The Travel Show: First Show From Thailand in 2026!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Saudi Cup and greetings from Thailand. This is the Travel
Show and I'm Larry Gelwicks. Then get away Guru, and yes,
I've gotten away again to my favorite part of God's
Green Earth in Southeast Asia. I've got a wonderful group
of Travel show listeners. We're gonna be visiting Thailand and

(00:32):
Cambodia now through the miracle of technology. Today I am
in Thailand and John Potter is back in studio in
Salt Lake City.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Greetings, John, Greetings, I bet you're a little warmer than
we are here.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Oh yes, it is where it's tropical. We're in the
tropics now. Just so that we all understand each other.
Do you know your role in life?

Speaker 2 (00:56):
I do, unfortunately, and what is it?

Speaker 1 (00:59):
I work? So thank you very much. As long as
we have this established between us, I like the arrangement
very much. Well let's see, it was last Sunday that
I left with a as I mentioned, a group of
Travel Show listeners. We had three wonderful days in Bangkok.

(01:20):
I love being Bangkok. You know, it's a big city.
But we have a dinner cruise on the Chao Praya River.
The Grand Palace is one of those places that I've
talked about that. If you flew all the way and
only saw this one site, it's worth the trip. The
taj Mahal is like that. You know, a sunrise or

(01:42):
sunset in French Polynesia is exactly worth the trip, And
coming to the Grand Palace in Bangkok is worth the
trip if you saw nothing else. Now, of course you're
going to see other things.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
So we're in chang Rai right now, actually Sunday morning,
shortly after one am. We're fourteen hours ahead of Salt
Lake City.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Oh you're just getting started for the evening.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
And you know, I've been overdosing on diet coke. That's
why I'm so wired up right now in the wee
hours of the morning. But later today which will be Sunday.
Over here, we're going to be visiting the Golden Triangle,
the Deuttong Botanical Garden, that is the it's kind of

(02:31):
like Butchart Garden. Oh okay, Butchart is bigger, but this
is a smaller version. It's still very large of the
royal gardens owned and maintained by the royal family. We
go to the Royal Villa, their summer place, and we're
in northern Thailand in the foothills of the Himalayas. Now

(02:55):
let's talk about something important, okay, my favorite foods. You know,
do you like Thai food?

Speaker 2 (03:02):
I do, I've I don't eat it often, but the
times I've had it, it's been very good.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
You know. Kathy and I had this wonderful Thai restaurant
in Salt Lake. It was very authentic. It was a
family that had immigrated and then the wife, the mother
passed away from cancer and the family still running it.
But the food isn't the same. It doesn't have mama's

(03:27):
touch to it. Some of my favorites is the noodle
dish pad Tie. I judge all Thai restaurants back home
in the United States by their pad tis. Not just
rice noodles with a good dumped on it. It has
to be cooked just right. Then the different curries. Now
Kathy likes the mataman or yellow curries, the more mild.

(03:51):
I like the Panang curry. It's a red curry, and
the spicy one is green. I like that one also.
Then here's a dish I want you to remember, and
it's called capole. Now you can remember it as proud cow, okay,
but it's caupole, and they'll take pork usually pork or

(04:13):
chicken and mince it and fry it with a sweet
basil leaf. Gives its a wonderful flavor. You have a
scoop of rice, the caupole separate. It's not mixed in
with rice, so you can do that. And then if
you know it's authentic, there's a fried egg on top.
When I get it here in the United States, I
ask him you put a fried egg, And if it's

(04:35):
Native Ties, they generally don't. But I it's Native Ties,
they smile, like this guy knows how it should be served.
Then cowsoi, which is a kind of a Northern tie
chicken soup with noodles, and it has a curry base,
not like Indian curry, but it's and it doesn't have

(04:58):
to be super spicy. Then the star of the meal,
mango and sticky rice drizzled with coconut cream.

Speaker 3 (05:07):
Now I've had that before and it is that is fantastic.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
Well, you know, I'll be back next month. I'm actually
taking two Thailand groups this year.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
Actually three, that's right, you got November.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
Right in November, Oh my gosh, this is off the charge.
We'll talk about it later in the show, but sailing
with Alma Waterways, the Ultimate Deluxe river cruise Company, along
the Mighty Maykong River starting in cn Reap, which is
the home of Anchor Watt, one of the Great Wonders
of the World UNESCO World Heritage Site. Sailing down to Saigon.

(05:44):
Oh my gosh, it's just crazy. I'll talk about that later. Well, John,
This month is the Utah Travel Expo. Is what is
the Expo?

Speaker 2 (05:58):
That is a great place anyone that's interested in traveling
anywhere in the world, that is the place to go.
We've got several vendors there representing their hotels, or their
cruise lines, or their tour operators, airlines. They're all there
to answer your questions your There's several exor seminars you

(06:20):
can attend on different destinations and products, and you can
meet with the travel advisor from Morris Columbus Travel, get
more answers or set something up and.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
I will be there. Yes, let me correct you on something. Okay,
how how out of character for me? Nahhuh, you said
several vendors, Well got that does. Yes. Over last year
we had one hundred and seven and this year we're
gonna have even more. These are airlines, cruise lines, safari companies, hotels, resorts.

(06:51):
As you said, there's the expo opens in Saint George
at the Hilton Garden Inn on Wednesday, January twenty first,
and then the Mega Show with one hundred plus vendors
Friday and Saturday, January twenty third and twenty fourth at
the Mountain America expos Center in Sandy. Now, the Salt

(07:14):
Lake event is a ticketed event, well so is Saint George,
but all of St. George are free tickets. There is
a cost three dollars for adults kids seventeen and under. However,
for Travel Show listeners, I'm gonna tell you we have
a special promotion, free tickets for all of you, your family,

(07:35):
your company. Order as many as you want because you
listen to the Travel Show. Go to Utah Travelxpo dot com.
Utah Travelxpo dot com. Scroll down on the homepage, click
on get SLC. Now there's a mystery Salt Lake City
SLC get SLC tickets. Click on that and you'll see

(07:58):
the cost. Well, put like five adults. There's a senior discousion.
There's a price to it, but ignore that because down
in the lower left. It says apply a discount code.
Type in the word free and then you have to
submit it apply right next to it, hit apply and bam,

(08:22):
all the prices go away and all the tickets are free.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
That's the way to do it.

Speaker 1 (08:26):
Courtesy of Morris. Courtesy of John Potter. Oh yes, okay, John,
you're a frontline agent. You've been in the business twenty
plus years, very experienced. What are people calling about now?
What are the most popular destinations right now?

Speaker 2 (08:43):
I would have to say cruising is probably the number one.
We're all inclusive in Mexico especially is very popular. We're
getting more people inquiring about the Dominican Republic call inclusives
really yeah, and so it's kind of taking off on us.
And of course Europe is really big as well, both
Italy and then we're getting a lot of requests for

(09:05):
Ireland as well.

Speaker 1 (09:06):
The UK is always popular. The UK is the number
one trans ocean destination for Americans. I say trans ocean
means Mexico is number one, Mexico and Canada. Yeah, but
if you're flying across the Pacific or the Atlantic, the pond,
the pond, that's a big pond in the Pacific yes,

(09:30):
you know, what are some of the best travel Uh
you said cruises in Mexico. Why are cruises such a
great value.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
I think because your food is included and you eat
like a king on any cruise. And then what I like,
and what I think everybody likes, is you visit several destinations,
but you're not packing and unpacking and spending a lot
of time waiting around airports. You wake up the next
morning and you're in a new destination.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
You know, I like that the past I can unpack
one time. It is. I don't know, I just love.
My favorite days on a cruise are actually the days
at sea nine hundred and sixty degrees of open ocean.
Now for Kathy, my lovely wife, she likes the ports
where she has single handedly resurrected the economy of several

(10:19):
third world nations. This woman loves to shop, Love you, Kathy,
but she does love to shop. For that different cruise lines.
I put what I call first class cruises Royal Caribbean NCL, Princess.
Kind of a premiere would be Holland America, Celebrity Disney.

