2017 June-July Around The World Trip Activities

Here is the rough outline of what we did on our epic 40 days around the world trip from June 1 to July 10, 2017 and July 15 to July 24, 2017

Day 1 - June 1, 2017 Departed Phoenix to Rome with 2 hours layover in D.C

• 8:50 AM to 4:05PM Phoenix to IAD United Flight 316
• 5:35 PM to 8:10AM IAD to FCO United Flight 42

Day 2 - Rome Arrival

• 8:10 AM Arrived Rome Airport. Immigration checked took about 1 hour due to very long line.
• 9:00 AM Took taxi outside the airport to Foyer Phat Diem. http://www.foyerphatdiem.com/ Uber should have cost less but because we have never took Uber ride before. Therefore I didn’t know how to request Uber ride.
• 10:00 AM Arrived Foyer Phat Diem. Dominican sisters let us checked in early no problem. We were assigned in the 4 single beds “suite”. There’re only 4 suites at this hostel.
• 11:00 AM Ate lunch at nearby local restaurant near the Foyer. We were able to sleep during overnight inflight. We decided to take metro train into Vatican. There is a bus stop in front of the Foyer but it needs many transfers so we decided to walk about 10 minutes to the train station. The train took us directly to the station near St. Peter Square. Spent 2 hours taking pictures at the St. Peter Square
• 1:00 PM is like 2 AM Arizona time. We were so tired so we took train and walked back to the Foyer and took a long nap.
• 5:00 PM Kids and wife were so tired and still napping. I went alone check out the metro system around Rome. I bought 48 hours metro pass and went on different trains to get to know some of the attractions sites we will be visiting the following days.
• 9:00 PM I took the train back and bought take-out food at local store to eat at the hotel.

Day 3 - Full day ROME

• 8:00 AM Breakfast at Light Cafe
• Collosseum. 48 hours ROME pass included fast track at this museum
• Lunch at Light Cafe
• 4:00 PM Circo Massimo.
• 7:00 PM Spanish Step to meet cousin’s family
• Dinner at Light Cafe. The kids really liked this place so we keep coming back at this place. Food was good and we celebrated Austin birthday here

Day 4 - ROME

• 8:00 AM The line to go inside St Peter Square was long due to Pentecost Sunday mass. Security line was long. Very long mass until 2:00 PM. We took pictures of Pope Francis and Popemobile.
• After mass, we went back to hotel for short nap and went on to visit Trevi Fountain and other museums and basillica

Day 5 - ROME to PISA and VENICE

• 5:00 AM Took taxi to train station. Breakfast at the fast food place at the train station.
• 6:57 AM - 9:53 ROMA TERMINI station to PISA central station. Ticket bought at www.italiarail.com
• 10:30 AM arrived Pisa station. We stored our bags at the station for 5euro per bag. We purchased bus tickets to PISA tower near the train station. We can walk if we have time but taking bus is much quicker. Spent about 2 hours here. Lunch at nearby train station in Pisa. People warned us about pickpocketing near Pisa Tower but we spent few hours there with no problem.
• 1:54 PM - 7:35 PM Depart Pisa station to Venice with stop in Florence. Tickets purchased through www.italiarail.com . The train stopped at Florence for only short time.
• 8:00 PM arrived Venizia S Lucia train station. I booked hotel through www.hotels.com 10 minutes before getting off train. It turned out the hotel is very nice and close to the train station. Hotel ai Tolentini cost 105 Euro plus 10 euro for extra 2 kids. Walking from train station with 4 carry on luggages was no problem.
• Dinner at local restaurant near the train station

Day 6 - VENICE

• 8:00 AM breakfast at local restaurant below the hotel. Walked through the streets of Venice. Visit St. Mark Square and Basillica and Grand Canal
• 7:20 PM - 9:55 AM Depart Venice train station to Paris Gare de Lyon station. This is overnight train with 4 bunk beds. It was very comfortable train ride. They checked passports at the Switzerland border. Tickets bought at www.italiarail.com . We ate at Venice train station before boarding.

