House Sitters

Posted on September 21, 2011 by debbie

We are trying something new with this trip.  We have house sitters!

We have some friends whose daughter just got married and the newly wed couple are living with relatives. The newly weds have bought a house and the possession date is just when we come home, so it works out perfectly for them to come live here for the weeks we will be away.

Unfortunately, this has meant more work to get ready to leave as we have been emptying some closets and cupboards so they have space to put their stuff. We also have had to clean the house! DRAT!

The young couple came over last night and we gave them a tour and told them about the idiosyncrasies of our house. I am confident that they will take good care of our house. I am glad that they have a place to be on their own for a few weeks before moving into their own house.

I, of course, made a list of instructions for our house sitters. It describes a few of the idiosyncrasies, like the dishwasher filter needing to be cleaned every few weeks.

I also made a short list of “Please do nots”. Things like no pets in the house, no smoking in the house, no candles, don’t use the fireplace and don’t leave the windows open when not at home. We think these things are obvious, but, sure, they’re obvious to us, but are they obvious to other people?

We also left a couple of phone numbers (Murray’s parents, my sister) just in case something needs repair while we are away.  Hopefully they won’t have to use these phone numbers.

So, with 3 days to go, we are now set with our house sitters.

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Dealing with Mild Altitude Sickness

Posted on September 19, 2011 by debbie

Last year, we went to Tibet as part of our China trip.  Rather than fly into Lhasa, we had decided to take the train so we could acclimatize to the altitude slowly. We flew into Xining and then took the train from Xining to Lhasa.

We live in the prairies of Canada and regularly go to the Rocky Mountains and stay at an elevation of 1,350 m  or 4,300 ft. My body was used to this altitude, but not for what we encountered in Tibet.

I started to get a headache while in Xining (2,275 m, 7,470 ft).  I sometimes suffer from headaches, in the back of my head from stiff back muscles, and originally thought it was this.  But this headache got worse as we climbed higher and higher towards Lhasa (3,595 m, 11,800 ft). We finally decided that the headache was in fact due to the altitude.

It must be noted here that Murray did not suffer one little bit from the altitude.  Why am I so lucky???

In Lhasa, I took Advil to get rid of the headache, moved slower and breathed deeply.  I did not drink tons of water as I was concerned about not finding washrooms when I needed them. We had a couple of days in Lhasa before heading towards Mt Everest Base Camp (5,150 m, 16,900 ft) during which my symptoms declined and I started to feel better.  Just a note – I cannot take the common drug prescribed for altitude sickness as I am allergic to one of the ingredients.

On the day we drove up and up towards Mt Everest, my symptoms started again, but I was okay if I just sat in the vehicle breathing deeply.  As soon as we got out to eat lunch, the small exertion was enough to make me nauseous and not be able to eat lunch.  Back into the vehicle to sit and breathe deep.

Murray bought a couple of cylinders of oxygen from a store (it is surprising how available oxygen is) just in case I needed them at the Everest Base Camp.  We spent the night in a hotel at Tingri (4,300 m, 14,000 ft) before going to the base camp.  This gave me extra time to acclimatize and I felt fine by the time we got to the base camp and did not need the oxygen.

I have included a High Altitude List in the Packing List Menu.  These are my notes and suggestions for anyone with mild altitude sickness.  Before going on a trip that involves going to high altitude, you should talk to your doctor.  Also, check out the many websites on altitude sickness so that you are well informed.

Darjeeling’s altitude is 2,045 m (6,710 ft) which will give me some time to acclimatize for Bhutan. I will know what the symptoms are and how to alleviate them. A couple of the places we are overnighting in Bhutan are up at 3,000 m or 10,000 ft, which is almost the elevation of Lhasa, so I am prepared to deal with mild altitude sickness once again.

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Counting Down

Posted on September 17, 2011 by murray

We are a week out and have, for the most part, everything in place. Now it is just the waiting. I, being my cocky self, don’t think we should have any trouble adapting to the unfamiliar, Debbie, whose job it is to worry, is fussing about the unknown.

The big thing for us to remember is to keep our wits about us. Upon arrival we will be jet lagged and therefore vulnerable to local scams, we just have to be extra vigilant. We will. After a day or two, we will have developed a system with which we will be able to survive in the unfamiliar environment and we will function quite well. This has been the case time after time no matter where we travel.

Yesterday we did the bank thing and got our traveler’s cheques, and one very large stack of Indian Rupee’s. We always get enough of the local currency to start the trip.  For this trip we are going with what amounts to not very many dollars, but with a 45 to 1 exchange rate it turns into a large number of bills. A number of the bills are in small denominations and it will be difficult to carry the money in a wallet. We may need a small suitcase????

