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We lost a day during the transit, having crossed the international date line, so it is now January 17 in Bangkok.

Although we both took a sleep aid last night we were up at 4:30 AM local time, ready to tackle the world. Luckily the breakfast buffet is open from 3- 10:30 AM.

We spent the rest of the morning reading, writing a blog entry and napping again in an attempt to have our bodies catch up to the local time zone. We left for the airport about 11:15 AM and leisurely worked our way through getting boarding passes and checking luggage, clearing security ( no TSA precheck over here) and immigration as we were flying internationally to the country of Myanmar. We even had time to grab a sandwich. Our flight to Myanmar left on time at 1:45 PM and an hour later we were landing in the capitol, Yangon.

Compared to the hustle and bustle of the Bangkok airport, the Yangon airport is much smaller and quieter. It was easy to navigate and to clear their immigration. A bit of trivia is that the Myanmar tim e zone is only 1/2 hour different than Bangkok, not the usual one hour change normally associated with time zones. Don’t ask me why that is. Obviously some wizard decided that was the best way to handle the issue when time zones were originally set up.

As promised we were met by our private tour guide, Nyi Nyi, and his driver, as we emerged from baggage claim. It was a quick 20 minute drive to our hotel for the next three days,the  Melia Yangon, part of a Spanish hotel chain. The hotel is impressive and our room is equally impressive with a view of Inya Lake, one of the major attractions here in Yangon. We know we will enjoy our stay here.

We chose to have a light dinner at the hotel and it also was equally impressive and reasonably priced.

Fellow travelers, Gerry and Sue Bishop, are due to land at 11:45 PM tonight. We told Nyi Nyi to tell them not to wake us when they arrive!

Tomorrow our formal tour of Myanmar begins.

We had an 8AM flight from Seattle to Vancouver, B.C. I always have some misgivings when a short hop is required to make a connection to a major international flight. Will something go wrong, causing us to miss that connection? We left the gate on time but sat on the runway, with engines running for almost 30 minutes. Will there be a problem? We did have 2.5 hours between flights but what if this flight got cancelled? There was no other alternative to get us to Vancouver in time. Finally the captain did announce there had been a small mechanical issue that needed resolving but it was fixed and we were on our way.

The only other “glitch” in Seattle was that Alaska Airlines could not print the boarding passes for our flights on China Southern. They assured us we could get them at the gate in Vancouver.

It was a marvelous winter day in Seattle- sun and mountains everywhere. The 30 minute flight was a sightseeing wonder and included flying near our home on Miller Bay. We were both glued to our windows as we winged our way.

We whizzed through passport control in Canada and retrieved our boarding passes at the gate as promised. The 787 flight to Guangzhou actually left 5 minutes early. A minor problem developed as the audio system in our row of seats was not working. Great, and we had a 12+ hour flight ahead of us. They flight attendants were very cordial and attempted to reboot the system but were unable to get it to perform properly. They apologized profusely and brought us personal iPads to use for the flight, which worked out fine. Actually we both ended up only watching one movie (Victoria and Abdul), which, by the way, was quite good- worth watching as it is based on a true story about Queen Victoria of England. We both spent the rest of the time reading and napping.

Our route to Guangzhou took us up the coast of Alaska and down the east coast of Russia and China. Guangzhou is in southern China, near Hong Kong, which I did not know until I got to see the flight map on the TV monitor.

The food served on our two meals was some of the best we have experienced on airlines, and the staff was very attentive to our needs. It was a very pleasant flight. China Southern did themselves proud, just as the reviews said they would.

Something new we experienced as we got off the airplane was to take a bus to the terminal. Because we were in business class they provided special, small (20 Passenger) “VIP” buses to take us to the terminal. Nice touch!

We had a three hour layover in Guangzhou before our 3 hour flight to Bangkok. We left on time and slept most of the way there as we were both good and tired by then.