(10:41):
Then you get into the deluxe Seaborn, Crystal and others.
When we come back. We've got Pluto, the ultimate Disney character,
right here in studio. He also doubles as John Potter
how to plan the perfect Disneyland vacation. You're listening to

(11:12):
The Travel Show and I'm Larry Gelwicks, they get away Guru.
The Travel show is sponsored by Morris Columbus Travel, where
you always travel more and pay less. Check out their
website at Morriscolumbus dot com. That's Morriscolumbus dot com. If
you want information on any of the escorted tours, including
the ones that I take, scroll down on the homepage

(11:36):
of Morriscolumbus dot com and then click on Morris Murdoch
Escorted Tours. That's the brand name for our escorted programs.
You can see the ones that I'm taking and other
We have such wonderful, wonderful tour hosts. I'd like to
welcome John Potter. I should say welcome back to the

(12:00):
the show. And John, you are a Disney file. That's
the only way to describe you. Your perfect life would
probably be being a Disney character at Disneyland or something
that would be which one would you be? Pluto? Pluto? Hey,

(12:21):
if when you come to the Utah Travel Exbo. You
gotta look for John in his Pluto hat. Will you
be wearing that hat.

Speaker 2 (12:29):
For some of the time. It's it's a little hot
and itchy wearing it all the time. But I will
have it with.

Speaker 1 (12:34):
Me and hot and schmichy.

Speaker 2 (12:36):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I will have it and wear
it from time to time.

Speaker 1 (12:39):
Potter, stop your whining and wear the hat. I love
the hat. Okay. Uh. You know last month I went
to Disneyland. I think you did too. Yeah, I was
a week behind you, a week behind me. I went
with my daughter Jenny and her two boys, Milo and Brooks,
ages seven and ten. Her husband Brandon was unable to

(13:01):
get the time off work, although they'd planned for all
four and then they said, well Brandy can't get his
time off from work, so Dad jumped in.

Speaker 2 (13:11):
I'm sure it was really hard on you.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
Well, you know, the hotel was already paid for. I
bought my tickets and my airfare and all of that.

Speaker 2 (13:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
Anyway, John, how many Disney parks are there?

Speaker 2 (13:26):
There are? Well, there's several parks, but there's overall, there's
overall six six name them. Let's see, we've got Disneyland California, California,
Disney Well, Disney World in Orlando, Florida, got it. We've
got Disneyland Paris just outside of Paris.

Speaker 1 (13:42):
You've been there.

Speaker 2 (13:42):
I've been there. Well, going again, of course you are.
We've got Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong. We've got Tokyo,
which you've been to several times, which I'm so jealous of, thank.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
You very much. And Shanghai Shang Hi. There's six now,
I've been to five. The only one I haven't been
to is Shanghai, China, and I'll get there one day.
How many have you been to? Four?

Speaker 2 (14:06):
Three?

Speaker 1 (14:06):
Three? Yeah? I have? Oh that time?

Speaker 2 (14:09):
Any of the Asia parks I've been to Paris.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
Let's focus on Disneyland, California, the original open to nineteen
fifty five. My very first visit was in nineteen fifty eight,
and I've got pictures of myself eight years old at Disneyland.
Walk us through, step by step how to plan the

(14:32):
perfect i mean perfect Disneyland California vacation, be it with
our kids or grandkids as a family, or I was
surprised how many couples there are without kids.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
Yes, yeah. The first thing I would suggest is get
your disney Land tickets because Disneyland still requires reservations to
get into the parks. You don't want to buy tickets,
not get a reservation and get down there and find
out they're full. You cannot get into it.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
It's not like the old days. You just walk up
and they let anybody in, right, I mean they let me,
and people would think they let anybody in.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
Reservations, reservations are required for everyone, whether they have season
passes or anything, they are required. So you want to
make sure you can get into the park you want,
and then you want to plan your time. Now, my
biggest advice is for hotel accommodations. Don't spend your money

(15:32):
at one of the three Disney resort hotels. There are
nice hotels, but they are way out of price.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
Right Grand California average per night.

Speaker 2 (15:41):
Cost eight hundred and fifty dollars a night.

Speaker 1 (15:44):
That's insane.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
Yeah, and you're going to be spending the majority of
your time at the park.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
At the park. Now you've got the Disneyland hotel that'll
save you. I mean it's gonna cost you four or
five six hundred dollars a night. Yeah, And then the
third one.

Speaker 2 (15:59):
Is the Pixar Place, and it's going to be three
point fifty four hundred to night.

Speaker 1 (16:03):
And I mean, if money is no object. My name
is Bill Gates. It works. I would love to stay
at the Grand California I have, Yeah, you found it.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
It would because of a huge deal.

Speaker 3 (16:16):
Right.

Speaker 1 (16:17):
Where are some places that you recommend we stay?

Speaker 2 (16:21):
One thing with Disney, the closer you get to the park,
the higher the price will be, regardless of the quality
of the hotel. So I would stay. Say you want
to be either on the east side or the west side.
Now you like the best western stovehalls over on the
west side and the park, yeah, not bad at all. Full,
I mean a full, real breakfast, Yes, So that one's

(16:43):
a good one. There are several on the east side.
My favorite is the Anaheim Fairfield Inn. It's right behind
McDonald's and so it's a good location there, and it's
about a five minute yes, about a five minute walk,
and so you'll save a lot of money by you know,
like I say, the further away you go, the lower

(17:04):
the price is going to be. And most of the
hotels when you get to be you know, two or
three blocks away, offer a shuttle service that goes to
the park. It's the art Anaheim Resort Transit. It has
got a small cost like two three dollars a day.
It's not a huge expense, but it's it's a great option.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
Talk to us about tickets.

Speaker 2 (17:22):
Tickets, you're going to get a better price if you
package them with a hotel package. So if you package
your hotel and your pack and your passes together, you will.

Speaker 1 (17:32):
We're talking about Disney tickets.

Speaker 2 (17:34):
Yes, okay, package it with your hotel, hotel and tickets.

Speaker 1 (17:38):
Where do you get those packages from? You? And from
other Morris columnis.

Speaker 2 (17:42):
Morris Columbus travel other travel agents, but Morris Columbus, we
know Disney.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
Yeah. Now there's also things like the lightning pass.

Speaker 2 (17:52):
What is that lightning pass is like a reservation to
ride a ride at a certain time.

Speaker 1 (17:58):
And there our window isn't this one.

Speaker 2 (18:00):
Hour windows like return between one and two?

Speaker 1 (18:03):
And you can do it.

Speaker 2 (18:03):
There is a cost for those separate line separate line
uh huh. And so it does get through you a
lot quicker, but again there is a cost for that,
and the cost varies on how busy the park is
that particular day, supply and demand and so but it
is an option that you don't spend a lot of
time waiting in line.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
You know, one of the things that's interesting about Disney
is you can bring food in.

Speaker 2 (18:25):
You can, yes, you cannot bring in glass containers, but
you can bring in food and like plastic containers, make sandwiches,
bring already made sandwiches, snacks, drinks. You can bring that in,
no problem.

Speaker 1 (18:38):
We'll be talking more about Disney later in the show.
Coming up, I want to tell you about a brand
new return to the Golden age of cruising that you
can enjoy with me. Salady cop and greetings from Thailand.

