First Round The World Trip

Traveling Around The World In Seven Weeks!

Instead of going to Tahiti for our honeymoon, we decided to see the world in 7 weeks! We traveled from December 27th to February 15th. Our travel theme was to see the world’s famous monuments such as the Great Wall, Eiffel Tower, The Pyramid plus famous feature film locations..

We both were very inexperienced world travelers (we didn’t know that at the time 😉). This was back in the days when we were allowed to have three large checkins per person with the airline. We traveled with two oversized suitcases, two regular full size travel bags, two carry-ons, and two big backpacks in addition to our jackets and oilskin coat. We brought a heavy medium format camera, tripod, regular SLR, and two digital cameras. Because we were visiting places in both Northern and Southern Hemisphere and on the Equator, we had to pack for all weathers including our ski clothing to ski in the Alps. Our clothing were mostly made with cotton instead of synthetic materials because we didn’t know any better. We did pack our clothes in compressed bags.

We purchased two round the world (RTW) passes for the two of us. Note that the cost of the RTW pass differs quite substantially based on the first departure city. At the time, it costed a lot more if the first departure city were Los Angeles instead of Auckland (New Zealand). There were different tiers based on the total flight miles so it was important to plan our route efficiently to minimize the total miles. We had a travel agent in New Zealand to help us and booked some of our hotel bookings.

Week #1: New Zealand —> Hong Kong

The American Cup race was still going on when we were in New Zealand.  The weather at Coromandel Peninsula was so beautiful.  It was sunny all the time and daylight lasted till about 10 PM because it was summer in New Zealand.  We dug a nice natural hot pool and relaxed at Hot Water Beach. We spent a peaceful and quiet New Year Eve in the town of Hahei. The Kiwis (New Zealanders) were very friendly. We met a local who took us fishing on dinghy with his daughters.

We tried to travel very economically by taking the bus whenever we could instead of taxi. We took the bus from the Hong Kong Airport to the nearest bus station for our hotel. During unloading all the suitcases from the bus, we almost tripped over our own luggages. It was funny and yet not too funny. We looked at each others and realized how much effort to push all these suitcases with us. So we sent back one full size travel bag by mail. The cost was very reasonable. Hong Kong was fun. The hotel room was very small but the breakfast was very good. We had our laundry done from a shop outside the hotel. It was only $12 HKD but if you paid in cash, it was $10 HKD. If you could read the local language, it was $8 HKD after a certain hours. The lesson learned was it saved to know the local language. Because it was so obvious that we were tourists with our backpacks and our accents, restaurants took advantage and overcharged us. The night harbor view from Tsim Sha Tsui to Wanchai was so spectacular.  Taking the Star Ferry reminded hubby of his childhood in Hong Kong. We had a very good dim sum meal at Maxim. 

Week #2: Beijing (by train) —> Singapore

We took the train from Hong Kong to Beijing. One word of advice is not to eat the food on this train. Hubby got food poisoning from the train food. Even though we already paid for our train tickets, we had to pay additionally for our checkin luggages. When our train arrived at Beijing, they had no idea where our luggages went! We ended up paying the concierge at our hotel to retrieve our luggages the next day. While in Beijing, we visited the Forbidden City, Great Wall, and Summer Palace where the lake was frozen.  We were going to visit Harbin to see the Ice Sculpture. But hubby was still weak from food poisoning. We had to cancel the trip. We ended up staying in Beijing for 5 nights.

Singapore was a food haven. Due to food poisoning experience, hubby suggested to eat at the food court inside the hospital so it was sure clean and safe. The fish ball soup was amazingly good! It was only 5 Singapore dollars. The crab cakes (2 Singapore dollars and real crab meat!) at Bugis Junction was so delicious when hubby finally recovered from food poisoning. Singapore Zoo is a must to visit. We were still overpacked. So we sent back another full size travel bag from Singapore with all the summer clothes since the rest of the trip was for colder climate.

