Halfway Around the World

A while back, I decided that a good way to decompress as I start my year off would be to leave the country and go halfway around the world for two months. As I've spoken to many friends and family members in the last couple of weeks, a lot of the questions overlap. Therefore, today's post will take the form of a PR Q&A.

Q. Why did you decide to go to southeast Asia, and why are you going at one of the hottest times of the year?
A. The large number of Dell expats currently inhabiting Singapore makes it a great base for Asian travel. Hopefully no one will get sick of me. Regarding the weather, it's summer in Texas so it's not like I'm missing anything.

Q. Are you going by yourself?
A. I will only really be by myself for about 2 days when I travel into Vietnam. My mom, Carolyn, is traveling over with me and will be there for two weeks. Then I'll meet Lisa Howe in Cambodia and Sharon Francia will meet us in Bangkok, Thailand. Sharon and I will spend about a week checking out some spas for quality control. Then it's back to Singapore where I have a couple of weeks of down time. The last frontier is a two week bike trip through Vietnam.

Q. Where are you taking your mom?
A. We will be visiting Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand. Here is a sample of some of the places we are staying (wicked!):
http://www.lhotelcausewaybayhv.com/intro.php
http://www.puripunn.com/
http://www.lebua.com/
In Singapore, Jae Borgard was nice enough to invite us to stay with her, which will be loads of fun!

Q. That sounds cool. What's next?
A. Lisa and I are going to visit Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia. I'm sure there is going to be some eating and drinking too. This place was recommended by Steve and Janet Gluskoter:
http://www.hoteldelapaixangkor.com/
We'll fly back to Bangkok and meet Sharon at the Four Seasons for a couple of days of much needed R&R. We will hear the best four words in the English language, "Welcome to Four Seasons!" Thanks to Randy Huey for suggesting this spot.
http://www.fourseasons.com/bangkok/

Q. We really want to hear about the spas. Where are you going with Sharon, and are there metrics to evaluate the quality of each?
A. We have decided to focus on the Phuket, Thailand and Bali, Indonesia areas because of their status as Spa Capitals of the Universe. We have not developed our metrics yet, but you can be sure we are all over that action item and the results will be the topic of a future post.

http://www.starwoodhotels.com/lemeridien/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=1847
http://www.starwoodhotels.com/luxury/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=277&back=-1

Q. Then you go back to Singapore. What are you going to do for almost two weeks?
A. Luckily, Singapore's national pastimes are shopping and eating, which are two of my favorite things to do. I will catch up with friends and generally do what I do here in Austin - be very busy doing almost nothing.

Q. What about this bike trip? Who's running it and where does it go?
A. The trip is run by World Expeditions, an Aussie outfit. Apparently if you are Australian, you can run a bike trip for about a third as much as if you are an American company. Wicked. I've always wanted to see Vietnam and traveling the country by bike gets rave reviews. We meet in Hanoi (I'll be there for a whole day on my own first, ooooh) and end up on Ho Chi Minh City. To see the detail you can go to http://www.worldexpeditions.com/index.php?section=trips&id=68.

Q. Have you been reading anything in preparation for your visit to Vietnam?
A. I reread Up Country by Nelson DeMille. Great read and well worth all 700 pages, it has some good maps too.

Q. Are you flying business class?
A. Are you crazy? I am not getting a paycheck anymore. This trip is all about coach and budget carriers, which lucky for me are plentiful in southeast Asia.

Q. When do you leave and when will you be back?
A. Wheels up is Monday morning, May 14 and wheels down is late late on July 7.

Adios friends! Please visit the blog often!