(19:05):
I'm Larry Gelwicks to get Away Guru, and I've gotten
away with a wonderful group of travel show listeners. We
are visiting Thailand. Later this week. We will be on
our way to Cambodia and anchor Wat. And you know
how much I love Southeast Age. I've said many times,
if it weren't for the kids and grandkids, Kathy and

(19:25):
I would live in Thailand. It's the people, the culture,
the food, everything about it very very good value. But
through the miracle of technology, I am in Thailand. It's
actually Sunday morning, what about one thirty am. We're fourteen
hours ahead of Salt Lake City and through the miracle
of technology, John Potter is in studio. He's in Salt

(19:48):
Lake today and John, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
Thank you always great to be here.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
You know, you're in a unique position because in studio
there's a couple of buttons that would cut me off
and you would take over the show, which you've been
plotting for years. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
Yeah, one of these times, when you go dead, you'll
know I finally did it.

Speaker 1 (20:09):
Well, I hope I don't go too dead.

Speaker 2 (20:12):
Yeah, personally, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (20:13):
John, we talked earlier in the show about cruising and
you'd mentioned, which I totally agree with, that cruising is
probably the best travel value out there right now for
what you get. And I am doing a special cruise.
This is the first announcement that of this special cruise.

(20:37):
I call it a return to the Golden Age of cruising.
It'll be in late April of twenty twenty seven, and
that's that's just like a year and a few months away. Yeah,
can you I mean we're talking about twenty twenty seven.
It's going to be it's the February and March, what
fifteen months away? Yeah? Now, we're going to be from

(21:00):
Honolulu to the West coast, will visit some islands in Hawaii.
The reason I call it the Golden Age of cruising
is I remember as a kid growing up in San Francisco,
I would go down with my grandparents to the Marina
and see people off on the Lurelin the Mariposa, which

(21:22):
sailed passenger every week San Francisco to Honolulu, and they
used the streamers. You know, they don't do that anymore,
throwing streamers as you push down. We'd watch those ships
push out and then sail right under the Golden gate Bridge.
I remember it so vividly, and I would be dreaming

(21:45):
that maybe someday I could go somewhere. Little did I
know that as of today, I visited one hundred and
seventeen countries, most of them many times over. But the
golden age of cruising, John, is when a ship cruise
ship was used. Primarily, the first usage was transportation to

(22:07):
get from point A to point B, like Transatlantic, trans
Pacific to the South Seas, and of course you want
to have fun times on board. Now, I think cruising
is more of a holiday than a means of transportation
because most cruises start and end at the same port

(22:28):
you come back and it's a wonderful holiday. We are
going to depart Honolulu on April twenty ninth, twenty twenty seven,
and sail to the West coast Vancouver, BC. We will
visit the islands of Oahu, the Big Island. By the way,

(22:49):
did you know that the Big Island to Hawaii is
officially changing its name. No, this is not a joke. Really,
it's called the Big Island or the Big Island of Hawaii.
The state officially is changing the name from the Big
Island to Hawaii. Okay, just one word Hawaii.

Speaker 2 (23:14):
And everybody's still gonna call it the Big Big Island.

Speaker 1 (23:17):
Why is it called the Big Island.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
It's the largest of all the jan island.

Speaker 1 (23:21):
It's big anyway. So we're gonna visit Kailua Kona and
we're gonna actually overnight there and then sail on to Vancouver,
British Columbia. Now, what is it about Kailua Kona that
you love so much?

Speaker 2 (23:37):
Oh? My gosh, the volcanoes, for one thing. You know
right now, you know it's really active. I hope it
is when you're still there. But I love the volcano
and I know more about the hiloside than the ConA side,
but I do love the ConA side as well.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
It's dryer. Yeah. Kailuacona is on the west coast of
the Big Island soon to be only Hawaii. A very
historic town. The Hulihei Palace, the former Royal vacation Home,
dates to eighteen thirty eight and you can visit that.

(24:12):
The amoku A Kaua Church dates to eighteen thirty five.
It was Hawaii's first and oldest Christian church. And of
course King Kamehameha, the first was from the island of Hawaii. Well,
you can visit that church, you can visit the Royal
Vacation Home. It was right there on Kailua Bay that

(24:36):
King Kamehameya or King Kamehameha the Great, as he's also known.
That's where he lived. So today you stroll along the
waterfront in historic Kailua Kona restaurant shops, boutiques, galleries, historic landmarks.
It's one of my favorite places in all Hawaii because
it has a laid back atmosphere. Yeah, now there is.

(24:59):
Have you did down to the City of Refuge, Yes,
I have see that is on the just south of
Kailua Kona, and it's uh the The actual name is
puh hoo ouah oh ho now nao. Say that fast
three times, no, thank you. Puohu ho honua oh ho
now Nao is the name of the city of refuge

(25:23):
and what it is in the In ancient Hawaii, this
place possessed extraordinary manna or spiritual power. It came in
part because twenty three of the Alie, that's the chiefs
whose bones were protected in the Heyau, the temple, the
royal grounds were considered the center of power, open only

(25:47):
to Alie and those serving them. Now, beyond the wall
around the Heyau, you also had another wall, and that
was called the city of refuge. Those who broke copou
think of taboo copu. Those are the sacred laws and
beliefs by which everyone lived, for example, and the punishment

(26:12):
was usually death by stoning some of the uh Copo
was the shadow of the elite. Could not fall upon you, Okay,
men eating with women. It was against capou in ancient Hawaii.

(26:32):
But the biggest one in the battles the losing side
the prisoners. If they anyone who broke kapu, being a
prisoner if they ran to the City of Refuge and
got into the walls before they were captured, all was forgiven.
They could walk out minutes later and nobody would touch them. Wow.
Now there's an interesting tradition about the City of Refuge

(26:56):
that if you and there's warning signs, do not take rocks,
because there's a whole display area of people who took rocks,
and the tradition is bad luck will follow you. And
these they have letters from these people outlining these horrific things,

(27:16):
all this bad luck, all this bad karma that would
come to them because they stole a rock, maybe a
piece of lava rock from the City of Refuge, and
they returned it and said, please forgive us, Yes, stop
the evil spirits from possessing us. But it's but you

(27:37):
shouldn't take anything in no. No, it's like people. You
see people with jars at the black sand beaches on
the Big Island taking set, leave the set, leave Hawaii
in Hawaii. Take a picture. Yeah, did you know? Also
in Hawaii you have green sand beaches, red sand beaches,
black sand beaches, gray sand beaches, and white sand beaches.

Speaker 2 (28:01):
That's right, see them all.

Speaker 1 (28:02):
Anyway, So here's what I want you to do, folks,
think about this. First of all, we'll fly to Hawaii.
You can go for a few days before the cruise.
You can go for a week or two, but we'll
be flying to Hawaii independently. How I think Kathy and
I go for three or four days boat.

Speaker 2 (28:19):
Oh you've got to go early. I would have to do.

Speaker 1 (28:21):
I want to stay out on the north shore, particularly
at the Courtyard by Marion and Property. You have the
market place there, the PCC BYU Hawaii and LDS Tempa, all.

Speaker 2 (28:34):
The food trucks that come for the PCC.

Speaker 1 (28:36):
Oh Man and right across the parking lot is mcdonnald
Ocdonald's now also across the street and just down a
little as Pounders Beach. I have body surfed there when
I was a kid so many times. Anyway, So go
to Hawaii for a few days, a week, or however
long you want, and then we'll board the Anthem of

(28:57):
the Seas with Royal Caribbean. That's one of their new ships.
Tell us about the Anthem.