Week #3: Cairo (Egypt) —> Petra (Jordan)

Our Cairo experience was very unforgettable! One should see The Pyramid once in his/her life time. When we checked into the hotel, the concierge found out that we were going to tour The Pyramid on our own. He got us to hire a tour guide which came with a driver, a bodyguard, and a van all for $50 USD a day. It was totally worth it. I must say that I had never seen anything as enormous and amazing as The Pyramid. Each block that made up The Pyramid was so huge. So unbelievable that all these were man made and moved by manpower. We rode on the camels (they seem cleaner than the ones the typical tourists were riding on because of our tour guide’s recommendation). We paid the camel guys. He wanted more money. Our tour guide noticed the hassling and came over to ask what was going on. He asked us if “we are happy”. We said yes. He told the camel guys that “we are happy”. They quietly walked away. We were so surprised that Pizza Hut was just right there across the street to the entrance to the Sphinx. We thought the Sphinx was in the middle of no where. Our tour guide gave us some time to visit inside the Pyramid and told us to meet him back at Kentucky (?we were in Egypt, not US). Hubby and I both asked, “Kentucky?”. Oh, he meant KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken). After visiting The Pyramid, our tour guide suggested to take us to the Museum of Cairo but we opted to walk (a big mistake which we realized later!) because we thought it was romantic to walk along the Nile River. On our visit to the Museum of Cairo, crossing the streets at the roundabout outside the museum was completely impossible. Drivers didn’t not obey any traffic lights, street signs, or cross walks of any kind. Luckily, a policeman felt so sorry for us after watching us spending about 15 minutes trying to cross the street. He managed to stop all the traffic so he could cross the street himself to get to us and then assist us to finally cross the street to the museum. It was scary but yet a memorable moment. We learned quickly to take the taxi instead of walking from the museum to the hotel. The cab drivers outside the museum were arguing with each others about who should take us.

We hiked more than 10 miles a day up and down the Petra Valley in three days. This “rose city” was so beautiful. It was a film location for Indiana Jones. The food was great also.  There were people who used to live in the valley selling souvenirs such as camel bones, necklaces, and stones.  Their children spoke some English: “Have a look Madame.  No charge.” We also visited the Dead Sea. We bought some Dead Sea Mud which was great for the skin. (we later bought the same brand at a mall back in US, it was not the same quality as the one in Jordan).

Week #4: Athens —> Vienna —> Venice (by train)

We did the normal touristy things at Athens. Gyros were of course yummy in Greece. Watching a lot of motorcycles zipping by from the hotel balcony was fun people watching. The Parthenon and the Temple of Zeus were historical. We were standing at the rooftop of the hotel to look at the night lights of the Parthenon. We visited both the old and the new Olympic stadium.  The old stadium can seat 70,000 people and the seats are all made with marble!

When we arrived at Vienna, we toured the Schönbrunn Palace and the Opera House. My uncle and aunty drove 3 hours to Vienna to take us to Salzburg, the birthplace of the world genius classical music composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. We went to Mozart’s house (which is now a museum). We bought our most favorite chocolate of all time: Mozart Chocolate! My uncle who is a 100% foodie insisted that hubby must try the best Salzburg sausage. We ran into a guy with a long coat. He approached us and opened his coat full of watches hanging inside his coat. What a way to sell watches! Hubby naturally said “nein” (it means no in German) where he learned from watching “Hogan's Heroes” shows 😆. The guy walked away. My uncle was impressed of hubby’s German accent (he didn’t know that was the only word hubby knew). We had dinner at a pretty good Chinese restaurant in Vienna and said goodbye to my uncle and aunty when they dropped us off at the train station. We began our Europe train pass journey!

Our overnight train ride from Vienna to Venice was fun. We showered when we got to the train station feeling like backpackers. This was my second time visiting Venice; it was like a fairy tale when I first saw it. I secretly wished then that I could visit it again on my honeymoon. My wish came true 10 years later! The pizza at Venice was great! With the help from the locals, we found a few film locations for Indiana Jones Last Crusade. We were in Venice for 12 hours before we hopped on another overnight train to Nice. Since the train ticket was still valid for 24 hours, we took a day trip to Monaco after we arrived at Nice. Musée océanographique de Monaco was spectacular. There were beautiful sailboats at the marina. The World Cup rally was just ended. We visited Cannes because that was the city for the Cannes Film Festival. We ate at a restaurant in Cannes. We asked for water (it was free in US). The waiter brought us an open bottle of Evian (it could be just tap water in an empty Evian bottle) that costed us $7 Euro!

The French crepes at Nice was so delicious. Nice was where we first learned about the two hours siesta because most of the shops were closed.

