The Voyage Overview

Hello, from further out in the Pacific than yesterday!  It appears we are a little less than halfway across.

How We Got Here

After we retired, we knew we were going to take a very long trip and this is it. We have been planning for what seems like years but in reality it has only been about a year and a half.

Some people call what we are doing “slow travel” and that is what Blaise calls it, but I say it’s just a really long trip.

We tested our ability to be gone from home for long periods of time several times:  a month in Portugal (December 2023), six weeks in Rome (December 2023/January 2024), and then earlier this year with about 2 ½ months in Greece and Albania.

This trip is a little different in that we won’t have a home to go back to.

This time we will be gone for 8 (ish) months to the Southeast Asia. We decided early on we did NOT want to fly all that way.  We did that once before when we took a cruise out of Sydney, Australia and didn’t want to suffer in coach for all those hours nor spend all that money on business class this time.  And why should we when we can spend the same money, if not less, on a cruise from North America to the area and take another cruise back to North America?

So the hunt was on.  Originally we found back to back to back cruises on Celebrity from Vancouver to Hawaii, Hawaii to Sydney Australia, and Sydney to Singapore.  We had already done the Sydney to Singapore and we all know how that went - See a koala, fall, break your nose, get kicked off a boat.  I suppose this was our chance to get that leg right but then I found the cruise we are on which ends up in Tokyo.

I told Blaise, when he told me he wanted to go to Thailand, Vietnam, etc., that I wasn’t too keen on all that heat for months and months but I would do this with the stipulation we are in Japan in the spring for cherry blossoms. So the 8-month trip was born.  Don’t get me wrong, I want to see all the things that Blaise wants to see in this part of the world, but I would do it quicker and get out of the heat.

I DO like the idea of spending a month here, two weeks there.  What I liked so much about the time we spent in all those other places the past couple of years is that we can see things at a slower pace and not feel rushed to see it all.  For example, when we were in Rome, the “rule” was visit one thing a day.  Some days it wasn’t even seeing a site, it was merely going to a park or wandering the streets to see what we run into.

We thought we were going to wait to book the return cruise after we arrived in the area, but we found a great deal on an Azamara cruise from Tokyo to Whittier Alaska leaving May 9, 2026 and booked it.  So we are staying a bit longer in in Southeast Asia than we anticipated and then ending up in Alaska.

Now we are thinking we have to spend some time in Alaska before heading back to Texas. And Alaska is in the general vicinity of Lake Louise so don’t we have to go there too?

Do we have everything booked for the whole trip?  No.  We wanted some flexibility in this trip for many reasons.  What if we don’t like a certain place?  What if we fall in love with another place and want to stay longer?  And now there is a kerfuffle between Thailand and Cambodia at their border we have to keep an eye on.

We are only booked through our first week in Bankok and will book the rest of our time in Bankok once we get there and book most places after that 2-6 weeks in advance.

The Itinerary

All of this is subject to our whims, but here is the rough draft of the itinerary:

Arrive in Tokyo                10/09/25

Osaka              10/09/25 - 10/16/25

Bankok         10/16/25 - 11/13/25

Chang Mai, Thailand    11/13/25 - 12/15/25

Da Nang, Vietnam           12/15/26 - 01/16/26

Siam Reap, Cambodia      01/16/26 - 01/30/26

Hua Hin, Thailand    01/30/26 - 03/01/26

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia    03/01/26 - 04/01/26

Japan TBD                      04/01/26 - 04/21/26

Seoul, South Korea          04/21/26 - 05/08/26

Tokyo                             05/08/26 - 05/09/26

Azamara Pursuit              05/09/26 - 05/20/26

Alaska                           05-20-26 - TBD

That’s it in a nutshell.  We’ve tossed around the idea of the Phillipines, but no plans to go there right now.

This Cruise

I DO have clarification on this cruise and the whole international dateline thing.  We have fallen back an hour every night so far on the ship only to simply skip Monday.  So we will go straight from Sunday to Tuesday.  That’s messed up! Blaise is all “we are time travelers!”  And I’m all “I’m getting screwed out of a day!”  But really no worries about that - we will get it back on the cruise from Tokyo to Alaska.

We are on the ship for many sea days and get to Muroran on day 13, stay there overnight and leave the evening of day 14.  Day 15 is Hakodate. Day 16 we are at sea one final day, arriving in Tokyo at 7:30 AM day 17, October 9. But the messed up part of this is we really won’t have a day 7 - we’re just going to skip that!

If anyone has any questions about this trip now that you know the details, fire away.

Until next time . . .