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We did it! We are back home, after circling the globe during the last 56 days. We flew Lufthansa from Toronto to Duesseldorf (3830 miles),
Lufthansa from Duesseldorf to Frankfurt (118 miles),
Lufthansa from Frankfurt to Singapore (6371 miles),
Singapore Airlines from Singapore to Shanghai (2350 miles) and
Air Canada from Shanghai to Toronto (7520 miles).
We flew 20200 miles in Business Class, using 120000 miles for a Star Alliance award ticket.
It cost us $124 per person to fly once around the globe.
We spent some more time in the air, but paid Economy Class for these flights:
Albany-Newark-Toronto, Munich-Venice, Venice-Frankfurt, Singapore-Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta-Denpasar, Denpasar-Kuala Lumpur-Penang, Penang-Kuala Lumpur-Manado, Manado-Singapore and Toronto-Washington-Albany.
On August 27, we are in Shanghai Pudong Airport, and I recognize “our” Lufthansa 747 “Muenchen” at the gate next to the Business lounge. We flew on this plane last month from Frankfurt to Singapore. This is when I realize, that I already know airplanes by their name. After 18 flights in 7 weeks, it is time to take a break from travel and go home.
We stepped on 10 islands this summer, learned a lot about South East Asian cultures with their respectful and amazingly friendly people, and saw some great underwater scenery and wildlife!

I am getting tired of the mediocre food at Siladen Resort.
We call Silk Air in Manado and are able to change our flight to Singapore from the 26th to the 24th. This will give us 3 more nights in Singapore. Our boat shuttle ride from Siladen to the Barracuda Jetty in Manado is full of suspense.
The engine is more sputtering than running. Are we going to make the flight? The next flight is 2 days from now! We do make it to the airport on time, and our Silk Air A320, airline code MI (!), takes us west across Borneo to our destination:
1 Degree 20′ North and 103 Degree 59′ East, Changi Airport, Singapore.
At 7 PM, we are swimming again in the mineral water pool of “our” Marina Mandarin Hotel. It feels like coming home!
We have our Singapore Welcome Dinner at the “Brotzeit” Restaurant: Brezen, Nuernberger sausages, Obatzda cheese for the hunger and Paulaner Weissbier to quell the thirst. Not exactly Asian food tonight

“Terima Kasih” or “Thank You” is just about the only Indonesian I have learned while here on Siladen Island. While gazing at the flat Celebes Sea from my beach Fale today, I contemplate the fact that there are more than 300 different languages spoken throughout the Indonesian archipelago. I think I have to quit, while I can retain at least a few words in my brain. And it’s not my brain, it’s the H E A T !
After the initial heat and culture shock, we are getting used to the island life. After sleeping through the hot day on Thursday, we suffer from a burst of energy and actually go scuba diving. The island resort is a micro-cosmos, and onboard our boat are only 5 divers: one from Barcelona, Spain, an Italian father and son from Milan, plus Gabi and myself. Our dive boat is a wooden, flat-bottom boat, powered by four 40hp Yamaha outboards. At least theoretically we have four engines. Most of the time, one of the engines is being worked on along the way, while we are being propelled by the remaining three!
The crew and dive guides, as well as the restaurant staff, are all exceptionally friendly and nice. I have plenty of opportunities to practice saying: “Terima Kasih”. The diving is like we have not seen since Vanuatu. We encounter clear, warm waters with hundreds of fish, healthy corals and impressive vertical walls. Yesterday we were using a slow current and effortlessly drifting along an impressive vertical reef wall at the north end of Bunaken Island. Our group was only 3 divers: our guide Perman, Gabi and myself. The boat rides are no longer than 30 minutes and we are back at the resort for lunch at 1 PM. In the afternoon there was more sleeping in our cool bungalow.
Last night, all the guests got dressed up in colorful sarongs for the barbecue dinner, which was served right on the beach, under the stars, with the small waves lapping at our feet. It was still hot at night! Today is our last day on Siladen Island and we take a break from diving. It is Sunday, and we have a cup of coffee on our veranda, followed by a morning swim before breakfast. Most of the other guests are running off to the dive boat, while Gabi and I have a leisurely Sunday “brunch’. After all, we are not at work here and therefore are not going to be rushed! The rest of the day is spent with serious relaxation: swimming, playing pool, eating and sleeping.
Terima Kasih, Siladen!