Speaker 2 (29:02):
The Anthem is a great ship. It's got the I
Fly on it, which is a simulated sky diving. You've
got the north Star, which is the big long arm
with a capsule on the end that you can get
in and go over bubble, Yeah, go up over around
the ship. It's got the bumper cars. The bumper cars
are my favorite thing. That is just so much fun.
The sea plex where they've got all kinds of fun
activities to see a great ship. It really is.

Speaker 1 (29:23):
Yes, and they I think they do a wonderful job
in the dining if you can grab any kids. Royal
Caribbean does a wonderful job with kids and teams.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
Oh, their kids programs are great.

Speaker 1 (29:36):
So here's what we're going to do. We sail from
Honolulu April twenty ninth. We arrive in Vancouver, British Columbia
on May seventh. And here's what's unique. You can We're
going to stay a few days in BC and look
to Whistler or the Olympics. Yes, I've told the story

(29:57):
about I was driving up then there's this big a
road sign near a town that says Bear Country. Had
this horrible picture of a grizzly bear, you know, baring
its teeth. Do not get out of your car. Of course,
what did I do?

Speaker 2 (30:11):
You got out of the car.

Speaker 1 (30:12):
I got out and I left the door open. And
I'm looking for grizzly bears. How stupid was that? Fortunately
I didn't find any. But we want to spend some days.
But here's the deal. Starting May seventh, when we disembark
in Vancouver, the Anthem of the Sea starts the Alaska
Summer runs. Yeah, and they have a round trip from Vancouver,

(30:35):
Alaska Cruise to Juno and CATCHI can skagway glaciers galore
inside passage. Now what's really nice about this is the prices.
This Hawaii cruise rate start. Are you sitting down? Rate
start at just seven hundred and seventy seven dollars triple

(30:57):
seven's including all How long is that crew? Let's say
ten day crews?

Speaker 2 (31:02):
Wow?

Speaker 1 (31:03):
Yeah, but I like the balcony one thousand and sixty
eight Wow, one thousand bucks. Now, Alaska, they've given us
some discountras. You can stay on the ship, you can
keep your same cabin. Oh wow, which is really nice.
Alaska rates start at seven hundred and fifty eight dollars

(31:26):
including all taxes. You could do for about sixteen hundred
dollars Alaska and Hawaii.

Speaker 2 (31:36):
Wow, that's teen seventy to you days.

Speaker 1 (31:39):
When we come back, we're going to be going from
Hawaii and Alaska to Cancun. What to see and what
to do when it's tarn This for you, bhenoss for me, Yes,

(32:08):
we're headed to Cankun. I'm Larry Gelwicks, that get away guru.
The travel show is sponsored by Morris Columbus Travel, where
you always travel more and pay less. Check out their
website Morriscolumbus dot com. That's Morris Columbus dot com. And
for the upcoming what is it John, about two weeks
from now. Yeah, we'll have the Utah Travel Expo. You

(32:31):
don't want to miss it. Go to Utah Travel Expo
dot com for time, place and directions. Well, I know
that you love Cankun. I think you've said it's like
your favorite place resort in Mexico.

Speaker 2 (32:46):
Second favorite.

Speaker 3 (32:47):
Well, yeah, no, it is my favorite. Yes yeah, Portabayarte
is yeah, my personal FA. But I love Cankun, oh
me too, absolutely, So let's talk about Cankun. You can
just lay back and just at your resort with a
Pina Colada. I always get the Virgin Pina Kalada, subtly
hoping they'll forget No, just kidding, just kidding.

Speaker 1 (33:10):
But what do you like to do. What do people
like to do in Cancun.

Speaker 2 (33:16):
Well, for me, I love going and visiting the ruins,
the Mayan ruins, and you know, they've got three different
ones down there. You've got, of course the granddaddy of them,
al Chitsanitza.

Speaker 1 (33:28):
You know, they put in a new highway from can Kun.
It used to be a very long drive. It's about
two hours now, yeah, away. And of course chiitsanita is
it was a major Mayan city and it flourished six
hundred to twelve hundred a d very powerful political, economic

(33:49):
and religious hub. And it's a UNESCO World hair size.
There's nothing like it, especially the pyramid that's there.

Speaker 2 (33:55):
Yeah. Wow, it's amazing. Yes, you've got a little closer
to the Cancunir, you've got Tuloom, which is beautiful because
you're looking out over the ocean. It is just spectacular.

Speaker 1 (34:06):
Yeah. Tuloom flourished in the thirteenth the fifteenth century. It
was a port and it thrived until the Spanish invaded
that area and so many of the natives died of
Spanish born diseases. It's just tragic, it is. But it's

(34:28):
fun because it's so easy. It's just south of Plia
del Karmen.

Speaker 2 (34:32):
And then my favorite of the three is Coba.

Speaker 1 (34:35):
God.

Speaker 2 (34:35):
I love Coba the best. It's shady, it's not out
in the sun so much. It's more shady jung and
yeah it is, and I just love Coba. What else
do you like to do? You did the ruins, Uh,
the snorkeling. I really like the water park shellh shell
ha is. They call it a water park, but it's

(34:56):
not what we think of. It's not water slides and
flowing and.

Speaker 1 (35:00):
All of that jungle environment.

Speaker 2 (35:02):
Yeah, and you can go snorkeling through different caves and
it's just relaxing and I love it.

Speaker 1 (35:10):
Dining. Yeah, you've really got two archaeological water parks. Again,
not like we think, but it's a jungle environment, underground rivers,
there's wildlife, there's cultural shows. You can dine there, you
can uh snorkel and swim. You have Shell has spelled
x E L dash h A. The other one I

(35:33):
like is x correct Eat, which is spelled x c
A r e T. Google those and you'll get you'll
get some ideas.

Speaker 2 (35:43):
Yeah, those are so much fun. And of course the
beaches are wonderful beaches. You don't burn your feet on
the sand at the beaches in the cancn area. How
the sand has made more coral crushed, coral porous.

Speaker 1 (35:57):
Yeah, and it actually has an airflow. You know, you
go to most beaches in the summer as you're running
across in bare feet waiting to get to the water.
But it's warm sand, but not hot sand. You do
not The sand is like talcum pater but it's over
millenniums the coral reefs have been ground and the sand

(36:20):
is actually porous and allows an airflow. Love the beaches. Now,
there's several areas in the Greater cancun Era. North of
the city you have Playa Muhas and just off the
shore you can take a ferry over There'sla Muharadas. You know,

(36:40):
the word Muhtas means women, so Islamuharatas is the island
of women. It was named after the Mayan statues of
goddesses the females, and play Muheadas on the mainland is
a luxury resort area. And then you have the hotel

(37:04):
zone right, It's like it's almost like Waikikiko or Miami.
This hotel row. You have the Mayan Riviera south of
the city where the resorts or beach front but space apart.
And then Pliadel Carmen. I like Pliadel I do too,
and then you have the island of Cosmel. What's interesting

(37:26):
is that cruise ships, the big ships don't go to
Pladel Carmen and there's no place to port there. They
get off in Cosmel, which has very good snorkeling. Cancun
has no snorkeling. Why because there's no reefs build up.
Some of the things that I like to do is
the scuba, the snorkeling. You have ziplining ATVs. The Cadabaran sailing.

(37:56):
Mexican cooking classes are so much fun. And then there's
food tours, swim with the dolphins, horsebackground. There is so
much to do or nothing to do. Whatever you want
to do. Now best time to visit. John. It's warm
year round, but I like October to April. I agree

(38:16):
the summer months are very hot and humid, but if
you're in a bathing suit, you really don't care. You
live in the water, then you live in the water.
When we come back in our number two, We've got
some special wave seasoned crews discount promotions. John's going to
tell us all about here on the travel show Saudi

(38:54):
cop and Greetings from Thailand. I'm Larry Gelwicks to get away,
Guru and be leave it or not. It's about two
a m. Sunday morning. We're fourteen hours ahead. I've gotten
away with an incredible, wonderful group of travel show listeners
to Thailand and Cambodia. John. This annual trip that I

(39:15):
take really is popular.