The Bangkok airport is big and modern, and at 11 PM it was “hopping”. There were plenty of helpful people who assisted us getting through Immigration (no problem but we had to fill out a form we did not know we had to have). Luggage arrived safely. Whew! That is always a concern as you read horror stories of lost luggage. We had taken the suggested practice of putting a change of clothing in each other’s bag, just in case one of the bags did not make it.  The luggage also had to change three different planes.

I had chosen to spend the night at the Novotel Hotel at the airport to break up out trip and allow us to recuperate. Airport local staff all spoke English and there were booths everywhere to provide information and answer questions. We easily found the shuttle area where the hotel bus quickly took us to the nearby hotel, eliminating a necessity of walking underground to it. I had considered originally doing that but thought better of it because we both were worn out.

The Novotel hotel is big, modern and fancier than other Novotel hotels we have stayed at.  An interesting policy they have is that you have the room for 24 hours from the time you check in. No need to worry about that 11AM check out time. Again, another nice touch.

The end of a very long journey. In fact we may have set a new record for getting somewhere as it was now 7 AM body time by the time we stumbled into bed. That travel record, (we hope never to repeat) is 26 hours on 3 different planes.  Hopefully, the rest of the trip will not be as stressful.

We are following our usual pattern when we have an early morning flight, by spending the night at a hotel near the airport tonight. Our flight to Yangon begins in Seattle this time. If you recall we sometimes drive to Vancouver, B.C. because international flights are often cheaper from there because of more competition.  For this trip I found the flights beginning in Seattle were just as competitive so we are leaving from here.  We have a short hop on Alaska Airlines to Vancouver, a 2 hour layover, then flights on China Southern  Airlines to Guangzhou, China and on to Bangkok, Thailand.  Although there were several options to get to Thailand, we chose to fly China Southern as the reviews of its service have been positive , plus we will be flying business class on a new 787 which is heck of an airplane.

Yes I know we are headed to Yangon, Myanmar but bad flight timing convinced me to simply spend the night in Bangkok with a mid-morning flight the next day to our ultimate destination, Yangon, Myanmar (formerly known as Burma).  As it is we land at 11PM in Bangkok and there is a Novotel hotel at the Bangkok airport terminal. We will catch up on any lost sleep, eat a leisurely breakfast and catch our 1:45 PM flight to Yangon to begin our tour of Myanmar.

We were picked up, as promised, by the transportation company at 7 AM for transfer to the Reykjavik airport. We both had a flight departure at 10:30. Mine is a non-stop to Seattle, slated for 7.75 hours ( we fight head winds traveling westward). Unfortunately Scott has to fly to Copenhagen, then to Shanghai and finally home to Auckland. He will arrive home at 6AM Saturday morning (11PM Friday night, Seattle time). Numbers like that really give you a feeling of how big this planet of ours really is.

We grabbed a cup of coffee at the airport, said our farewells and went our separate ways, both hoping we could do another father/son trip someday.

I left on time on a plane with some empty seats- a rarity these days. I even had an empty seat next to me! Spent most the time dosing, reading the book that I had never had an opportunity to even open during the trip. I arrived home on time.

Some of my impressions of Iceland.