Day 7 - June 7 Paris Arrival

• We got a good night sleep on overnight train. We met a gentleman at the train station. He found us a pool van to the hotel along with other passengers.
• 11:00 AM we were able to check in early at the hotel and left luggage there to start exploring Paris. Le Dokhan hotel is SPG brand. It is very fancy hotel. The problem was that they didn’t let us 4 to stay in a standard room we booked using SPG points. We had to pay extra to upgrade to the suite.
• Noon - Lunch at the local Paris restaurant near Eiffel Tower. Walked through streets of Paris and along River Seine.
• Went back and took nap at the hotel. Visited Arc de Triomphe and shopping and went finished dinner at the local Thai restaurant.

Day 8 - Paris Disneyland. Took metro train to Disneyland Paris. Whole day here. Bought tickets at www.attractiontix.co.uk 156 pounds for 4 people to 2 parks 1 day.

Day 9 - Paris

·         Checked out hotel and left luggage at the hotel to pickup later.

·         Notre Dame Cathedral

·         Walked along river Seine

·         The Lourve museum.

·         Walked back to hotel and pick up luggage. Took Uber to train station. First time ever taking Uber ride. It went smoothly.

·         9:52 PM to 6:08 AM Overnight train from Paris to Lourde. Booked tickets in the morning before checking out the hotel through trainline.eu. Train was old and not very comfortable ride. I waited until last minute because i was debating of taking train or flight to Lourdes. The train ride was not that good compare to Venice-Paris and we had to share with 2 other passengers in the 6-beds compartment.

Day 10 - Lourdes Arrival

• 6:00 AM Arrived Lourdes train station. It was cold morning in the southern France. I requested the Uber ride to hotel. It took almost 30 minutes for Uber to show up. It was early morning at the train station so there were not many people around.
• 8:00 AM we were lucky to check in very early at Quality Inn Lourdes. I guess they know most people came to Lourdes for the visit the Shrine of Lourdes. Receptionist was nice. We were able to took a good nap and woke up for lunch at nearby local food truck and started exploring Lourdes.
• 5:00 PM Started of the candle light processing at the shrine of Lourdes. Lot of people here.
• 9:00 PM Dinner at local place along the street. Walked back to hotel

Day 11 - Lourdes and Flight back to Rome

• 7:00 AM Attended Vietnamese mass in front of Lourdes Shrine.
• 8:00 AM Breakfast near Lourdes village.
• 9:00 AM Took bus and tram to top of Pic Du Jer. We can see the whole Lourdes from up here.
• 12:00 PM Lunch near hotel. Check out hotel. Uber is very limited here. We took taxi to Lourdes airport.
• 3:25 PM - 5:20 PM - Lourdes to Rome Ciampino Airport RyanAir flight FR8219. No immigration check here.
• 5:30 PM Arrived Ciampino airport. This is different airport from Leornado Da Vinci airport. CIA is farther from central ROME than FCO. We took Uber from airport to Sheraton Roma. Dinner at the hotel restaurant. The food was good but expensive. There is not much things to see around the hotel. There’s a bus stop in front of the hotel but it has limited schedule during night time. We went to sleep early. The standard room has only 1 king bed. This hotel is big so we checked in no problem with 4 people. I guess they don’t mind as long as we fit into the room.

Day 12 - ROME TO TOKYO

• I woke up early and went into central Rome by bus alone. The bus ticket is valid for 90 minutes. I rode on many different buses to many different places. I saw almost every major attractions in Rome with 2 buses tickets.
• Noon - We took hotel shuttle to airport. Check in at kiosk. Lunch at airport.
• 2:55 PM - 4:55 PM Rome Da Vinci (FCO) to Frankfrut (FRA)Lufthansa Flight LH235
• 6:55 PM - 12:15 PM FRA to Tokyo Haneda (HND) Lufthansa Flight LH 716. Good food and comfortable Boeing 747-8 aircraft.

Day 13 - TOKYO

• 12:30 PM Arrived Tokyo. Check in immigration. Bought luxury bus ticket from airport to Hyatt Regency Tokyo. The ride took 45 minutes.
• 1:30 PM Checked in Hyatt Regency with 1 king bed plus a pull out. I requested and paid for extra person room in advance. We also missed the free tour guide we requested before the trip due to wrong date request. I thought we arrived Tokyo June 12 instead of 13th. I requested free tour guide www.tokyofreeguide.com for 2 hours for June 13th.
• Took metro train to Shinjuku station. So many people here. Eat and shop at the train station. Walked around Shinjuku area and went back to hotel to sleep

Day 14 - TOKYO

• 10:00 AM We woke up so late and missed the reservation to see Imperial Palace in Tokyo
• 11:00 AM We took train to Fish market. Ate at Fish market.
• Sensoji Temple
• Sky Tree
• Tokyo Tower

Day 15 - TOKYO

• Electronic Town
• Imperial Palace
• I decided to cancel Tokyo Hilton Bay at Disneyland and booked another 2 nights at Hyatt Regency. They had room available. Moving around with luggages are not advised here. I also cancel Hong Kong Hyatt to have points for Tokyo Hyatt Regency.

