Asia 2025

Years ago, I started planning a student trip to Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand. For a year and a half, a group of about twenty of us met regularly. We dreamed of Pad Thai, studied the Vietnam War, and wondered what might have happened at Angkor Wat to cause its inhabitants to abandon the largest religious structure in the world. The trip was scheduled for March 2020. Even two weeks before our departure, I was convinced we were still going. Sure, there was this new COVID virus, but it hadn’t really affected Asia—at least, that’s what I thought. But on March 13, 2020, when the world shut down, my hopes were dashed.

Fast-forward to 2023: I went on a reward trip to Panama and learned that the student travel company I’d worked with, (EF), also had an adult travel division. I knew I didn’t want to go to Cambodia with just Jim, and the idea of taking a small group of adults to Asia with a company I loved seemed exciting. So, I mentioned the trip to my close friends—and almost immediately, twenty people signed up. That was a year and a half ago, and tomorrow we leave.

What I’m most looking forward to is being with these people: dear friends from college, people who were in my wedding (and their adult daughter), the first friends I met when we moved to Ventura 40 years ago, my sweet niece and two couples who have traveled with me before. I had also offered the trip to some of my former students, who are now adults, and one of them took me up on it—she’s coming with her mom. Also, friends from church. The husband is famous for always bringing a baked good to meetings. It’s an amazing group.

I’m curious to see what it’s like to travel with adults. I used to remind my students of my three rules: no drinking or drugs, no sneaking out at night, and no people of the opposite sex in your room. These adults have joked that they plan to break all three rules! And that’s just fine—because they’re adults!