• Iceland is a wild country: active volcanoes, glaciers, wind. It is visually beautiful but in its own unique way. It is treeless, and simply desolate in places. I was told astronauts once trained here for their trip to the moon. It is not a place for wimpy people.
• It is a much larger land mass than I had expected. Driving 37 hours and covering 1500+ miles during the last eight days proved that to us.
• I was surprised that everyone we met spoke English. Thank goodness as the Icelandic language is not an easy one to learn. All the older people told us they learned English by watching TV. The lady at the reception desk today said she learned hers watching I Love Lucy reruns.
• Iceland is not a place for lovers of warm weather. It never gets warm here. The thermometer never got above 55 degrees during our stay. People joke that if you do not like the weather it is likely to change in 5 minutes. I can attest to that- sunny and blue sky one minute; clouds and rain showers a short time later.
• Iceland is clean. I saw no evidence of discarded trash anywhere in the city or countryside.
• The architecture of the homes and buildings is pretty bland, probably influenced by its historical link to Scandinavian countries.
• The food was excellent, albeit expensive. A dinner salad or appetizers ran $20; entrees were $40-$60; drinks were $15-$25; desserts were $15-$20. The specialties of the island are lamb and fish. For the adventuresome traveler some menus offered puffin, minke whale, horse and fermented shark- we passed on all of them. All the breads were to die for. There is even a bread called “geysir bread” which is cooked underground by geothermal heat. The Iceland version of yogurt, called “Skyr”, is excellent. It reminds me of a Greek yogurt.
• I overheard a conversation that the minimum wage in Iceland is $4500/month, which might explain the high costs of the food and goods.
• Most of the young service staff in hotels and restaurants are from European countries. We met kids from Estonia, Poland, Croatia and Romania. It is easy to get a work visa there so that is why they come. The country simply does not have enough people to fill its needs.
• Tourism is growing by leaps and bounds. They expect 1.5-2 million visitors this year. Ten years ago it was 10 percent of that. Iceland is the new “place to go” for travelers. The country does have a great system in place to deal with visitors. The self drive tour we were onworked flawlessly, from being met at and returned to the airport, to the car rental, to the one night stays at pre-arranged hotels, to the travel material available to visitors. All the brochures and attractions had descriptions in both Icelandic and English language. Likewise for displays in the museums. Roads are well-marked. Our rental car had GPS and I believe all cars do. There is free internet almost everywhere, even in the most isolated parts of the country we travelled through.

Should you go to Iceland? No, not if you are looking for warm sandy beaches to lounge on. Yes, if you love nature and the wild. It is big; it is bold. It is for those who appreciate the outdoors and what it has to offer.

After experiencing Iceland I leave you with the following quote:

“Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.” – Gustave Flaubert

Normally people leave the next morning after completing the Ring Road drive. We had chosen to spend one extra day to allow us time to see the sights in Reykjavik itself and to relax(?) before heading home.

Reykjavik is certainly a walking city, the major shopping and historical center not being too large. Our first stop was at the Reykjavik Settlement Center which is located where builders uncovered the ruins of a Viking longhouse that dated back to 871AD. Part of the excavation is still visible and the city fathers have built yet another very good museum around it which describes the evolution of Iceland and its people. It is well done and certainly worth a visit by anyone going to Iceland.

From there we walked to the National Museum where we saw artifacts from the early history of Iceland. Our feet and minds wore out before we got much beyond the history up to the Reformation when Iceland moved from the Catholic religion to Lutheran. A future trip would be necessary to explore Icelandic history beyond that period. Again the museum was excellent and I enjoyed it immensely.

We went back to the hotel to rest our feet (and bodies) for a while before heading out to an early dinner (Italian tonight) as Scott had purchased tickets to the evening performance of “Icelandic Sagas-The Greatest Hits- in 75 Minutes”, a two actor comedy presented in Reykjavik’s lovely modern concert hall, Harpa. It was a hoot.

Back to the hotel to finish packing as we will be picked up at 7AM for transfer to the airport.

As the trip progressed Scott made it a game to push the daily “steps” with the hopes of getting at least 10,000 steps per day average. Today we completed 18,357 steps, with 9 floors of elevation gain. That made the total for the 10 day trip of 123,758 steps with 222 floors of elevation gain. Just seeing those numbers made me proud, but tired!  Goodnight!

 

 

 

 

This is our last day on the road, as we are due back in Reykjavik this evening. The goal today is to visit two of the major tourist sights on Iceland which are part of what they call the “Golden Circle” drive, a day trip that most visitors do then visiting the island.

We bid farewell to our funky farm lodging, forgoing a chance for one more ice cream before we left. Our first stop was at the “Geysir ( pronounced gay-zeer)” hot springs area, home to two of the famous geysers in Iceland. Unfortunately the “Great Geysir” is not so great anymore. It had been active for over 10,000 years, gushing water 80 meters in the air,  but it has been mostly inactive since earthquakes in 2000. It simply languishes as a hot spring now but will probably achieve its former glory some day.