Day 16 - TOKYO

• 8:00 AM took train to Tokyo Disneyland and Disneysea. Tickets bought at entrance. No other discount found here. Train ticket to Disney park is expensive because it’s not part of Tokyo metro system.

Day 17 - TOKYO

• Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building
• Shibuya Crossing
• Shopping at Ginza district
• Relax at Hyatt and nearby park

Day 18 - Sunday June 18 TOKYO to HONG KONG

• 7:00 AM Took city bus to mass at St. Mary Cathedral. The mass was in Korean. Bus station stop in front of the church. We asked the bus driver to let us know when to stop. Taking bus back to the hotel will need to go to the other side of the road.
• Spent few hours near Shinjuku area and picked up luggages at hotel to go to airport. Shuttle bus tickets to airport bought at Hyatt Regency front desk. Narita airport is farther. So we had to leave early. It took more than 1 hours on bus ride to airport.
• 7:00 PM checked in flight to Hong Kong
• 9:15 PM - 12:55 AM Narita (NRT) to Hong Kong (HKG) Ethiopian Airline Flight 673. This flight go to Ethiopia if you don’t remember to get off in Hong Kong.

Day 19 - HONG KONG

• 2:00 AM Arrive late to Hong Kong due to weather. Took Uber to Holiday Inn Express Mongkok. Check in before 3AM. Woke up around 8AM and had breakfast at the hotel.
• 10:00 AM Walked around Mongkok area. Took bus around Tsim Sha Tsui. Pictures of Hong Kong harbour. Octopus card for public transportation.
• Lunch and Dinner near Star Ferry.
• It was typhoon season here. Rain on and off. I went out alone at night to check out Victoria Peak but it was raining. So cloudy, can’t take good picture of Hong Kong skyline. I had to take Uber back to hotel. Rain was heavy. Hotel is only about 1km but unable to walk due to heavy rain.I cancelled Hyatt Regency Tsim Sha Tsui and stayed another 2 nights at Holiday Inn Express. Again, moving around town with luggages is not advised.

Day 20 - HONG KONG

• 8:00 AM - Light rain continue. We decided to go to Hong Kong Disneyland. Crowd was light. Not many people inside the park. We spent whole day here and went on so many rides. Lunch and dinner inside Disney park.

Day 21 - HONG KONG to SINGAPORE

• Eating and shopping and took city bus around Tsim Sha Tsui. Check out hotel and left luggage at hotel.
• 6:00 PM Picked up luggages at hotel and took Uber to HKG airport. I noticed requesting uber ride from hotel was more expensive than requesting it from few hundreds feet from the hotel. We walked few blocks from the hotel.
• 8:25 PM - 12:20 AM HKG to Singapore Changi airport United Flight 895

Day 22 - SINGAPORE to BANGKOK

• 12:30 AM Arrived Singapore airport. We need to pick up luggage here even though our destination was to Perth, Australia. There was no vacant rooms inside the airport and we were so tired to take taxi into town. We slept at the airport benches and chair. It was not bad. The airport is very clean and has some very good chairs for sleeping.
• 7:00 AM Thai Airway let us check in early and stored the luggage at their counter. They informed us that we won’t pick up our luggage until destination in Perth. We thought we need to pick up our luggage in Bangkok because we were staying overnight in Bangkok. So we had to hold on to some of the clothing and accessories we need for stay in Bangkok and check in all 4 carry-on to Perth. We also had to wait for almost 2 hours due to Visa to Australia. I put in wrong birth year for Austin so it wasn’t validated at Singapore airport. I applied for Australia Visa through third party vendor so weren’t sure they were all valid or not.
• 9:00 AM We had breakfast at Singapore airport food court and took metro train into Downtown
• Saw Merlion park, Marina Bay Sand, Downtown Singapore. It was humid. We walked around and need to take lot of rest inside the building to cool off. We took Uber back to airport and hang out at airport. Lot of things to do at the airport such as butterflies garden, the tallest slide inside airport.
• 6:15 PM - 7:35 PM Singapore - Bangkok.
• 8:00 PM We went through immigration check along with 2 heavy backpacks and took Uber to hotel near airport. We had some good conversation about the area of the hotel we stayed through google translation app. We didn’t plan any sightseeing here since I know we would be tired after sleeping at SIN airport the night before and only had only short time in Bangkok. We went to sleep early. Bangkok was also humid and hot.