Speaker 2 (39:18):
It really is.

Speaker 1 (39:19):
You know, the January, this one we're on sold out
in one week. Next month in February, I come back
after the expo sold out in three days. We keep
the group to about thirty six thirty seven people. It's
a deep dive in culture, in food. In we go

(39:40):
places that you'd expect, like the Grand Palace, What Pole,
you know what, Aroon and the Chao Praya River. But
we do things that just people don't do perfectly safe
and on the we visit, of course the Midlands and Bangkok,
up to chang Rai, down to Chang Mai Pouquette and

(40:05):
then up to Cambodi and Anchor Wad. I got to
tell you something kind of fun is moving from chang
Rai in the foothills of the Himalayas down to chang Mai,
famous for the night bazaar. It's near the cheng Dal
Valley with the elephant camps, the best ones, and we
carefully vet the camps that we use, and some animal

(40:28):
rights activists have approved of the ones that we go to.
They're well treated the elephants there. But everybody takes a
bus from chang Rai to chang Mai. I would never
do something like, oh, perish the thought. So what we
do is the Kulk River Koka Kulk River flows through

(40:53):
chang Rai. We get up and get on long tail boats.
Now they'll hold about six people. They're narrow boats, and
it's called long tail because at the back of the
boat you have a like a V six or even
a V eight with this long drive shaft and propeller
that they can lift up and down, move right to left.
That's the long tail. And we're out in a national

(41:16):
park area is unaccessible by road, and we're seeing some
hidden Buddhist statues. So we spend about a couple of
hours on the river and then pull over in a
hill tribe village where on some dirt road the bus
picks us up and then we continue through the mountains

(41:41):
and the jungle to a little restaurant. Years ago, I
met this guy from Switzerland. He's a European chef, extraordinary,
married a tie woman. They have a little resort literally
in the middle of nowhere. These mountains of the foothills
of the Himalayas explode straight up. It is as dense

(42:03):
a jungle. They have about five or six little units,
but a wonderful restaurant. And we take over the restaurant
for a group lunch with both Thai and Western foods.
And you know, the bus can't even pull up to it.
The last you know, well four or five hundred feet
we have to walk on a trail to get to

(42:25):
this place. Oh wow. And then the last little bit
we take the bus into Chang My. That's the type
of things that we do on this particular trip. I'll
be doing three Thailand trips. I'm on one, I'll do
another it's sold out in February, and then in November
I'll be doing Cambodia and Vietnam on a river cruise

(42:50):
with Alma Waterways with an option to visit Thailand before that.
A lot of fun I'll talk more about that. Maykng cruise.
Later in the show, let's talk about the Utah Travel Expo,
the thirtieth annual, the biggest, the best travel show, travel
expo anywhere in the Inner Mountain West, with over one

(43:12):
hundred travel vendors, airlines, cruise lines, safari companies, hotels, resorts,
tour companies, all things travel and you can sit down
one on one, talk to them, ask questions, take advantage
of exclusive expo discounts, attend information seminars, and they all

(43:32):
have these free little giveaways. And did I mention hourly
free travel awards, international tickets courtesy of Delta Airlines, free
airline tickets, free cruises, free hotel resort stays. Now, somebody's
going to win these prizes. It should be me, But
it won't be. But it won't be listeners, folks, it

(43:55):
may as well be You. Go to Utah Travel Expo
dot com. That's Utah Travel Expo dot com. It is
a ticketed event for Salt Lake. There is a cost,
but I'm going to tell you how to get free tickets.
Simply go to the site Utah Travel Expo dot com,
scroll down and click on get SLC Salt Lake City Tickets.

(44:17):
You'll see a cost, click on how many tickets you want,
order as many as you want, and the lord left
on it asks if you have a discount code. I'm
going to give you the Travel Show Listener discount code,
which is four letters, F R.

Speaker 2 (44:30):
E E our favorite four letters.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
That's my four letter word and it begins with F.
I better stop right there. But you know, the only
thing better than cheap is free. So type in free,
but you right next to it. You have to click
on apply or submit and boom, all your dollar prices
go to zero. A lot of fun Utah Travel Expo.

(44:55):
We talked about cruising. Most major cruise lines have a
teacher and first respond to discount. It's usually about five percent,
but we're talking NCL, Royal Caribbean, even Disney Cruise, and
Disney doesn't discount anything, no, you know, but they discount

(45:15):
their cruise also. From time to time they will discount
a cruise fair. It's not that often, but you know,
one of the things you could do is you can
give any of the Morris Columbus Travel Advisors cost. If
you want to talk to Pluto, John's direct line is
eight oh one four eight three fifty two fourteen eight

(45:39):
oh one four eight, three fifty two fourteen, and you
could say to John or any of the advisors, hey, listen,
if some discount, some sale comes up on a Disney cruise,
let me know. Is that a fair fair call?

Speaker 2 (45:55):
Absolutely?

Speaker 1 (45:56):
And Disney cruises are more expensive, but so worth it.
It's like a Disney experience.

Speaker 2 (46:05):
It is.

Speaker 1 (46:06):
Yeah, you're paying for the It's like Disneyland. A post
to six Flags of Lagoon six Flags and Jenny and
I were talking about this last month as were walking
up Main Street, and I said, you know, I like
Lagoon back in Utah, I like six Flags. I like
these theme parks, but they're just a theme park of rides.

(46:28):
When I come to Disneyland, I revert back to what
I grew up with, the Walt Disney show that I
used to watch, The Mickey Mouse Club. Now here's a
fun one. I don't know if I told you about.
I have a picture of myself at ten years old,
nineteen sixty shaking hands with Goofy and we found Goofy,

(46:50):
the character. I showed Goofy and his handler the photo
I have on my phone from nineteen sixty. I'm ten
years old, and I said, can we reach create this
they got excited. Goofy is literally jumping up and down
his handler. She's just squealing with delight. And so the

(47:11):
pose is us shaking hands, and Jenny took the photo.
I'm gonna have both photos, you know, developed and framed.
You know, at age seventy five and at age ten
shaking hands with Goofy. What's amazing about that? John, Goofy
hasn't aged.

Speaker 2 (47:28):
I was gonna say that, I bet Goofy looks the same.

Speaker 1 (47:31):
And you have really I have really aged. Now? What
is wave season?

Speaker 2 (47:36):
Wave season is what the cruise lanes call January through
April because most of the cruises are booked during those months,
and so that's when they offer some of the best discounts.

Speaker 1 (47:50):
What are some of the wave promotions that you really
can't get any other time of the year.

Speaker 2 (47:56):
Yeah, here's I've got four really good ones. Norwegian Cruise
Lines fifty percent off all cruises, plus you get the
more at C. So that's your free dining, free, limited drinks,
specialty dining, specialty dining, uh huh, the limited bar, the

(48:17):
shore Excursion credit where you get a discount for each
port you visit and second person flies free.

Speaker 1 (48:23):
You also get part of that a Wi Fi free
Wi Fi package and on select cruises, the third and
fourth person sales absolutely free. You just pay the tax
i like the buy one, get one. It's called bogo bogo.
To me, that's the highlight of the NCL.