Luckily its nearby little sister, “Strokker” , is very active, spouting about every 7-8 minutes. It only reaches heights of 15-30 meters but  its frequency is enough to entertain those of us who came to see it.  We stood and watched it for quite a while, wondering if there was a “trigger” that announced its impending eruption. Scott had a rapid fire camera and proceeded to catch the action on one of the eruptions. Sure enough there is a signal – a bubble of water appears prior to the eruption, and he caught it on film.

Not too far away is the most famous waterfall in Iceland- Gulfoss (Golden Falls). A double waterfall that drops 32 m before passing through a fairly narrow canyon. It is known for its rainbows, but there were none to be seen while we were there. The waters were almost lost in the 1920s when developers wanted to dam the river. The landowners refused to sell and even though the developers managed to get the government to OK the project, his daughter walked barefooted to Reykjavik and threatened to throw herself into the falls if they allowed the project to proceed. Luckily, the developers backed off and the world can still enjoy this spectacular waterfall.

I had read in a guidebook that nearby was a reconstruction of what they thought a 10th century Viking home looked like. This I wanted to see. Unfortunately the normally manned site closed for the season the prior week. Bummer!  We did get to walk around and take some pictures of what the homestead probably looked like back then.

Also nearby was another waterfall called “Haifoss”, the 2nd highest (122m) waterfall in Iceland. The bad news was it is located 6+ km up a very bad rocky road. Fearlessly we said, let’s do it. We found the turnoff and started in the direction of the falls. The road became rougher, the travel speeds dropped to a crawl, and the rocks we had to ride over became larger.

Luckily a car from the opposite direction told us that the road gets much worse and unless you had a ton of time it was not worth the trip. However, he urged us to continue up this road for about 0.5 km to see a magnificent valley called “Gjain”. We did and saw a jaw dropping valley with several waterfalls, and a beautiful small river running through it. It was an oasis set in the middle of a landscape that was moon-like in appearance. Remember the movie “The Lost Horizon”, about a place called Shangri-la?  This could have been it.  We descended into the valley floor, took lots of photos and simply absorbed the beauty of it. It was simply breathtaking and I believe it was the prettiest place I had seen while in Iceland.

The final “suggested” stop when driving the Golden Circle is at the tourist-oriented “Blue Lagoon” which is basically a high-end hot springs spa. We passed.

We retraced our steps to Reykjavik where we dropped off our luggage at the hotel and returned the car. We had driven 2484 km (1543 miles) on our 8 day journey around the island of Iceland. We spent 37 hours behind the wheel and countless hours on our feet seeing all the sights there were to see.

We celebrated our successful trip with a beer at the local pub followed by dinner at a sushi restaurant where I ate “cooked” sushi ( i.e. chicken teriyaki)!

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a local pub to watch the rest of the Iceland soccer game against Ukraine as part of the qualifying play for the next World Cup. About a dozen of the locals were watching the game;  no women were there.

Steps for the day were 14,479 with 30 floors of elevation change. Not bad for a ” late middle-aged” 76 year old!

 

We have gone as far West as the trip called for. It was now time to head south where we will visit some of the more popular and well  known Iceland sights.

The information provided by the tour company as part of the driving package includes suggested sights to see as you drive around the island. One of the highly recommended stops is at the Settlement Centre in the village of Borgarnes, which became our first stop of the day.

In two exhibitions The Settlement Centre tells the sagas of The Settlement of Iceland and Iceland´s most famous Viking and first poet, Egill Skallagrimsson. They provide you with an audio headset (available in 14 languages) to use as you walk through a series of multi-media dioramas in 30 minutes,  explaining how and when Norwegian explorers ( the Vikings) first settled Iceland. It talks about how the people established the first parliament in the world in 930 AD. It is very well done. I was impressed with the quality of the exhibit and the technology behind it.