Day 23 - June 23 BANGKOK to PERTH

• 5:00 AM We took hotel shuttle van to airport. Check in at the airport.
• 7:30 AM - 3:15 PM Bangkok - Perth on Thai Aiways Flight 481. This is 7 hours flight and they served 2 full meals plus snack. Food was good.
• 4:00 PM Arrived Perth. Checked in immigration smoothly. Cousins took us to Di Ha home.
• Day 24 to 34. We spent 10 days here in Western Australia. The weather here is very similar to Phoenix in December. We spent time visiting aunt, uncles, cousins and friends from Vietanh’s mom side. We have so many relatives here. Visiting 1 family a day and went on day trip to various attractions in the western Australia.

Day 24 - June 24 Saturday - PERTH

• Overnight at Mandurah, Anh Triet’s vacation home.
• Sunset over Indian Ocean

Day 25 - PERTH

• Back to Di Duong 16 home.

Day 26 - Monday - PERTH

• King Park
• St. Mary Cathedral
• The Bell Tower
• Elizabeth Quay

Day 27 - PERTH

• Fremantle, beach

Day 28 - PERTH

• Swan Valley

Day 29 - PERTH

• Caversham Wildlife Park

Day 30 - PERTH

• Gloucester Tree. We climbed the tallest tree in western Australia
• Valley of the Giant Tree Top walk, Western Australia

Day 31 - July 1 PERTH

• Relaxing, visited relatives

Day 32 - PERTH

• Relaxed at Di Duong 16 home

Day 33 - PERTH

• Relaxed at Di Duong 16 home

Day 34 - PERTH

• Relaxed at Di Duong 16 home

Day 35 - July 5 PERTH to SYDNEY

• 7:00 AM We had breakfast at Di Duong 16 home. Anh Triet took us to airport
• 9:45 AM - 3:55 PM PERTH - SYDNEY Qantas Airline Flight 642
• 4:00 PM Took Uber to Quality Inn near airport. We cancelled our car rental here so this is last minute booking at Quality Inn. Standard room has 2 queen beds.
• 6:00 PM Walked around nearby shopping and ate at chinese/taiwanese restaurant. They had good food.

Day 36 - SYDNEY

• 8:00 AM We ate at nearby chinese restaurant. Sydney has lot of good chinese food. We took train to Sydney Central Station then on to Katoomba town and walked to Blue Mountain National Park. We avoid those tour companies and do it ourselves. The park wasn’t big like our US national parks.
• 6:00 PM We took the train back to Sydney and connect through another station to our hotel. It took 2 hours one way.

Day 37 - SYDNEY

• 8:00 AM Checked out Quality Inn and took Uber to Park Hyatt Sydney. Again, moving with luggage around town is not advised but Park Hyatt Sydney is not cheap. The rate was 900 AUD a night. We only had 2 free nights here. I decided to use 2 free nights here because Park Hyatt Sydney is more expensive than Tokyo or Paris Hyatt. It was a good use of free nights. It has very nice view of Opera House and short walk to Circular Quay
• Opera House, Sydney Tower, The Rock, Circular Quay

Day 38 - SYDNEY

• Took train to Cabramatta. This place has more Vietnamese stores than Phuoc Loc Tho in California. This Viet town is far from Sydney. It took about 1 hour train ride with 2 connections
• Shopping and eating at Sydney Chinatown.
• St. Mary Cathedral
• Darling Harbour
• Sydney Tower