Speaker 2 (48:43):
It is absolutely What about a Royal or Princess Royal
Caribbean eight hundred dollars up to eight hendred dollars off
and up to thirty percent off on board extras, so
that'd be like a drink package or shore excursions, and
then on select Caribbean sailings one hundred dollars on board credit.

Speaker 1 (49:04):
Do you do you love disney World in Orlando?

Speaker 2 (49:08):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (49:10):
When we come back, I want you to tell me
why and how do I plan? We talked about playing
the Perfect Vacation to Disneyland, California. Will you give a
step by step by step how to go to Orlando,
disney World, the Magic Kingdom and plan the perfect vacation,
where to stay, how to reduce your costs and other

(49:32):
attractions in the Orlando area. What do you say sounds great?
When we come back for the Travel show, Welcome back

(49:55):
to the Travel Show. I'm Larry Gelwick's The get Away
Guru today in Salt Lake City is John Potter. I
am in cheng Rai, Thailand, up in the foothills of
the Himalayas with a group of travel show lists, and
what a marvelous, marvelous trip we are having. We're seeing

(50:16):
so much and it just keeps getting better and better
and better. You know, when you come John to Thailand
and this part of the world's Southeast Asia, Cambodia, Vietnam,
leave your suitcase half empty. At least the shopping here
is so incredible and cheap that some people will bring

(50:41):
have their suitcase and put a smaller suitcase with their
clothes and stuff inside the bigger suitcase. And now so
they'll come home with a big suitcase and a smaller
sized one with all the goodies. You know, we actually
do that. Do you know what elephant pants are? Yes? There,

(51:02):
How would you describe elephant pants County, Yeah, they're they're
just kind of light material. Then some have elephants, some
have different designs. They're an Asian pant. You can pick
them up for one hundred bot it's about three bucks. Wow.
And Kathy and I bought about different sizes. Now plus

(51:28):
size will probably run you one hundred and twenty one
hundred and thirty by thirty two tie bot is one dollar.

Speaker 3 (51:34):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (51:35):
So I just tell people just do it with thirty.
It's easier to multiply. You know. We bought about thirty
or forty of them, and we've kept them. As gifts.
You can get these little these little woven bat it's
almost like a coin purse, you know, a small bag.
You can get those. I usually get eleven of them

(51:56):
for three dollars or one hundred bot. That's about you know,
eighty ninety incredible gifts. Wow. Yeah, Should I bring you
some elephant pants please? Yes?

Speaker 2 (52:11):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (52:11):
Now we'll be doing regular or plus sized regular regularly.
I'm just having fun with you, all right, Let's head
to Florida, our ultimate Disney expert. There is no one
in this world I believe that knows more about Disney
than John Potter. In second place is my daughter Jennifer
jen who's been on the show the number of times.

(52:32):
By the way, I don't know if you listened two
weeks ago. I didn't. On December twenty seventh, we had
a special holiday edition of the travel show. You can
go back to Morriscolumbus dot com and listen to the podcast.
It was the Gelwick's family. It was Kathy, Jennifer, Sarah
and Keaton. Our other two children, Emily and Larry couldn't

(52:57):
make it. This place was rocking.

Speaker 2 (53:00):
And rolling, I can imagine.

Speaker 1 (53:02):
And it was unscripted, you know, I said, just don't
get us kicked off the air.

Speaker 2 (53:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (53:08):
But they kibbets each other and they told family stories
of travel and great advice, like Sarah talked about traveling
with food allergies, Jenny talked about visiting Disneyland with children,
Keaton talked about road trips with young kids, and Jenny
also talked about airplane flights with kids as did. It

(53:29):
was a fabulous and of course Kathy gave us sage
travel advice. You gotta go back and listen to that
when it was hysterical.

Speaker 2 (53:38):
I bet it was.

Speaker 1 (53:38):
That was the December twenty seventh edition. Anyway, let's head
to Orlando. Take me step by step of the perfect
Orlando holiday planning.

Speaker 2 (53:51):
What I would say you want to do is list
everything you want to do. People can go to Disneyland
for two or three days and see everything. You cannot
do that at Walt Disney World World Walt Disney World
has four major theme parks inside of it. It sits on
forty seven square miles of land, also has two water parks.

Speaker 1 (54:08):
Would you say forty seven square miles.

Speaker 2 (54:12):
Disneyland is measured in acres, disney World is measured in miles,
so it is a lot larger. It is no joke
when they say you can put all of Disneyland in
the parking lot at Walt disney World, and so real
for real. Yes, so you want to plan plenty of time. Now,
last segment I mentioned don't waste your money staying on

(54:33):
site at Disneyland. I'm going to reverse that for Walt
disney World. You do want to stay on site, and
they do have different levels of hotels. I like the
value hotels value. Disney Style is more like your holiday
in quality. It is not Motel six, which a lot
of people think it is. And they're very nice hotels,
and it's clean Disney operated. Yes, and so it's all included.

(54:59):
A definitely want to stay on site at Walt disney World.
You also have other theme parks in the area that
you might want to visit. Universal Studio has four theme
parks as well in Orlando and of course, you've got
a Sea World, you've got a Lego Land. There are
a lot of things to do in the Orlando area.
One of my favorites is going up to the Space Center,

(55:21):
the Kennedy Space Center.

Speaker 1 (55:23):
I've actually seen a what do you call it? Lyftoff.

Speaker 2 (55:27):
Yeah, I've seen rockets go. I did not get to
see the Space Shuttle, which I feel bad about. But yeah,
So there's a lot of things to do in that area.
So I would say you want a minimum of a
week if you're just doing Disney, minimum five days and
plan what you want to do.

Speaker 1 (55:43):
About an hour's drive from Disney World is Cape Canaveral
and Port Canaveral. Yes, which cruise line sail out of
Port Canaveral.

Speaker 2 (55:54):
Almost all of them. They keep expanding, and so Carnival, Royal, Caribbean,
Princess Norwegian. Of course, Disney is the king of Port Canaveral,
and so most of the cruise lanes have ships out
of Port Canabual.

Speaker 1 (56:07):
You could book a vacation four five, six seven days Orlando.
A week is the ultimate, Yeah, and then do a cruise.
Yeah you could.

Speaker 2 (56:21):
And they've got cruises three, four, five and seven days
in length normally year round, and so you can do
a different lengths of cruises.

Speaker 1 (56:29):
Now knowing you, John, you would go to disney World
for a week, then do a cruise for a week,
st another week at Disney World, do another cruise for
a week and come back a month later.

Speaker 2 (56:39):
Yeah, if I had a month's vacation, absolutely I would do.

Speaker 1 (56:42):
I know somebody at Morris Columbus Travel I can talk
to about Oh, okay, please do what about reducing your
costs in the park?

Speaker 2 (56:52):
Food in the park, there's not as many options as
you have Disney World because you cannot walk off site,
but you do have different areas you can go to
that have lower cost foods. That's what I usually do,
just the burgers fries. It's going to be a lot
less than going to a nice sit down restaurant each time.
But there are a lot of great dining options at

(57:12):
Walt Disney World.

Speaker 1 (57:13):
If you'd like to talk to John Potter his direct line,
you can skip the automated system eight oh one four
eight three fifty two fourteen that's eight oh one four
eight three fifty two fourteen, or online Japotter at Morriscolumbus
dot com More when we come back. Today it's Saudi

(57:47):
Kopp Greetings from Thailand. It's about two point thirty in
the morning here. I'm in chang Rai, Thailand today. John
Potter is in studio. It's in Salt Lake City today.
Through the mirror of technology, we can both sound like
we're right in your front living room or riding in
the car with you. But we can't take your call

(58:09):
in questions. We will do that when we're live. Speaking
of live, I will be in Cambodia next week. John,
but back for the Travel Expo, broadcasting live in Salt
Lake City on the twenty fourth of January. I will
you know what's interesting, All the Morris Columbus Travel employees

(58:32):
wear a Morris Columbus shirt except one person.

