AUNDECK OMNI KANING—High school sweethearts Frankie and Betty Corbiere love to travel and have taken some amazing voyages in their more than 40 years of marriage—but this past Christmas season the Aundeck Omni Kaning couple outdid themselves with an epic around the world cruise that saw them visit nine countries.
The couple were joined on their trip by Reggie Leach and Dawn Madahbee Leach, also seasoned travellers. Another couple, one of Ms. Madahbee Leach’s colleagues and her husband also joined part of the voyage. We say voyage, because much of the trip was spent aboard cruise ships where the couple enjoyed a decidedly pampered lifestyle.
The Corbieres are retired, he from years of working construction and she after 35 years at the hospital, so travelling for a month can be accommodated even with the busy lives that come with being retired. The couple had a near-death experience on one of their trips to Florida a few years ago after a motorcycle accident put them both in hospital—just as the pandemic was starting to restrict travel. They barely made it across the border in time, despite their injuries.
But this trip was a whole different experience.
“We were on cruise ships for 14 days, one 10-day cruise and one four-day cruise,” said Mr. Corbiere. “The whole trip was 30 days in total.” The first stop was Tokyo, Japan for a couple of days before flying to Singapore, then both South and North Vietnam, including sojourns to the DMZ and Ho Chi Minh Trail. But Phuket Thailand was a true jewel in the Asian leg of the journey.
“We got to see James Bond Island, where the 1974 movie ‘The Man With the Golden Gun’ was filmed,” said Mr. Corbiere. The clear waters and amazing vistas of Phang Nga Bay, a national park were amazing, as was the food. (Ko Ta Pu Island is the actual name of the island, one of many exotic things to see and do in that country.)
Although the couples spent a lot of time on the cruise ships, nearly every one of the 30 days of the globe-spanning trip was packed with whirlwind tours and excursions.
“Every day we were doing something, even on the boat,” said Mr. Corbiere. “There was so much to do on the boat that, you know, we just kept on the go.”
Not every day ended in an exhausted collapse into bed, however, as the couples also took time to just sit back and recharge. “One day we sat down and played cards for a couple hours,” said Ms. Corbiere, “and that was just a relaxing day.”
Before they set out on their epic voyage, the couple spent an early Christmas with their children and grandchildren as the journey began on Christmas Day.
The couple have always had the travel bug, but first and foremost in their marriage was raising their children. Later, as the children grew more independent, the bug resurfaced. “Once the kids got bigger, you get a little bit more freedom and you can just go and do whatever,” laughed Mr. Corbiere. “We went to California; we went to Vegas with our hockey team. But we got tired of Vegas. So, Betty and my brother and his wife said, ‘well let’s go for a ride someplace,’ so we rented a car and headed up over the mountains and ended up in California.”
Hockey was a large impetus for their travels three decades ago.
Now, with the children grown into adults and focusing on raising families of their own, the couple decided to go all-in on the trip of a lifetime and explore places further afield. “This was our first time visiting Europe,” said Mr. Corbiere. Fascinated with old buildings and ancient weapons and armour, Mr. Corbiere was able to indulge his inner paleophile. Having flown (business class no less) from Singapore to Turkey, the couple explored the city of Istanbul, a crossroads of cultures, with its confluence of Greek, Roman and Muslim history.
It was here that the couple had no problem identifying their most romantic experience in the monthlong series of adventures.
“The Turkish bath,” they both exclaim in unison.
“My God, that was the greatest thing,” said Mr. Corbiere. “They took us in the room, the two of us on different cots, and two different girls give you an oil bath. Like, I mean, just deep massage and then they put you on your back and they do your front and then they put—what do they call that—a facial. They put some stuff on your face, it gets hard, they leave you there for five,10 minutes and then they take you into another room and they just lay a cloth on you, hot water washing and hot water.”
“We went in first and then Reggie and Dawn went in the other side. When they came out, I called Reggie and I said, ‘I bought the place across the road.’ He looks and said, ‘what do you mean?’ I said, ‘I’m staying, I want that again, tomorrow.’”
After that, we watched belly dancing,” shared Ms. Corbiere. “I slept through it,” she laughs.
So much history abounds in that part of the world. The couples travelled up a hill to a castle where they explored Roman artifacts. “We went and seen armor and the castle there, like along the trail up, going up to the castle there was Roman stuff there, like birdbaths and Roman columns. They said they dug that up. Whenever you’re putting a building up, you’d find some.”
At first the archeologists brought the finds from a dig to a storage area near the castle, but then, there was so much discovered that it was decided to just leave it all together in that location.
Besides the knives and armour, gold and jewels (they got to see the world’s third largest diamond), there were plenty of cultural learning opportunities.
“We got to see them make silk,” said Ms. Corbiere. “They started out with these little worms, then they would take the cocoon, soak it, and stretch out this tiny wire and slowly unwind it.” The thread was then woven into colourful scarves. “Five or six women would take the thread and pass it through, from top to bottom. It was amazing. She said it might take anywhere from two to three months to have that done.”
Remarkably, the resulting scarf was not all that expensive. But the couple did not buy one as a souvenir. They were packed very lightly. “Anytime we wanted to bring something home, we had to leave something behind,” laughed Mr. Corbiere. “Our sons wanted hats, but we told them, your mom would be wearing six hats coming home.”
Other wonders included mosques decorated with mosaics made from tiny pieces of porcelain, completely covered from foundation to towering spire.
Visits to Paris and London came next, with the obligatory stops at the Louvre and Tower of London. The trip up the Eiffel Tower gave an amazing view of the ancient city of Paris, but the very top was under renovation, so out of bounds. Still, a stroll down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées offered opportunities for historic photos, including gazing across the River Seine from the same spot as a conquering Hitler a hundred years earlier.
“Did you know the Eiffel Tower almost came to Canada?” said Mr. Corbiere. “The president of France at the time made a deal, they were just going to start tearing it apart to bring it to Montreal and people started protesting. They were tired of fixing and painting it, and the cost, and Canada was going to buy it.”
Visits to Vimy Ridge brought a moment of reflection, as was the trip to where the trenches of World War One are being restored. “We went to the Newfoundland graveyard. Our tour guide said there was only 300,000 people living in Newfoundland when the war broke out, so they couldn’t draft from here because it was too small. So, 11 percent of the boys volunteered because they weren’t including draft people. They went with all their training and the first day, 98 percent of them died. I’d never heard of that, that’s incredible. Sitting Bull had a son who fought, died and was buried over there.”
The monument commemorating their sacrifice was constructed using materials from Newfoundland. “The rocks, even the trees, they all were brought over from Newfoundland. When the war was going on, all the trees had been flattened, so they transplanted all these big trees.”
One of the most amazing discoveries the couples made in their journey was not the huge jewels, the ancient armour and castles, the art or even the food—it was the people and the generosity of those they met on their travels.
In one instance, the tour guide’s vehicle broke down, threatening the rest of their excursion. “One of the people in the village just offered the use of their van. It was a brand-new van, so it wasn’t a real big inconvenience—it was actually more room for us. Then he just took it back that night.”
Along the way, they made new friends. Some from Canada or the US and others from all across the globe.
The couple have no intention of settling in on their laurels when it comes to travelling. They are already making plans for their next great adventure together.