Day 39 - July 9 SYDNEY to PHOENIX

• 9:00 AM - Walked to St. Andrew Cathedral for Sunday mass. Received email from Qantas about 12 hours flight delay. Schedule departure delayed to 9PM. So we had more time to explore Sydney. We took bus to Bondi beach. Took some pictures and Uber back to Park Hyatt to pick up luggage and another Uber ride to Sydney airport and waited until our flight.
• 9:00 PM - 9:30 PM SYDNEY - DALLAS on Qantas Flight #7. I chose this almost 16 hours flight and longer distance because I wanted to experience the biggest airplane in the world, the Airbus A380. This is the longest flight but it was actually the most comfortable flight even in the Economy seat. The flight was only ¾ full. I chose the seats near the back when check in and got the whole row for ourselves. If we picked the seat months in advance, we had to pay 30 AUD per seat. I checked seat availability regularly and decided to wait until the last minutes to pick seat for free.
• 9:30 PM Arrived Dallas and missed the connecting flight to Phoenix about 15 minutes. They sent us to Dallas Hyatt Regency hotel for a night. I asked to go on the next earliest flight in the morning to Phoenix. I booked the connecting flight in Dallas 12 hours after Sydney-Dallas flight and planned on renting a car for a day in Dallas to visit a friend but cancelled the plan since we were so tired and wanted to go home.

Day 40 - Monday July 10 Arrived PHOENIX

• 7:05 AM - 7:47 AM Dallas - Phoenix on American Airline Flight 761
• 8:00 AM Arrived Phoenix. Went home took shower and went to Tucson for work.
• The next few days I slept like a baby.

Day 41 to Day 44 - Stayed home, cleaned up, worked and rested

Day 45 - July 15 PHOENIX TO SEATTLE

• 5:20 PM - 8:00 PM PHX - SEA on Southwest Airline Flight 2319

Day 46 - SEATTLE

• We spent July 15-24 with family and friends in Seattle. We drove to Vancouver and took ferry to Victoria Island. And relaxed at parent home.

Day 47 - SEATTLE

Day 48 - SEATTLE

Day 49 - SEATTLE

Day 50 - July 20 Holiday Inn Express Vancouver 1 night

Day 51 - VICTORIA ISLAND

Day 52 - SEATTLE

Day 53 - SEATTLE

Day 54 - July 24 SEATTLE to PHOENIX

• 3:21  PM - 6:27 PM SEA - PHX Delta Flight DL 5770

Day 55 - July 25 Wife’s 2 months Sabbatical end.

It was the most memorable trip. Everything went smoothly and as scheduled. We went on total of 15 airplanes flights ranging from 2 hours to 16 hours flights, covering total of around 50,000 km. The airlines we flew on was United, American Airline, Delta, Southwest, Lufthansa, Qantas, Ryanair, Thai Airways, Ethiopia. We also went on many short and long distance train rides  in Rome, Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and Sydney. We took buses and rode on many cities including Rome, Pisa, Venice, Paris, Lourdes, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Perth, Sydney, Seattle, Vancouver and many smaller suburbs. We visited so many attractions in all the cities that we stopped by. Some of the highlights were Disneyland Paris, Disneyland Hong Kong and Disneysea Tokyo, Collosseum in Rome, St Peter Square, Trevi Fountain, Roman Forum, Pisa Tower, St. Mark Square and Basillica in Venice, River Seine, Eiffel Tower, The Lourve Museum, Notre Dame Cathedral, Shrine of Lourdes, Tokyo Skytree, Tokyo Tower, Tsukiji Fish Market, Sensoji Temple, Shinjuku, Shibuya and Ginza shopping districts, Hong Kong Harbour and Skyline, Merlion Park in Singapore, Marina Bay Sand, Perth Skyline, Perth Zoo and Wildlife Park, Western Australia Parks, Sydney Harbour, Blue Mountain National Park, Sydney Opera House, Sydney harbor bridge, and many other smaller places.

Links to our photos for the trips cover 2 months June 1 to July 25, 2017.

Italy https://photos.app.goo.gl/tl7cKT8OFyDrLm0v1

France https://photos.app.goo.gl/7qbmEhTNER8mS5W03

Tokyo https://photos.app.goo.gl/n1WtHaJ9kiiEIuF63

HKG, SIN and BKK https://photos.app.goo.gl/srJr4chW0fMrNQUF3

Perth, Western Australia https://photos.app.goo.gl/BLc89MZtoFh0d8aE3

Sydney, Australia https://photos.app.goo.gl/sf0IGAELM2B3IUvm1

Seattle and Vancouver https://photos.app.goo.gl/BefUX7ovGct8dmoU2

Check out my Round the World trip cost in other writing