1. THE TOUR OVERALL - As I have written before, the entire trip and every aspect of it, exceeded my expectations. Of course there were bits and pieces that I had slight quibbles with (such as not having an additional night in Tokyo) but nothing that distracted from my overall satisfaction with the tour. Interestingly, toward the end of the tour I found out that this particular Japan/China configuration was a first for Globus, which explains why our tour director Mark was taking copious notes regarding our comments as the tour was winding down.
2. THE GROUP - There were 32 people in our group, 12 couples and 8 singles. The oldest person was 76 and the youngest 19. We had one family traveling with their two sons, 22 and 19, and one kissy/kissy early 40s unmarried couple. Unfortunately, the majority of the people over 50, both male and female, were overweight and one couple was almost morbidly obese, with both weighing over 250 lbs. They were a very interesting couple however - he, Paul, is a retired college history professor and she, Sandy, a retired elementary school teacher. At first you could feel some tension between some of the group because the couple was always the last off the bus and the last to get on and they walked very slowly slowly. But, as the tour developed their outgoing personalities overcame any criticisms and the single guys made a point of staying with them during the walking portions of the tour, to be of assistance if necessary. And, frankly, often assistance was necessary. At our last dinner as a group, in Beijing, our tour director announced that Paul and Sandy had bought a round of drinks for the group in appreciation of our patience and understanding - nice. By the end of the tour we actually ended up admiring them for their willingness to undertake such a physically demanding tour.
But, don’t get me started, though, on how out-of-shape American tourists are. It is just a fact. 90% of the guys over 50 had a potbelly and this was the same percentage with all of the other tour groups we saw. Man, something has to be done, it really does ... OK ... enough ... sorry about that.
Back on track - as a group we got along very well although the married couples almost all fell into what I have named “The Married Tour-Group Cycle.” What is this you ask? Let me explain ... in my years of traveling as a single traveler with tour groups I have found that almost without exception married people go through 3 phases during the tour, each phase of about equal length:
a. First 1/3 of the trip: “We are the happiest couple on earth and we want to tell you all about how happy we are to have found one another. Have we told you how happy we are and how much we love each other? Let us tell you again.”
b. Middle 1/3 of the trip: Bicker, bicker, bicker and more bickering, especially on the tour bus. To which I want to scream: “Come on people, you are not at home sitting on your couch in front of your blaring TV - we can hear you already - shut the fuck up,” but, of course, I don’t. Bicker, bicker and bicker - it is a fact of married life, I guess.
c. Final 1/3 of the trip: Ice cold silence with no eye contact between them. When talking to others they refer to their spouse in the third person, if at all. It is particularly difficult because there is very little opportunity, if any, for them to be away from one another for any length of time. This phase, unfortunately, is taken with them back home and, thusly, I have no idea how long it lasts once the tour is over and I don’t think I want to know.
3. THE TOUR GUIDE. Our tour guide was Mark Nichols, who was born and raised in New Zealand but has lived in Tucson, Arizona, for the last 25 years and has worked for Globus for about 20 years. His specialty is Asian tours. He was excellent. Polite but in control. Tactful. Understanding. Knowledgeable and very well read on Asian cultures and history. I rank him in the top 2% of all the tour guides I have had with Globus, or any other group for that matter.
He was particularly adept at supervising our luggage transfers, hotel check-in, inter-China flights, restaurant and shopping recommendations and basically helping to keep the collective stress levels under control.
Each of the local tour guides were good although I got the impression that those in China were not as open and responsive to questions as their counterparts in Japan.
4. OH MY GOD - THE TIME IN THE AIR. OK, I already knew we would spend a lot of time in the air on this trip and that we would have to fly to each city in China, but ... wow ... it was almost overwhelming, it really was. But, everything went just as planned and the Norris Travel Curse did not factor in at all on any leg/flight. I was particularly impressed with Japan Airline and with all of the airports in Japan and China.
Now, here is a statistic to end this portion of my trip observations - I flew a total of 21,040 miles. The circumference of the earth is 24,900 miles, so on this trip I flew 84% of the way around the world. Awesome, fucking awesome.
More to come later, hopefully.
Billi Pod
wanjr@aol.com
