Audre + Dimitri biking at the iconic rock-Uluru or Ayers Rock, Australia
It all started in 1993 when Audre got a contract for a World Bank project in Indonesia - that was the beginning of our Odyssey or worldwide traveling or vagabond globetrotting... call it what you will. A year and half later, Dimitri planned a 9-month trip from Jakarta to Istanbul. It was supposed to be just an interlude between contracts. However, six months into that trip, while meditating on top on Mount Sinai, Audre saw the light! A couple of weeks earlier, Dimitri had calculated that we could most probably live on just the appreciation on our mutual funds (without touching the capital) and had proposed retirement to Audre's initial shock and dismay. So, on Mount Sinai, Audre got the message from above that it is perfectly okay to retire and go traveling throughout the world at 49 (Audre) and 54 (Dimitri). And the rest is history ...
This blog site was created during our South American Explorations. Consequently the travelogues about our first 9-month trip, our nine months in Turkey (click here to see the map of our travels through Turkey), our six years in the rest of Europe, our three months in India, our nine months in Singapore, our one year in Australia (although the picture above is of us at Uluru), our one year in New Zealand and our three months in Tahiti will be posted when Audre writes them.
If you are foodies, like we are, then have a look at the list of "Restaurant Reviewed by ALEDM Organized by Country and City" also on the left margin. If you click on a city, you will be linked to our blog posting of our restaurant reviews for that city. Enjoy (and send us an e-mail)!
And, if you want to do a search for a specific place, topic or a person, use the Search Blog feature in the upper left hand corner of the screen (from here click "Home" on your keyboard to get to the top of your screen).
Introduction (Always the 1st post) Check "Blog Archive" on left margin for our present location. Latest post: 2009 Our 20th Anniversary
1995-96 Our First Nine Month Trip from Jakarta, Indonesia to Istanbul, Turkey
This is a map plotting our route from Jakarta, Indonesia to Istanbul, Turkey (by plane, train, bus, motorcylce and bicycle). We started in July, 1995 and reached Istanbul in March, 1996. If you click on a push pin, you'll see what city we were in. If you would like more information on our trip (costs and what we did, for instance), write us an e-mail and we would be glad to try to answer your questions. E-mail address: aleanddm@gmail.com
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1995 Our Month in Vietnam
We had been looking forward to staying Vietnam for a few months. It wasn't meant to be. We stayed a month and, frankly, were disappointed. We'll write more about our stay, and why it wasn't longer, later. In the meantime, if you have questions, write us an e-mail at aleanddm@gmail.com. We'll try to answer you questions.
1995 Hong Kong
We flew into the old Kai Tak Airport in Hong Kong from Hanoi during a typhoon. Coming over Victoria Harbour in a shaking, vibrating, wobbling plane was an experience neither Dimitri nor Audre is likely to forget. Kai Tak Airport closed in 1998. When we returned to Hong Kong in 2009 we flew into the new airport. Click here to read about our 2009 stay in Hong Kong. Sometime in the future, we'll write about our 1995 stay.
