For a first-time incentive client, we’d chartered a boat to go through the Panama Canal. Setting off from our rainforest resort in the middle of the canal route, we transited two sets of locks before reaching Panama City on the Pacific coast.
Suddenly – a BIG noise and a belch of black smoke. But nothing seems amiss. Several minutes pass before I see some frantic actions by the crew at the bow of the boat: they’re trying to lower the anchor chain. We are adrift. So that’s what the big noise and smoke was about – we’ve blown the engine!
I see a guy with a sledgehammer whacking away at the anchor chain – the links of which have rusted together from misuse. Link by link, amid a cloud of rusty red dust, the anchor is lowered into the water.
But we’re in no danger and there’s still beer in the cooler!
Whack! One of the links breaks and the anchor chain disappears into the water!
Fortunately, there are more than a few tugboats in this part of the world, so we were “rescued” in short order. Guests were transferred onto dinghys and came ashore . . . just as the beer was running out!
(Yes – we did get the client back for next year!)
First, a little background: each month for the past three years, I invite friends to a potluck dinner. They bring a dish to share and a check for whatever they might have spent to dine out at a restaurant. Funds are collected from hundreds of chapters and are donated to carefully-vetted NGOs in the developing world to finance programs that empower women. This simple, brilliant concept started ten years ago when a woman decided to celebrate her 40th birthday with friends, requesting that they donate money to women in need in lieu of a birthday gift. From a handful of women around a dining room table, it has grown into a 9,000+ member organization called Dining for Women (DFW).
In March, I organized a journey to Vietnam for 18 women. I arranged for us to take a group of foster girls out for Pho (noodle soup) and to a water puppet show in Hanoi. For some, it was their first time at a restaurant. We stayed overnight on a boat in Halong Bay.
In Danang we visited single mothers who received microloans to start a business, as part of a DFW grant. One woman was growing and selling mushrooms, another made brooms. One woman bought a cow, another a flock of ducks. One woman started a hair salon, and another opened a food stall in the market. All these women could now afford to educate their children and all had achieved higher status in their communities, as well as self-confidence which was much in evidence during our visit.
It was a transformational experience for all of us – and a significant one for me in my quest to offer purposeful connections through travel. I’ll be doing more travel programs for Dining for Women … can’t wait!
This was my 6th visit to Cuba. It was a site inspection with a client who is hosting a conference early next year. Every time I visit, the changes are palpable. The economic reforms enacted by Raoul Castro which permit people to open restaurants in their homes has resulted in some exceptional dining experiences which were not available when I first visited in 2010. Decrepit buildings are being renovated along the Malecon. Prices are skyrocketing as more and more Americans travel legally under the People to People license.
I am always in search of off-the-beaten path places, and – in this country of antiquated experiences – the small town of Remedios was truly an experience in time traveling. Cuba is truly one of the most extraordinary places I have ever visited.
(Maybe time to offer another WOW! Travel Club journey to Cuba…?)
In June, my husband Scott – a pilot – flew us up to Petaluma in northern California. It was an exciting “first” for us – flying a private plane – for a getaway weekend. (Okay – so it was a rented plane … I can dream, can’t I?) We enjoyed a lovely weekend with my business partner, Michael Day and his wife, Lynn, at their beautiful ranch on Sonoma Mountain, complete with llamas.
One of our incentive clients had chartered a 90-passenger cruise ship, the Tere Moana, for a week-long cruise in the Adriatic for their most important customers. Starting in Venice, we sailed to many unbelievably picturesque ports in Croatia, including Rovinj and Hvar … and I scored yet another country (my 63rd, I think!) when we sailed into Montenegro. One of the highlights was a private dinner on the city walls of Dubrovnik, from where we overlooked the sea … and dazzled our guests with some after-dinner fireworks. (Interestingly, I learned later that city officials rarely grant permission for pyrotechnics, since some of Dubrovnik’s older residents are freaked out about fireworks, which recall unpleasant memories of the wartime shelling of Dubrovnik’s Old Town back in 1991.)
After hearing so many wonderful things about Slovenia, it’s been on my list for some time. I visited this amazingly diverse little country on a week-long inspection trip. I woke up to a magnificent vista on my first morning there (Lake Bled), and explored mountain passes, enormous caves, castles built into the side of a mountain, mountain-top fortresses, a stud farm where the Lippizanner stallions are bred, a factory where they make prosciutto hams, a magnificent hotel on the Adriatic Sea, charming villages and a festival to celebrate the date that farmers bring their cows downhill from higher pastures. The Slovenians were in the finals of the European Ice Hockey Championships, so there was much partying in the capital city of Ljubljana. One of my greatest achievements of the week was learning to pronounce “loo blee ana!” 
There’s only one thing that can get me back to Michigan, and that is family. The Murphys got together at my brother’s place in Battle Creek for a family reunion, complete with roasted marshmallows, memories and, of course, mosquitoes!
If you know me, you know that I love to create surprises. This particular event was one of my better surprises! Everyone in my incentive group had been advised that we’d enjoy our final night gala dinner at a Michelin-starred restaurant. And, that on the way to dinner, we would stop to explore the mountaintop village of Les Baux in the waning hours of the late afternoon – after all the tourists had departed. What a pleasure it is to explore a charming village without crowds.
But the surprise was yet to come! Back onboard the motorcoach, I announced, “We have one more stop before dinner.” Flutes of champagne were poured for everyone as they exited the bus. I got lots of puzzled looks as we entered a massive abandoned quartz quarry. The lights dimmed and it went completely black for a few moments.
Then the music started – and images of the great Impressionistic artists were projected onto more than 7,000 square meters of projection surfaces … including ceilings and floors. It was an impressive, emotional 30-minute multi-sensory experience – just for them! My favorite: Water Lilies by Monet . . .
I’ve never been a groupie, but I got a chance to be one this year! I attended a special conference hosted by the Incentive Research Federation at the Hard Rock Hotel. Appropriately, we were entertained at the farewell party by a group called the World Classic Rockers. Former members (aging ones!) of some of the rock ‘n roll bands of my youth: Santana, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Journey, Steppenwolf, and Boston brought back great memories of the “good old days.” For the last set, they pulled women (even aging ones like me!) onto the stage. I was dancing around when a guitar was lowered over my head and I found myself in the embrace of a genuine rocker who was strumming his guitar from behind me.
The aforementioned transformational journey to Vietnam was not without its hilarity. Eighteen American women and a funny, funny Vietnamese chef at a cooking lesson where we were attempting to “flip” a rice pancake . . . made for one of those side-splitting moments that I shall never forget as long as I live . . . !
It was olive-harvest time in this special corner of Italy. For members of my WOW! Travel Club, it was an opportunity to “comb” the trees, letting the ripe green olives fall into netting spread on the ground. After such strenuous labor, we were rewarded with a bountiful picnic and yummy local wine in the ancient grove, complete with traditional “pizzica” folkloric music and dancing. We were joined by the Mayor of Squinzano, the nearest town. (Don’t you just love that name . . . “Squinzano”?!)
I know, I know . . . Puglia? Again?? Well, this list must include what is quite possibly my favorite hotel in the whole world: Masseria Cimino. It’s everything I love: charming, intimate, unique, comfortable, historic, quality, creatively chic, surprising and authentic to its place.
And last, but not least . . . since the topic is “memorable” travel experiences (not necessarily favorite ones!) my biggest blunder, my most embarrassing moment, my most expensive miscalculation of all time . . . the “bobbleheaded Pope debacle.” If you missed it, here’s the story . . .
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1 Comments
Diane Bowenq December 13, 2013 at 10:16am
What a year!!! Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!