The second exhibit covered the life of Egill Skallagrimsson(c.904-c.995). Again we were given an audio guide and walked through a series of multi-media scenes while we learned about his life and accomplishments. Egill’s Saga is one of the famous Icelandic sagas written in the 13th century.

It was lunch time by the time we finished exploring the museum and since this was the last decent sized town in the area we decided to eat at the highly rated cafe right there at the Settlement Centre. It was a good choice as they offer a soup and salad buffet( with freshly baked, warm bread) which was outstanding. The food reviewers were correct; it was worth the stop.

Continuing on we stopped at Deildartunguhver, the largest hot spring area in Europe. They collect the hot (97 degrees C) geothermal hot water, pump it up to distances of 54 km to use a heat source for homes and businesses. By the way much of Iceland’s homes and businesses are heated with geothermal energy. Nearby these hot springs are hothouses where vegetables are grown. There was a nearby roadside stand selling bags of fresh tomatoes grown in these hothouses.

We continued driving inland and stopped to see an unusual waterfall called Hraunfosser. It is a unique in that it is composed of rivulets of water seeping out of a lava field covering an area of over 900 meters along the river. It is not high; it is not massive in volume; it is simply a pretty waterfall.

We had several guide books as part of our travel gear. A reference to the Vidgelmir lava cave near where we were intrigued us. Lava flows  around 900CE created a 1.6km long cave. The roof collapsed long ago, creating an entrance to the cave. Tours that covered about 1/3 of the cave are now being offered.  Neither of us have seen or experienced such a phenomenon-walking through a cave created by the flow of lava. We agreed we should take the 1.5 hour tour. We were outfitted with hard hats and head lamps and put on warm clothes with hat/gloves as they said the temperature inside the cave was in the 30s. They have built a nice catwalk system with lighting so you do not have to scramble over rock piles, making the narrated tour easy to do. It was very interesting and worth the time/money.

Our route to that night’s lodging led us past Pingvellir National Park, the site of the parliaments held from the 10th century, where representatives met to discuss create the laws of the land. It is also the site where one can snorkel (in dry suits) in a very cold water lake and see where the actual American and European tectonic plates meet.  Scott had done this prior to my coming so we skipped it now, not that I would have been interested in diving into ice-cold water!

We had general directions ( “farm accommodation on road 36 about 8 minutes east” )to our lodging and I started to be concerned as we left the last village in the area and were headed into an unpopulated area without seeing it. Did we miss it somehow?  It was getting late and we had not had dinner. Where could we eat? We keep driving a bit further and came upon a sign pointing us up a hill to a farm. Sure enough, it was really a working farm. As we checked in we learned that the lodging had both a restaurant AND an ice cream parlor that served it own meat and dairy products. Dinner and dessert (😀) was solved!

By now Scott had me counting steps on a regular basis. He said today was a “down” day: 7776 steps, 21 floors of elevation! Personally I was content with the numbers.

 

 

 

By now you should have realized that Icelanders take great pride in creating words with as many letter as possible. I have totally given up on trying to pronounce the words!

We slept soundly to 7:30 this morning. We must have been tired. It had stopped raining but more rain is expected today.

We headed further west into the Snaefellsnes Peninsula, driving straight through until we got today’s destination, the town of Stykkisholmur (population 1195) where we were able to check into our hotel before proceeding for further exploration on the peninsula.

It was close to lunch by now and Scott wanted to stop by the grocery for some luncheon items. I happened to see a food truck across the street selling the famous Icelandic delicacy -the Icelandic hotdog. I had heard a lot about it and was told it was good so it had to be my lunch! I order the “classic” which means the beef/pork/lamb dog comes with mayo, ketchup, sweet mustard and fried shredded onions on it. I was somewhat skeptical about that combination, but “when in Rome….” I selected it as is. It was delicious!

Rain had returned by now, sometimes fairly hard, but mostly light or simply a drizzle during the whole day. We drove the entire Snaefellsnes Peninsula, stopping at locations that looked interesting. We hiked to the top of an extinct volcano (686 steps).