Speaker 3 (58:37):
Me.

Speaker 1 (58:37):
Yeah, you have to stand out, I do. I have
to take a spectacle of myself. I'll be in one
of my trademark Aloha shirts. I have about fifteen Aloha shirts.
And the nice thing about is I get fatter. I
don't have to buy a new wardrobe. You know, maybe
I'll start wearing a mumu. What do you think? And
then that takes care of.

Speaker 2 (58:58):
Oh that would be a sight.

Speaker 1 (59:00):
Can you just imagine me.

Speaker 2 (59:02):
I'd rather not thank you.

Speaker 1 (59:04):
I'm glad you said no. I can't imagine you. Denny's
getting very excited. But that's another story. Okay, Denny's our
crack producer, not our producer on crack. And then another
thing I should say to you is sin Chao. That
is Vietnamese for hello, because that's where I'll be in November.

(59:27):
Why do I love Southeast ash It's different. It's the food,
the culture, the people, the weather. There's a friendliness there.
You know, Thailand's known as the Land of Smiles, and
you can feel a different vibe in Southeast very different
than the PRC, the People's Republic of China or COMI China.

(59:51):
It's a very different vibe, very different than Hong Kong.
I love Hong Kong, by the way, but it just
grabs you and you want to go back again and again.
So I do, Yes, you do. I've got a we've
talked about this month. I'm in Thailand, Cambodia. I'll be
back in Thailand in February. I'm going to be flying

(01:00:13):
from Bangkok after the Thailand tour in February to Sydney, Australia.
I'll meet Kathy in Sydney, and we have three days
in Sydney with again travel show listeners, and then sailing
twelve days of Australia New Zealand. Then we'll spend two

(01:00:33):
days in Auckland. After the cruise go down to Hobbiton
Did you see the Hobbit movies? Oh? Yes, Oh my
well it's right there in the shire. Yeah, right there
in the shire. Yeah. I lead a charmed life. OK.
Let me tell you about this may Cong River cruise.

(01:00:54):
We've done this before, John, I am so excited about
this one. We visit Cambodi in Vietnam. We can arrange
a visit to Thailand. Kathy and I are going to
be going to Thailand, even if it's just the two
of us beforehand, then fly up there. But this particular
cruise is with Alma Waterways. How classy are they?

Speaker 2 (01:01:16):
They are the best? I just love on. The excursions
are included and you get a choice of excursions, not
just one. You get a choice of different excursions, usually.

Speaker 1 (01:01:26):
Four or five, and they're rated like a number one
is for people with mobility issues, wheelchairs, walkers, they have
something for you. A number five might be a mountain hike,
or a bicycle tour everything faster pace. That's right, that's right.
We start in cn Reap, Cambodia. That's the home of

(01:01:48):
anchor Watt. Anchor Wat, from the twelfth to the fourteenth
century was the most enlightened and educated community population on Earth,
over one million people living in that area. Now it
was back in the days of the Kimer rain Or
rule in the Greater siin Reap area. There are over

(01:02:11):
eight hundred Khimer temples. Only about two hundred have been recovered.
The others are covered by jungle, but we know where
they are. But anchor Wat was never covered by jungle
because from the twelfth century, some nine hundred years, it's
been a working temple and anchor Wat is the largest

(01:02:32):
religious monument on Earth. Anchor Wat means city of temples
in Kimer it was. It's actually shared by two religions.
Originally a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Vishnu, and
towards the end of the twelfth century became a Buddhist temple.

(01:02:53):
You know what's really fun is walking this temple. You'll
see the monks and then you see what's called a
novel monk. I call it the Buddhist MTC because a
novice monk, they if you're really participating active we would

(01:03:15):
call it. In the Buddhist religion, all males will become
a monk, but not for life. Some do it for life,
some become Catholic priests for life. But you go and
live in a monastery from a few months to a
half a year, a year, two years or longer. Usually
they can start anywhere from age seven or eight. Most

(01:03:36):
will start about twelve, and you know, your head is
shaved and you wear the saffron robe. And it's an
incredible exciting to see these kids out there. Even the
King of Thailand went and became a Buddhist monk for
a peering a period of time, and to see these

(01:03:56):
young men devoted to their religion. What we do on
this particular tour is we sail through Cambodia and anchor
Wat excuse me, Cambodia and Vietnam, including a visit to
Anchor Wat, and we get into the backwater. Now Alma

(01:04:17):
Waterways is the ultra deluxe. All the shore excursions are included.
We visit you know, cn Reap. The actual boarding is
several hours from that along the Maekong River, PanAm Pen,
the capital of Cambodia. One of my favorite places is
Tanchao in Vietnam. You no tourists are there. This is

(01:04:42):
authentic rural Vietnam. It's unspoiled by tourism. It's a small
Maycong river town. But if you want the authentic experience,
including a trisha ride around town. They make silk, the
silk making all by hand. You can visit them. Some

(01:05:02):
are making it in their homes, the Retan matt workshops.
And what I like to do is get in the
trishaw that's like a three wheeler with some guy pedaling
and visit the town. That's just one example. We end
up in Saigon now known as Hochi Min City, and

(01:05:23):
there you can disembark the ship. It's about an hour
from the city. Go straight to the airport or come
with me and we spend two days in Saigon. We'll
visit the city, the War Memorial museum that talks about
the Vietnam War. What's interesting. One of the most popular
stops is the post office. Now think about that, John,

(01:05:45):
the post office. Why you have about fifty sixty foot
ceilings and around above the booth where you'd talk to
someone for stamps. Are these giant mosaics, beautiful mosaics tracing
the history of Vietnam. So we go in so you

(01:06:05):
can see the newsics. Right across the street is the
Notre Dame Saigon Cathedral and it's tree lined city. It's
a beautiful city. But I think the highlight of our
visit are the Kuchi Tunnels, not the Kuchiku Tunnels. That's
something from your high school days to the Kuchiku Tunnels.

(01:06:27):
But the Kuchi Tunnels were a tunnel network that is
largely settled in the Kuchi district, hence Kuchi Tunnels of
Ho Chi Minh City. It was dug during the Vietnam
War by the Viet Kong and it's a network where
a vast area they can go anywhere in these tunnels.

(01:06:47):
Underground there were hospitals where they would eat, where they
would sleep, and we actually have some that are opened
up for visitors. You know, it's a short walk. They've
widened them for Americans and for Europeans. So we're sailing
Cambodian Vietnam in November. The actual cruise dates from November

(01:07:11):
nine to sixteen. We offer a pre cruise three days
in se and Reap and anchor Watt Anchor Tom, did
you see a tomb Raiders movie. Oh yes, we go
to that where Angelia comes through the door. We go
to that very spot and you can replicate it. It's
Cambodia in Vietnam again. You can visit other areas, including Thailand.

(01:07:33):
Now here's what we did. We bought half the ship.
The discounts are off the charts, usually about one thousand
dollars less than if you bought the same date directly
from Almah Waterways or some other travel agency. We've got
I believe six cabins left in our a lotment and
we're just a little over a year away. These are

(01:07:53):
going to go. It's a great time to visit. I
hope that you'll come with me. Kathy and I'll be
your personal tour guides along with local guides. You can
contact John or any of our Morris Columbus Travel advisors
are the Group department direct if you want to talk
to John eight oh one four eight three fifty two fourteen.

