasa was great fun and tasty! We’ll
never forget the hike to the Tiger’s Nest in Bhutan in the rain. Myanmar has
been on my bucket list for a long time, and it was awesome to experience it.
This trip touched our hearts and our souls.
Birds: 71 new species were seen on this trip, and our Life Count
is now 1,879 species.
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