“Are you getting excited?”

Posted on October 29, 2012 by debbie

I have been asked this question a number of times over the past week or so. I never seem to have a really good answer.

The only time I have been SUPER excited to go on a trip recently was when we were heading to Bonaire with all our scuba diving friends. For some reasons, I was very excited to leave. I knew what the trip was all about – scuba diving, water, beach, hot weather. We were going with folks we enjoyed being with. So, I was excited and I allowed myself to be excited.

Murray always says not to get too excited in case the actual trip does not live up to expectations. What if I get really excited to see lots of lions and then we don’t actually see a lion? Is the trip a bust then? If there are no heavy expectations, then everything is a boon.

For me sometimes, the excitement starts once we get to our destination. I am not excited about the 2 ten hour flights to get to Tanzania. The first couple of days at our destination are always an adjustment period of figuring out what to eat, how to dress, safety matters, a different culture and getting over the jet lag.

Am I getting excited? Ask me again when we get to Tanzania!

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11 Sleeps…

Posted on October 25, 2012 by debbie

I can feel our departure date looming, so I start counting sleeps. 11 sleeps.

We are attending to our many lists. The “Before Leaving” list is mostly crossed off except for the items that need doing on the last few days. The “House Sitter” list is edited for a couple of new items and ready for my get together with the person who is house sitting for us.

The “Words to Learn” list has been transcribed into my pocket notebook ready for the Tanzanian and Botswana versions. We always write the words phonetically so we know how to pronounce them.

10 sleeps to go

The “Packing List” is mostly either crossed off or check-marked. Just those items that can’t be packed until the last moment are left. We will go through the list to double check we have everything when we do our final pack.

……9 sleeps……..

The “Travel Budget” for cash required on the trip is finalized. I have transferred it onto our netbook to take with us. For this trip we are going to keep track of what we spend. On previous trips we haven’t kept close track of money spent. We just count how much we leave with and come home with and the difference is what we spent. This trip we want to know how well we have estimates food, transport, tipping and scuba diving costs, so the spreadsheet is coming with us and we will enter exactly what we spend.

We are well prepared for our trip and now it is just a matter of counting sleeps…8 sleeps

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Living Through Others

Posted on October 24, 2012 by murray

Even though our trip is imminent Debbie and I will not pass up the chance to live vicariously through the experience of others. We have the chance to go and view the slides of our friends R & J’s latest adventure and we jump at it.

It is a small gathering of R & J’s friends of course, it is at their house, B, S & R, Debbie and me. R & J went to SE Asia this past summer and it is time for them to show us where they had been and what they had done. Debbie and I have been to a few of the places they went to and wanted to refresh our memories and get some insight into the places we have not been.

Dinner is set to a SE Asian theme. Not sticking to one particular culture. Shrimp, chicken, rice, appropriate hot and sweet sauces, veggies and salad. Everything is soooo good (cannot comment on the salad, I don’t eat the stuff). I eat too much.

We all crowd into the ubiquitous ‘computer room,’ wiggle about until we can all see the screen and the show begins. R has set the slides in chronological order of their trip. First port of call – Siem Reap. The photos are great and the memories of what we did and where we stayed drift in and out as the pictures come up on the screen. With the images fresh it seems like Debbie and I had just left Siem Reap ourselves.

Next stop Bangkok, this is all new to Debbie and me as the farthest we have been into Bangkok is the airport. As with all travelers, the slides conjure up the feeling that we should go there and see for ourselves. The clash of the new and the old is always striking and Bangkok has its share of both.

I have been to Singapore but it was long ago and although I remember some of it, the photos show the place has changed a lot. It is still immaculately clean, but as it was 30 years ago the new now far exceeds the old which to me makes it somewhat sterile. None the less it is very beautiful and worth at least a visit.

The pictures then take us to the west coast of Thailand and the Andaman Sea. We have swum in that particular sea but not off the Thai islands. I heard it was crowded and maybe worth  a miss but J & R’s pictures did not indicate hoards of people and the water looked so good, I think it would be worth a side trip. With a dive or two on the agenda of course.

The slide show ends with a few slides taken while on a long layover in Japan. From the twenty or so pics, I think we may have to add Japan to our bucket list. I do not see how our list will get any shorter if each time a place is crossed off another is added to the bottom.

R & J’s trip looks really good. Sitting in on a travelogue set by someone else and daydreaming along as the photos flash up is a very inexpensive way to travel. Of course the impressions are those of the ones that did the traveling but just getting the discourse and seeing the photos stimulates the feeling of being abroad and helps to squelch the travel lust between trips.