Important documents waiting for final packing

We did a ‘practice’ pack last night. We wanted to see what we could eliminate from the pile of stuff we have been accumulating over the last couple of weeks.  I managed to cull one pair of socks, one pair of underwear, one pair of pants and 3 t-shirts. We also managed to consolidate the small amount of diving equipment we are taking and we are able to leave one of the containers at home.

Culled clothing

I still think I have too much and will pain over what else I can do without. All in an effort to minimize volume and weight. Right now my bag is light but it always seems to get considerably heavier when I add all the items that we cannot add until the night before we leave.

Mur - "Purse" stuff in back of pic, airplane clothes on chair, suitcase stuff in forefront

Deb - Purse stuff in back, airplane clothes on chair, suitcase stuff in forefront

Zero minus 10;9;8;7 …. the waiting is the hardest. It seems the longest part of the journey. The trip itself will go so fast and when we return it will be hard to believe we ever went.

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The Mini Pharmacy

Posted on September 14, 2011 by debbie

We put together our first aid kit for India today.  It looks like a mini Pharmacy.

Sleeping pills, sinus cold pills, imodium pills, headache pills, fever pills, allergy pills, heartburn pills. Check.

Ointments for cuts, heat rash, bug bites, plant stings, sunblock. Check.

Bandaids, blister pads, road rash pads, alcohol swabs, adhesive tape. Check.

Ear plugs, latex gloves, mirror, pins, tensor, thermometer, throat lozenges, tweezers, sewing kit, simple first aid sheets, electrolyte. Check.

Malaria pills, ciproflaxin pills. Check!

Stuff it all into a small cosmetic bag.  CHECK!

AND DONE!

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Crunch Time

Posted on September 13, 2011 by murray

The time is nye and we are still making final arrangements on the India side of the trip. Our learning curve is big right now and some days life is very frustrating. Testing the limits of our civility.

First, we do not know how much to take the info obtained at face value. October seems to be a busy time in NE India and the ‘books and net’ say you should have arrangements for accommodation and transportation made ahead of time. Sometimes we do that, but a good portion of the time we arrive in a town and look over the accommodation prior to making  the commitment. We are getting older and maybe not so free spirited as we once were so we have made the decision to book a few places ahead of time.

The Indian ‘system’ is not the same as ours. Surprise, Surprise! Credit cards are not accepted as readily as here. So, deposits are made by Paypal, which works good for us, or by bank transfer, not as easy or as secure as it may sound.

First, is our banks. They want $35 to transfer money anywhere.  This is often as much, or more than, the cost of the deposit, and second, I have read a few hotel reviews saying that when the guests arrived at the hotel, the hotel had not received confirmation of the deposit from their Indian bank and even though the guest had a confirmation from their own bank, the hotel had given away the room and ‘there was no place at the inn.’

We have run into a couple of hoteliers that understand our problem and stated that they    “still believe, for the most part, humans act in good faith” and will hold the room for us without deposit. I like this, it bolsters my faith in humanity as well. Barring disaster, we will be there.

We were in conversation with a hotel on Havelock Island.  The correspondent had said that there was a tentative reservation made for us, to be fair to him he did say the reservation would not be confirmed until a deposit had been paid. Anyway, we were emailing back and forth and then we received a return email that stated the room was no longer available. They were waiting payment of a deposit from another guest. We were not contacted for the first right of refusal, something I found odd since we had been in daily contact through email. C’est la vie, we immediately contacted The Emerald Gekko, another place we were interested in, and they seemed to very interested in our business so we booked. This is without paying a deposit so far.  I do believe this room will be waiting for us when we arrive.

One more piece to the puzzle is to make sure we have transport to Havelock Island on the day we arrive. That should be resolved today. The rest of the trip we should be able to do on the fly. We will have enough time at each step to book transport or find a hotel and it should suit us more than this long distance ‘ we might end up with what we expect, we might not’ system.

As I said above, it is a bit frustrating, but it is a learning experience and I have to keep remembering Debbie’s mantra “travel mode”.

Definition: Travel mode-Chill, go with the flow, you are not in control so see where life   takes you. Just be wary.

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Debbie’s gut and traveling to India and Bhutan

Posted on September 9, 2011 by debbie

I went to my naturopath on Tuesday.  I have intolerance issues with dairy, gluten and eggs.  Not the thing to have when traveling to India where dairy is in everything and naan bread is a staple.  My naturopath suggested I take two supplements – Digest Gluten Plus and Digest Dairy Plus, both by Seroyal.  Both of these contain various enzymes that aid in digestion.  I was going to try Lactaid and had purchased some.  The labels are interesting when they are compared.  The Lactaid (Regular) has 3,000 Lactase  Enzyme Units per tablet. The Digest Dairy Plus has the following enzymes – lactase, protease, bromelain, lipase, and a couple more in small amouts.  The lactase amount is 16,250 LAU (I think this is the same unit of measure).  Impressive.