We walked out to rocky beaches and 2.5 km from one seaside village to another.

 

We did not get to see the primary attraction on the peninsula, the Snaefellsjokull volcano and glacier, as it was completely shrouded in clouds on this day, but we stopped at the visitor’s center to see a picture of it and learn about the area.

One of the stops we made was at a small slot canyon that I chose to not go see as it involved walking up a river into a very narrow ( less than 10 feet wide) canyon. I grabbed a power nap in the car while Scott ventured forth to see what it was all about. I have included a few photos he took on his exploration of the canyon.

We drove through grassy pasture land between tall mountains, barren lava fields and along rugged seashores with not much indication of inhabitants. This is still a sparsely inhabited country.

We returned to our hotel in Stykkisholmur in early evening and walked to another Trip Advisor recommended restaurant (Sjavarpakkhusid) a few blocks away on the harbor. Not that there are a ton of choices in these small towns. The featured seafood in this town is blue mussels “bought from local fisherman, Simon” according to the menu. I believe it. Outstanding! Scott selected the seafood stew which was equally excellent. The restaurant was small and tables were quite close and we ended up chatting with a young couple from Atlanta who were also visiting Iceland for the first time.

Back to our room in the small hotel that felt more like a home than a hotel where I worked a little on this blog before sleep overtook me, caused a lot by the 11,534 steps and 51 floors of elevation that I accumulated today.

Need to back up a couple of days to tell you about our attempt to see the northern lights. We had had several days of clear skies so Scott said he was going to wake up at 3 AM and go outside to see if the northern lights were visible. My response was “wake me if they are there; otherwise let me sleep”!  I did hear him get up, get dressed and drive away ( to get away from the lights around the hotel). That is all I recall as I fell asleep again. The next morning I asked what happened and Scott said he sat for about 20 minutes in the absolute dark but then saw some light on the horizon which he realized was probably the early sign of dawn. We came back and went to sleep. Later we learned that people did see the lights around midnight; we were simply too late. Last night was also fairly clear and the hotel we were at asked if we wanted to be wakened if northern lights appeared. Of course, was our response. The sad news is the call never came so witnessing the aurora borealis is still on my bucket list!

Back to today.  We had to hurry to Husavik, which calls itself  “the Whale Spotting Capital of the World” for our 10 AM whale watching trip off the north coast of Iceland. We have learned that driving always takes longer than you expect in Iceland.perhaps it is that distances are not far but roads are not often straight point to point.  Spotting whales here is over 95% successful as the bay is loaded with bait and whales flock here for the summer to feed.  Many different whale species appear and you never know which species might be there when you go looking for them.

We donned insulated “coveralls” before we left on a classic wooden sailing vessel called the “Gardar”.  The seas were calm and the weather cooperated by only being cloudy, but rain was specter later in the day. I am always skeptical about claims of high success rates for seeing whales. Today I was wrong as we spotted three different humpback whales on multiple surfacing during the 1+ hour we were out in the bay where they feed. I even got a pretty good shot of the whale with about half his body out of the water, something our guide said was rare for humpbacks. There was also a white-nosed porpoise sighting but I, myself, did not see it. Near the end of our 3 hour cruise,they served us hot chocolate and a cinnamon roll- a nice touch.

We grabbed a quick hot soup lunch at a local harbor restaurant and proceeded to go to the whaling museum that comes highly recommended, where we spent about 1.5 hours learning more about the different whale species and seeing many skeletons of different whales. They even have one of a blue whale, the world’s largest whale.

By the time we emerged from the whale museum it was close to 3 PM and it had begun raining. We decided we needed to start heading for our hotel for the evening. When we plugged in the coordinates to the GPS we learned we had a 5 hour drive ahead of us. Yikes, we had not counted on that and had we known we might have shortened the whale museum visit. Off we went, driving without a stop except for gas and a quick hamburger for dinner. We did get there before dark and called it a night fairly quickly.