After a day’s worth of just lounging around yesterday, we thought it was time to peel ourselves off our lounge chairs and do what we are supposed to be doing here………diving. It was a difficult move because the 90+ degree heat and alleged 70% humidity (according to Intellicast Weather) can really suck the life out of you.  We braved it and informed the dive shop, that we would give it a go. The Bunaken  Island Marine Park comes advertised to be one of the best dive destinations in the world. Yeah we have heard or better said, have seen many such advertisements for places in various dive magazines, only to be disappointed upon venturing into the deep blue.  Lonely Planet had informed us, that plastic garbage, that had come down from Manado  with the currents,  could be floating on the surface , if the wind was blowing “wrong”.  One of the Spanish guests here had told us about plastic ware she encountered on the surface on her snorkel; our German friend, who was here snorkeling a month ago, mentioned the same calamity.
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We arrive on Pulau Siladen (Siladen Island) on Wednesday, August 19th. Our private water shuttle picks us up at Barracuda Pier north of Manado, Sulawesi at 11:30. The jetty on Siladen Island is a ruin and we walk across 2 other boats, through shallow water up to the village. It is very hot, as we walk through the high noon heat. Gabi is using our guide’s flip-flops. His feet can stand the burning ground ,walking down the dusty “Main Street”. The villagers are greeting us with a friendly hello and wave, as we walk by. The houses are made of corrugated tin walls and roofs (with some holes), wood, bamboo or stone. There are even some newer houses, built with cement and regular windows and roofs.
After about 10 minutes, we enter through the bamboo gate of the Siladen Resort. Our bungalow “Violet” is the furthest one from the pool and restaurant. We have a nice lunch, and next want to check out the pool. There are about 20 other guests lounging on the beach, but nobody is in the pool. Then we notice why! The salt water pool is filled with floating pieces of green algae. So much for cooling off in the pool! Let’s hit the beach and ocean instead! We walk down to the beach, but the ocean has disappeared! It happens to be low tide, and the locals are searching for clams in the ankle-deep tide pools, as far as I can see. The water has disappeared to beyond the fringing reef, about 400 yards from shore! Next, I inquire about snorkeling. The only snorkeling spot is at the broken jetty on the other side of the island. We digest all this and realize, that in order to reach water, we have to hike through the searing heat. My first impression of Siladen Resort is disappointment. I guess we are spoiled and in the past have stayed at nicer tropical places.
Our next move: walking back to our air-conditioned bungalow and getting out of the heat. Gabi and I take a long afternoon nap on our four-post bed with mosquito curtains around us.
At this point, it does not look good. I don’t think we will have the energy to go scuba diving here!

Our Hotel Sahid Kawanua in Manado, on the island of Sulawesi, is the only dirty place we stayed at in South East Asia. The bed sheets are gray with stains and holes, the towels are more black than white and the bathroom faucets are falling apart. We fix the broken toilet flushing chain a couple of times. We are the only guests for a late dinner in the hotel’s restaurant. I order a tuna sandwich and am surprised when the waitress brings me a whole fish on a roll. Don’t they know that tuna is supposed to come out of a can, so that I do not recognize it as a fish! Gabi ends up eating my dinner.At least the dinner only costs us 3 USD per person.
For breakfast, we admire a large Asian food buffet with more fish and food that I do not know. Gabi miraculously still has some cereal packages in her suitcase, and all we need is some hot water for our nutritious breakfast. We are the only Non-Asian guests, drinking our own Nescafe and eating our cereal versus soups, rice and fish for breakfast. It shows how difficult it is for me to try unknown food items early in the morning! I am calling our next hotel, the island resort on Siladen and arrange for an early transfer to the island. Lunch will be in the international resort!

