A dream finally realised

It has always been a dream of ours to travel to Asia and visit the ‘diversity’ of Singapore, feel the chaos and beauty of Vietnam and the buzz of Hong Kong. Well, I am delighted to write that finally we made it a reality in March of this year (2026).

This journey started out well over 30 years ago planning that one day we will have the time to visit our friends in Singapore and other parts of Asia during the trip. Every year we would discuss ‘is this the year’ with the usual answer and simply putting off till the next year. Finally, in 2025 we decided lets do it and we booked our flights in September, appointed a Destination Management Company in Vietnam and told them what we would like to see and do and they looked after our accommodation, tours and the detail to ensure a memorable trip.

All was going well until about a week before departure when the war broke out in Iran placing a major question of doubt around the trip. But like everything else in life, there are things we can Control, Influence or Accept (the CIA coaching model) and needless to say we clearly had no Control or Influence over World events.

Luckily the flights we booked out of Heathrow were direct to Singapore and direct return from Hong Kong unlike some other travelers we met on our trip who had to find alternative routes costing considerably more than they had planned.

The trip was outstanding, lived up to all our expectations with some wonderful memories to reflect on in later years. I urge anyone who has any thoughts about traveling, stop thinking and just do it. Set it as your goal, plan it out carefully, budget according to your means and enjoy!

“We come into this world with nothing, and we leave with nothing, only our memories remain.”