Days of the Passed Past

Having never traveled with a Group before, all of this is a new experience for us. I cannot compare what, and how, we are experiencing with Overseas Adventure Travel with any other Tour group available.

                        I also cannot imagine that it could get any better! I guess if we had hired Personal Tourer just for Paula and me, it might be a little better, but then, a lot of the fun is being with these wonderful like-minded folks that only number fifteen in total.

                        The key to any group experience is the group leader. This person is at the same time a Class Mother, Chief Negotiator, Personal Shopper, Logistics Wizard, and all -around nice person, the kind that you want to be friends with, in a sincere sort of way.

                        Harold and Sherry have been expounding on the attributes of O.A.T. ever since we met them over three years ago. They have been trying to get us to join them on numerous trips that they have been on since our first meeting back then. We looked at Tuscany and Umbria, it looked nice, but we were hesitant….. I thought that we may be able to undertake this venture ourselves and we certainly could! Airfare, an Airbnb, car rental, it is all very possible and common, and yes, less expensive. I forget how much the possible difference was, but it doesn’t matter because we never pulled the trigger on that one…..yet!

                        As far as I can see, the biggest difference is the fact that we wouldn’t get Phil or one of his O.A.T. sidekicks. We wondered about this…. Phil is GOOD, very good at what he does. But in reality, just how good is he? So, I went to our source for all things travel related, especially O.A.T……. Sherry and Harold.

                        “Ok, you guys, you got us into this thing, and we still have that O.A.T. trip in April to Poland and the Baltics, just how good is Phil? How do the other Tour Leaders stack up against him? Because as far as we are concerned, he borders on Divine, but we do understand that he is our first encounter with an O.A.T. Tour Leader, so spill the beans, what can we expect?”

                        Sherry and Harold looked at each other, then back at us, smiled a knowing smile, and said….. “Phil is good, one of the best we’ve had, but he is also what you can expect from the Leader of any of the Groups from O.A.T.”

                        That in itself is a big enough statement, but when you consider that they have been on thirty-three(!) other O.A.T. tours over the last twenty or so years, then their message takes on a different tone and starts to resemble a Gospel-like aura to go along with the Leader Divinity that I just assigned to Phil.

                        This missive has its genesis in the fact that I need to catch up a bit and roll some days together, one of them being an interim fly-day. Vietnam is really long, a little over a thousand miles in total and when the objective is to cover as much as possible, increase the meaningful times and decrease the “sit on the bus” times, then traveling by air becomes a necessity. That means that Phil needs to shepherd (there’s another apropos Biblical inference 😊) all of us through a foreign airport several times as we need to take three internal flights even before exiting this country. We don’t even have our own copies of our Boarding Passes until they get distributed to us upon arrival. And when faced once more with the Line At The Counter, which is even longer than usual because the Tet holiday (Lunar New Year) is coming up quickly and everyone is traveling home….(think Thanksgiving or Christmas) and get this…. remember all those giant taped-up cardboard boxes that we encountered in Tokyo? Well, now we get to add in giant flowering trees (peach blossoms, etc.) that seem to be somewhat essential to a significant celebration. Yup, they get to come along for the flight also! It looks like a veritable forest of little Ents (if you are a Tolkien fan!) are flying to Gondor for vacation!

                        “But what to our wondering eyes should appear but a newly opened counter, with Phil there to steer…”.

                        Hey, I’m not askin! What happens in Hanoi, stays in Hanoi!  The next thing we know we’re all seated by the gate with Phil when he says, “Wait here.” He returned shortly with an armful of snacks that looked like they were purchased by a kid with a hundred-dollar bill before going on a road trip!

                        Well, they were, and we are, so let the snacking begin!

                        Arrivals at our hotels cannot go any smoother and the mantra of “Don’t worry, Phil has this all under control, just go up to the lobby and I’ll be there shortly” cannot ring truer, (he speaks in the Third Person) especially when somehow when we arrive at the lobby Phil is already there, luggage is on its way to our rooms and instructions for the morrow are being disseminated to us.

                        “Hey! Weren’t you just down by the bus and…..” as my voice trails off and Phil just smiles and says, “Have a goodly night’s rest Mr. Don, see you at breakfast”

                        And like the good little kids that we are, trundle ourselves upstairs and try to fall asleep…….. but all those snacks!

                        Anyway…… sorry for the digression, but I just had to sing a few verses of the Psalms of Phil, for obvious reasons! Here now, for your further viewing pleasures are a bunch of Photos that will highlight these past few days and give you another glimpse of what we are experiencing. I really hope that you enjoy them.

In no particular order…..

That’s it for now, lots of photos to come later!