Week #5: By Train: Nice —> Genoa —> Rome, Florence, Pisa —> Nice to Monaco, Cannes —> Innsbruck

We arrived at Rome, we ate at a restaurant near the train station. We thought Cioppino (I have included my recipe on the Food/Recipes on this website) was a classic Italian dish. We tried to say it with an Italian accent. The waiter had a puzzle look and had never heard of Cioppino. We later learned that it was invented by San Francisco Italian fishermen of North Beach. The Colosseum was huge and impressive. We tasted the best gelato near the Colosseum when it was so freezing outside.

We visited Florence and Pisa the next day. We ate at a Chinese restaurant in Florence. They tried to overcharge us. When I took out my calculator, they adjusted the price immediately. We almost got pick pocketed when getting on the train in Florence. I realized later that it was probably the best time for pick pocketing because of the loud whistle of the train and innocent tourists anxiously trying to get on the train to their next destination without paying attention around them.

Being so inexperienced, we didn’t know how far was the train station to our hotel in Innsbruck. When we arrived, we asked the cab driver how far was the hotel. He told us to get in and he would take us there. When we asked how much, he said 4 Euro. We got in and he literally drove us around the corner! The hotel we stayed in Innsbruck was very comfortable.  We ate dinner at Wienerwald (the famous chicken restaurant in Austria).  We ate at the café across the restaurant for the rest of the time.  Austrian bakery was so yummy. We wanted to ski in the Alps. We took the bus up to the Axium Ski Resort. I later learned that the ski level (much steeper hills) in Austria was way more challenging than the one in New Zealand. A blue ski run in Austria is equivalent to a double black diamond in US. The beautiful scenery up in the mountains and the freshly powdery snow were just magical .  Hubby skied down the steep hills while I re-learned how to snowboard by taking another beginner’s lesson (since my only snowboarding experience was twice in Mount Ruapehu in New Zealand.). I’m glad to say that I went snowboarding in the Alps!

Week #6: Budapest (by train) —> Prague (by train) —> Vienna —> Moscow

To maximize our travel time, we tried to take as many overnight trains as possible because it covered that night’s accommodation plus traveling while we sleep! Our train from Innsbruck to Budapest left around 11:30 PM.  It was a rather rough one because we only got the couchette sharing with 2 other people. 

Prague was surprisingly amazing. The food was also amazing. People were nice. We definitely hope to visit again. When we took the train from Prague to Vienna, we got off the wrong train station. Since we had to wait for the next train, we went to a cafe in the train station. No one spoke English in the cafe. We pointed to a picture that looked like a piece fried chicken (when in doubt, it is always safe to order chicken). The cashier spoke back in a lot of words that we didn’t understand. So we insisted to keep pointing at the picture to tell her that was what hubby wanted. There was an infant inside the cafe who was the only friendly person smiling at us. I never forget that moment because though I was proudly multilingual, the only person who understood me was that cute infant. When we got our food, the looking like fried chicken was actually a big fried cheese. Maybe that was what the cashier was trying to tell us. Oh well, I ate it because it was vegetarian.

We stood at Red Square in Moscow about the same spot where Arnold Schwarzenegger was in “Red Heat”. A check marked on our bucket list.

Week #7: Stockholm —> Paris —> London

Stockholm was very nice. We had delicious food there. The hotel we stayed in had beautiful design.

Winter in Paris was so cold as comparing to Budapest and Moscow. It was wet cold, the kind that penetrates through the bones. We saw the Eiffel Tower and Champs-Élysées.

London was nice because everyone spoke English. So it was comfortable for us. We had dinner at Chinatown for our Valentine’s Day 💖celebration. The visit in London felt too short. Our whole RTW trip felt like tasting food samples.

Completing 1st RTW Trip! Los Angeles —> New Zealand

Traveling to 26 cities in 16 countries in 7 weeks was definitely a challenging milestone that was out of our comfort zone. 16 cities were my first time visiting. When hubby returned back to work, one of his colleagues asked him if we are still friends 😁. Our friends jaws dropped just listening to our overall trip itinerary.

Since the RTW pass was good for one year, we completed our RTW trip by flying from Los Angeles to New Zealand on the following year. We visited Abel Tasman in South Island and had another great summer holiday in New Zealand. Unexpectedly, when we arrived on Boxing Day (December 26), all restaurants were closed. We had to buy half dozen eggs, a can of Wattie’s baked bean (for some reason, the one in New Zealand tasted so good), and a small bag of rice at the petrol station since that was all they got. We live and learn to travel better another day!

We later took another round the world trip plus many other trips and cruises. But this first RTW trip is still the very best and full of long lasting and funny memories. Every time we think of this trip, we always have this special grin on our face ☺