Today is Tuesday, August 18 and at 4AM a thunderstorm wakes us up at Hydro Hotel in Batu Farringhi, Penang. I peek out from our 11th floor balcony and am greeted by a tropical downpour and howling wind. For a moment, I thought that I am hearing the”Cape Doctor”, coming down the Table Mountain In Cape Town!
We are heading to Manado today, but the taxi ride to the airport takes over 1 hour and we are stuck in the morning rush hour traffic. The employees from all the tech companies near the airport are with us, stuck in traffic as well, coming out of Georgetown. After reading about Georgetown in the travel guides, we had expected a quaint colonial town. How wrong we were. We experience a large modern city with many high rise apartment buildings, a modern infrastructure and too many, late model cars on the multilane highways.
We barely make it to the airport in time, checking in with Air Asia only 40 minutes before departure time. Our Airbus A320 climbs to a cruising altitude of 35000 feet and, after about 10 minutes, begins the 15 minute descent to Kuala Lumpur. The landscape below us is mostly green mountains and some coconut palm plantations and rice fields near Kuala Lumpur. While waiting for our luggage at the airport, Gabi and I put on our N95 respirator masks. Now we walk around the crowded airport like bank robbers with pink duck bills!
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We experience super service from the Thai crew of Mermaid II. Gabi and I are in cabin #2, which is at the stern of the ship, about 5 steps away from the dive platform. The diving takes place from 2 dinghies and we literally get served on hand and foot. The boat boys set up our dive gear, help us into our wetsuits and carry the tanks into the dinghy. Once seated in the dinghy, they put the BC and tank on our back and help us putting on our fins. All that is left for us to do, is to put on our masks, make a backwards roll into the Flores Sea and enjoy the diving. The same service takes place after the dive and we never have to carry the weight of the tanks on our back. We are asked to hand the weight-belt and tank to the dinghy driver, before we climb back into the boat! They even take our wetsuits and rinse them for us after each dive. Within minutes, after we have returned from a dive, our tanks are filled again, ready for the next jump into the ocean (after the appropriate surface interval). All this service is being done with a big smile in a country where no tipping is expected. Unbelievable!

Diving in Indonesia is an extraordinary experience. The last few days we have been diving the Flores Sea in the Indian Ocean. I am happy to report the reefs are alive and well. I’m sure it’s because it took forever to get to the location we are in… right now,  Komodo Island  Marine Preserve.  We have done some incredible dives this week from our water home, Mermaid II.  For every dive, we are helped suiting  up in our wet suits on the big boat before stepping into the dinghy and being “scuba dressed” by our personal dinghy driver. He actually puts on my fins, scuba jacket and takes super care of my camera. This is what life as a queen must feel like.  We then have a 2 minute dash to the dive site because they do not moor right on top of the sites, so as not to ruin any corals. Our Indonesian dive master Adnan ,  then makes a final check…air, weight belt, mask, camera? Check!  1,2,3, backward negative entry roll and we are off  again into another dimension. I never tire of the water world. In my previous life, if there was one, I must have been a fish.  Fish and coral life is as healthy as we had hoped. There is an abundance of  colorful  fish of all sizes, as well as masses of soft corals. When we have to use our reef hooks so that we don’t end up down the channel somewhere, it is often difficult to find a stone, everything seems to be made of hard or soft corals. Beyond that, this area is well known for all it’s nudibranches, small, mostly vibrantly colored sea slugs , that adhere to their host coral. With their beautiful patterns and colors, they are warning the fish…I am poisonous!

This morning, Mermaid II is at anchor in the bay at Loh Liang, Komodo Island. At 7 AM, our dinghies take us ashore and we follow two young Indonesian park rangers into the bush, searching for the Komodo Dragon. First we come across some big deer and birds, but no big lizards. After about one hour, the trail climbs out of the forest into the dry savannah. In the meantime, the heat of the equatorial sun is beating down on us. We have read the dragon info and learned, that they lie in the morning sun, in order to raise their body temperature and wake up from their night-time low temp and near coma. Now they should be getting ready to hunt for food. We would be easy dragon food, with the heat and sun making us more and more sluggish and them faster and faster!
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