Murray and I went for Indian food that night and I had butter chicken and a number of dishes that looked like they had dairy in them (forgot to write them all down).  I took some yogurt mixed with cucumber to cool my mouth off too.  The naturopath said to take three Digest Dairy Plus capsules – one before eating, one during and one after.  I was nervous, so I took an extra one during the meal. A couple of hours after we ate there were still no issues with the dairy. Then I thought “Let’s see what the morning brings”. The morning brought just the regular morning routine.  No diarrhea, no bother! WHO HOO!

I want to do another test of the dairy capsules and this time eat no bread.  My initial test was not a clean test as I ate both dairy and gluten. Next week, we will go either for Indian food again or Greek food (for my son’s birthday). Looking forward to tzatziki!

The plan for India and Bhutan is to avoid dairy and gluten as much as possible.  I learned in China that there are times when avoidance is just not feasible.  So, when I cannot avoid these foods, I will have these capsules to alleviate the symptoms of the intolerance. I think that is a smart plan.

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Bhutan packing and other stuff

Posted on September 7, 2011 by debbie

Murray was getting antsy about starting to pack for Bhutan and India. The trip is becoming reality.  The camping gear is put away, the laundry is done, my daughter has left to go back to school in BC. We printed off our packing list and got to it.

We tackled Murray’s clothes first as he didn’t really know what to take, whereas I had been thinking about it and had a pile going already (I cheated as many of the Bhutan clothes had just been camping).

For Mur, we pulled two pair of 100% nylon convertible pants and one pair of normal 100% cotton pants.  Murray will only take two pair of pants so he has to decide which ones.  I have a pair of wool stretchy pants and a pair of linen pants.  We talked about maybe I should take a pair of convertible pants as the Andamans will be hot. I find 100% nylon pants not all that warm so I am not quite convinced about them. I do not have a pair, so I will go shopping to see what I can find.

We are both taking wool long underwear as PJs. We have read the hotels in north India and Bhutan may not be as warm as here in Canada. If necessary, we will wear these during the day too. We are both taking at least one other wool top to wear during the day as Bhutan is at altitude and it could be cool there in the mornings and evenings.

Cotton T shirts round out Murray’s shirts. I have a combo of one cotton T shirt and a couple of wool T shirts. I am taking a fuzzy, but Mur probably is not. I am taking a toque and a light pair of gloves.  Mur is probably not. We also pulled jackets, umbrellas and wide brimmed hats. There are a few items too many in the living room pile, but we will cull as time goes on.

We went through the “Other Stuff” list.  Many of these items had been to Bonaire and were sitting in the box already.  We dumped the box, sorted, put back in the box and crossed them off the list. Items we didn’t take to Bonaire that we are taking on this trip are two flashlights, adapter plugs, daypack, toilet paper and umbrellas.

We are going scuba diving in the Andaman Islands and decided that we would take only minimal stuff and rent most of the gear needed.  Dive computers (green bag above), my prescription dive mask, Mur’s do-rag, one waterproof wallet, camera housing in the striped bag (but not the strobe flash), dive log pages. We had a discussion about whether to take our safety sausages and we decided that we would.  We are not sure of the quality of dive operators in the Andaman Islands and ultimately our safety comes first.  So, the sausages come with us.

We didn’t tackle the first aid list, important documents list or the toiletries list.  Soon.

Our desks are a mess right now.  We are trying to tie up loose ends.  We are very close to booking hotels in the Andaman Islands – on Havelock and in Port Blair. We are trying to decide whether to prebook diving.  The operators want us to prebook but we are nervous about tying ourselves to an operation – what if it is not up to our safety standards? We have sent our emails to various hotels and have gotten most replies.  Tomorrow we will sort through them and make decisions.

Enough for today.  We are moving ahead rather quickly towards our departure.  It still seems unreal that we are actually going.  In less than three weeks, it will become very real.

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Photos of our trip to the Coast

Posted on September 3, 2011 by debbie

I can’t believe how busy we have been since got home.  I finally have some time to post pictures of our trip to Victoria, Kelowna, Canmore and camping in between.

The pictures are now posted under the menu item “Photos” under “Trip to the Coast 2011”.

The pictures won’t win any awards, but they tell the story of where we were.  We do not post pictures with known people in them, so there are no pictures of the two parties we were at.

I love the pictures from the ferry.  The sky and water are so blue.  The fawns in Redstreak Campground are very cute and I love these too.

Enjoy!