(01:08:18):
And there's so much more. PanAm Pen Sadak. It just
goes on and on. It's a memorable experience. You'll see
Southeast Asia that few tourists ever get to see authentic experiences.
Now let's turn our attention to another river cruise, and

(01:08:39):
that is the sin both John and I have. We're
going to be hosting tours John in August of twenty
twenty six on the Senn River round trip from Paris
including Normandy and the d DA Beaches. I'll be in June, John,
tell us about your cruise.

Speaker 2 (01:08:56):
Yes, mine is August twenty sixth through September the fifth,
and a course John is taking this tour, so there
will be an optional Disneyland.

Speaker 1 (01:09:04):
Plus me guess uh huh.

Speaker 2 (01:09:06):
At the end of the cruise that we will be
able to do as well.

Speaker 1 (01:09:11):
And I will be.

Speaker 2 (01:09:12):
Your host and tour guide. And again it's on Amah.
We was talking about AMA and the best cruise line
out there. And we visit the Normandy, the Landing Beaches,
the cemetery there, the US Cemetery, other cities as well,
Rowan La Hoove Service City floor.

Speaker 1 (01:09:30):
Yes, as Vernon.

Speaker 2 (01:09:32):
Yeah, so it's going to be a great tour. So
love to have you come with me again this year
this year August twenty sixth through September the fifth.

Speaker 1 (01:09:40):
This should properly be booked directly with you. Yes, not
the group department right eight oh one four eight three
point fifty two fourteen, and John will take advantage of
any promotions or discounts that are current when they're booked
and the promotions come and go, they do. Yes, Uh,
I'll be saying June seventeen to the twenty fourth Lovely

(01:10:04):
Time to Go of twenty seven of twenty twenty seven. Again,
we bought half the ship. We have discounts that are
anywhere from one to two thousand dollars less for that
cruise on that particular day and for mine. You can
contact any of the travel advisors or the group department directly.

(01:10:26):
We come back. We're going to wrap the show up
with some travel fun facts. Welcome back to the Travel Show.

(01:10:46):
I'm Larry Gelwicks to get Away Guru. It's just before
three am here in chang Rai, Thailand. I escaped with
a wonderful group of Travel show listeners. I have been
overdosing on diet coke, a caffeine fixed to keep me alert.
Now the problem, I'm going to have John Potter, who's

(01:11:08):
in Salt Lake City today and through the miracle of technology.
We can both be on the show. Is I am
so hyped up right now on caffeine and diet coke?
How do I possibly go to sleep?

Speaker 2 (01:11:20):
I don't know. It's almost one pm here. I'm going
to lunch.

Speaker 1 (01:11:24):
I know I may just have an early breakfast or something.
Next week I'll be talking to you from Cambodia. I
love Cambodi. And don't forget the Maykong River cruise this
year November ninth to the sixteenth that we just talked about.
I've got six cabins left. And John Potter talked about

(01:11:46):
his Sin River cruise August twenty six to September fifth,
twenty twenty six. He and I are doing the same cruise,
but different dates. John is this summer in August and
early September. I will be in June June seventeenth to
the twenty fourth of twenty twenty four.

Speaker 2 (01:12:07):
Excuse twenty seven. We're not going back in time.

Speaker 1 (01:12:11):
Too late twenty twenty seven, and both of us have
a pre cruise Paris option. Mine will be three days.
We'll have the day of arrival. I don't like to
plan anything on the day. Nights maybe delayed or something.
The second day is a full day city tour. The
third day we're going to go out to Versailles. That's wonderful,

(01:12:34):
can be? I want to remind you too of a
new cruise. This is the first announcement, also in twenty
twenty seven, departing Honolulu April twenty ninth, and it is
a ten day cruise, arriving in Vancouver on May the seventh.

(01:12:55):
Will visit o Wahu, Honolulu, the Big Island, Kailuacona, then
cross the North Pacific to Vancouver. What's insane about this cruise?
And that is the Golden age where people used a
ship as a means of transportation. Rate start per person
based upon double occupancy, including all cruise and government taxes.

(01:13:18):
Currently seven hundred and seventy seven dollars for an inside
cabin I like the balcony. John me too, one thousand
and sixty eight so another but two hundred and sixty
bucks or something like that, dred bucks. It is. And
you can go to Hawaii early, stay as a few
days or a couple of weeks. What's interesting. We arrive

(01:13:42):
in Honolulu, excuse me. We depart Honolulu April twenty ninth.
We arrive in Vancouver May the seventh, and then the
ship Anthem of the Season, which is one of their
newer ship's Fantastic Ship, starts the summer Alaska season. You
can stay on board in your same cabin. Rates for
Alaska start including all taxes about seven hundred and fifty

(01:14:07):
eight dollars. Now what's interesting is the tax on this
is about three hundred and thirty dollars included in that
seven fifty eight. So you're getting an Alaska cruise for
approximately four hundred and twenty eight dollars. Last year we
didn't include taxes. Now they're including the tax Can you

(01:14:28):
imagine an Alaska cruise for four hundred and twenty eight
dollars on Anthema the season.

Speaker 2 (01:14:33):
No, I just can't imagine that one at all.

Speaker 1 (01:14:35):
See a balcony is only eleven seventy three and I
would go for the balcony.

Speaker 2 (01:14:40):
Yes, uh.

Speaker 1 (01:14:41):
And so the Alaska is a May seven to fourteen.
Contact John or any of our Morris Columbus travel advisors
for details on Larry's Honolulu to the West Coast to
return to the Golden Age of cruising. Tell me about
the Utah Travel Expo.

Speaker 2 (01:15:00):
Oh, it's coming up. It's in Saint George is Wednesday
the twenty first.

Speaker 1 (01:15:05):
Is it Wednesday.

Speaker 2 (01:15:07):
Twenty first at the Hilton Garden Inn in Saint George.
It's a one day event. And then on Friday and Saturday,
the twenty third and twenty fourth of January, we will
be at the Mountain America Expo Center in Sandy with
over one hundred vendors and it's going to be a
great time for all.

Speaker 1 (01:15:25):
It's going to be epic, absolutely epic. Now tickets for
the Salt Lake event, there's a cost Saint George, it's free.
How do I get free tickets to Salt Lake?

Speaker 2 (01:15:39):
Go to us US Yeah, Utah Travel Expo dot com. Again,
Utah Travel Expo dot com. Scroll down, roll down to
buy tickets.

Speaker 1 (01:15:50):
For salt Lake. Salt Lake get SLC or Salt Lake
City tickets the.

Speaker 2 (01:15:54):
Yeah, and then there's whatever you want, whatever date you want,
how many people? There's a cost there, Type in the
word free.

Speaker 1 (01:16:03):
We're asked for a discount.

Speaker 2 (01:16:05):
Discount code free, and then a fly that's it. Very
You have to apply and show the balance due is zero.

Speaker 1 (01:16:13):
Get as many. Send it out to your company, send
it out to your church congregation, to your family, to
your friends and At the Salt Lake event, there will
be over one hundred travel vendors airlines, cruise lines, safari companies, hotels, resorts,
tour companies, all things travel. Yes, and you can sit

(01:16:36):
and talk to them one on one, ask questions, take
advantage of exclusive expo discounts that won't be available outside
of the expo. Attend information seminars. I'll actually be doing two.

Speaker 2 (01:16:50):
Of them, and the seminars are free.

Speaker 1 (01:16:53):
Seminars are free and free travel giveaways every hour, free
airline tickets, free cruises, free everything. Well, that brings us
to the end of the show. I don't know what
I'm going to do to get to sleep now.

Speaker 2 (01:17:07):
But Kathy Hm in Thailand, Hey, love you guys, Thank
you for joining us.

Speaker 1 (01:17:14):
I'll talk to you next week. From the Kingdom of
Cambodia