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Check It Out

Posted on August 30, 2011 by murray

It happened again. We are out of town and we get an email asking for us to commit to a short hopper flight from San Pedro Sula to Utila. We had no idea if we would be able to connect with the flights outlined and we were no where near any info that would tell us if we could. This put us under pressure to get some answers, but when we arrived home, I took the time, did my due diligence and ‘checked it out’ before making any rash decisions.

Sitting in the campground in Cranbrook we opened our email and there was an email from our friend P in Syracuse. S, one of the other participants on the trip to Utila, had been researching connecting flights from San Pedro Sula to Utila. She had booked 10 seats and needed to know if we would be able to make the connections. With no info at hand we were unable to make that decision.

S had her contact at Roatan Charter book the 8 seats that could be confirmed and asked that Debbie’s and my seats be held until Wednesday this week.

First order of business when we returned home was to book our flights from Edmonton to San Pedro Sula. This is where I again find out the internet system does have its short comings. Even though Air Canada has a code share agreement with Continental, I could not get the AC website to give me reasonable routing to Honduras. I suppose it wants to fill the AC planes first and to hell with the customer.  The weird part was I could not even get a routing to San Pedro Sula. It has always been  my understanding that in the customer service business the customer should at least be considered. Doesn’t seem to be the way with AC or many of the other airlines for that matter.

After I got a price for the Continental flight off the internet I thought I might shop it around and see if I could get a better deal. I was under the impression that the Flight Centre could and would get a better price than I could find. So I went to one of their outlets and asked for the best price. All I could get from the young man there were tickets that cost $200 more than what I could get myself over the internet. When I inquired about the difference, his response was that Continental “had just pulled the fare that I was quoted in the morning.” I did not purchase the tickets. I got home, sat at my computer went to the Continental site and pulled up exactly the same price I pulled up in the morning. I bought the tickets and did not spend the extra $200 asked for from the agent. Lesson learned, CHECK, the agents story did not pan out. I do not think I will use the Flight Centre. Not only could they not supply what they said they could, the agent fed me a line of BS.

The big surprise came when I was booking the flight online and after the site had time to digest the fact that I was in Canada, the price of the tickets was adjusted to Canadian dollars and we saved an additional $100 dollars. Thereby putting the Flight Centre price $300 out of whack, that is more than 10%.

I then contacted Debbie at Roatan Charter and confirmed our availability for the hopper flights to and from Utila. Paid for them through Paypal and we’re all hooked up.

I guess the point of this installment is that when you are doing this stuff unless you do not care about the cost, CHECK IT OUT. You have to spend quite a bit of time on the net following along all the paths that reveal themselves and don’t take for granted the claims of businesses that they can provide something they cannot. “Flight Centre Unbeatable.” By being diligent I managed to save $300 on one plane ride, enough to pay for at least 2 complete days of our travel in India.

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Wildlife

Posted on August 25, 2011 by debbie

When we camp, Murray and I are always on the look out for wildlife.  It doesn’t matter if it is a squirrel or a bear – we are enchanted.  Here are a few of the new friends we made on our car camping trip.

Caterpillar

This little fellow was trying to hang out with us when we were camped at Johnson Lake, east of Oysoyos.  He was very persistent and would climb up the lawn chair leg or Murray’s pants or the picnic table. He was very ornate and looked like a wizened old sensei.  He didn’t want to co-operate when I was taking this picture.

 

 

Fawn

At Redstreak Campround in Radium, we were camped in a site next to a meadow.  A small group of deer, including a couple of fawns were eating right at our site. They were not afraid of us and just kept munching away as I snapped picture after picture.

 

 

Munching Breakfast

They moved on, but the next morning,  they were back again. It was very special to share our space with these wonderful creatures.

 

Ptarmigan

At Redstreak, Murray and I were enjoying the quiet as we read our books in the sunshine when we heard this odd sound. And then again.  I stood up and looked about and saw two ptarmigan walking in front of our vehicle.

They were eating and moving along.  I slowly got my camera out and followed them through the campsite taking pictures. They weren’t to concerned that I was following them.

Our very industrious squirrel friend

This little guy was tossing spruce cones out of trees and stashing them away all afternoon and he continued the next morning.  We must have been in his territory. I was waiting for a cone to land in our breakfast they were coming down so close to us.

On our small trip, we actually saw three bears, but unfortunately we do not have any pictures.  I saw one of the bears while I was on my bike, so stopping for a picture was not what I thought a good idea.

When crossing Brentwood Bay on the ferry we saw thousands of jelly fish in the water.  Murray looked them up and they are Aurelia and Lion’s Mane jelly fish. Below is a Lion’s Mane.

Lion's Mane JellyfishWe have quite enjoyed spotting and observing the wildlife on our camping trip.

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