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Walking Training

Posted on October 18, 2012 by debbie

Murray and I are both jocks and understand the concept behind training for an event. Whether it is a bike race, triathlon, marathon or 10K fun ride we know that to enjoy the event and to do well, we must train. We believe that same holds true for a trip, so we are training to walk.

We walk kilos and kilos when we are in an exotic location. Walking enables you to see, hear, smell and experience the city like a local would. While on safari in Tanzania, we will be climbing Mt Makarot, a 15 km hike up to 3, 100 meters and down again. We will also be doing some walking on the Botswana safari. To enjoy the walking to the fullest extent, we must be prepared.

So we are training to walk. We are lucky to live close to the North Saskatchewan River Valley and a network of trails, both paved and gravel. A couple of weeks ago, we started with a 45 minute walk around the crescents that border the river valley. Today we walked for about 1.5 hours through the river valley trails we cross country ski on in the winter, over the river and back again. We went with our friends we usually ride with as we are now in between the riding and skiing seasons.

We only have a couple more weekends left to polish our walking training, but I think we are doing well and our legs will thank us for practicing.

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An Omen

Posted on October 16, 2012 by murray

We are going to Africa, soon.

Today I get up late (7am). I head straight to the front door to get the newspaper. On the lawn is a elephant. Not large, but none the less an elephant. It is dark so in fact I only perceive the silhouette of an elephant. It is standing amongst the junipers with its trunk in the air trumpeting ‘good morning.’

So now I’m calling to Debbie, ‘There is an elephant in our front yard.’ She is lying in bed, lounging as retired folks do, thinking that I am having another one of my ‘moments.’ Oh that’s nice, she retorts, not taking me seriously. I hear the sheets shuffle as she rolls over for another moment or two of repose. I persist and eventually get her out of the sack to look out the front door to have a look at the elephant. She stands there shocked that there is in fact and animal on the lawn. It is still dark and Debbie comments that whatever it is it also resembles an ostrich.

We were trimming the trees in the yard a couple of days ago and what I thought had happened is one of the branches from the tree had got caught up and had blown down over night. I guessed that it had landed on the ground in such a way that the silhouette resembled an elephant or ostrich or whatever our imaginations would conger up.

An hour later I was opening up the drapes. The morning light was upon Edmonton and lo and behold there is an elephant at the end of our yard, standing there with its trunk in the air just as I had imagined.

“Debbie, we have an elephant!”

My immediate thoughts are of the house down the street that has a few elephants in the yard and some promiscuous kid who relocated our visitor in the middle of the night. So, I head down the block to return the lost soul to its rightful place. I must look a little strange, a 59 year old guy in sweats walking down the street with an elephant tucked under my arm. I ring the door bell and the lady on the other side of the threshold tells me she did in fact love elephants and is jealous of our upcoming trip but that particular pachyderm was not hers. Since we have not much use for a pet I offer her my burden. She accepts and it is now sitting on her step protecting the entrance to her house .

We are headed to a land where omens are very much a part of life and could not help but notice that it was strange that a symbol of the land we are about to visit appears in our front yard. It could have been anything placed on any one of the 50 or 60 yards down the street but it is an ELEPHANT on OUR lawn. Neither one of us are believers in such mystic stuff but it is hard to ignore this omen. Here’s hoping we experience an intimate moment of bonding with one of these great beasts in the weeks to come.

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Test Pack

Posted on October 15, 2012 by debbie

I say to Murray that we should do a test pack to see where we are at with stuff and volume. Murray beats me into our new rather tiny library, spreads his suitcase out on the floor and takes up more than half the floor space with himself and his stuff. I slither by him and plunk myself down beside my bag.

We first gather the clothes we will wear on the plane and pile them up. Then we start to put the remaining clothes into the bags. Yikes! There are more clothes in my airplane pile than there are in my suitcase! See, I get cold on airplanes so all my layers will be on my body endeavoring to keep me warm.

I end up just tossing stuff – hat, swimsuit, flip flops, first aid kit, dive log pages – into my bag without really packing. I rummage through the “for sure” pile under one chair and pull some stuff out that I will carry. Grab my travel wallet, neck safe, money belt, pills, camera battery charger, flashlight, binos and pile them beside my bag not in my bag. This isn’t going so well.

Murray gets stuck on whether to take a warm layer and a rain layer and grinds to a halt too. He is also wondering about how many T shirts to pack. He pulls his stuff from the “for sure” pile and puts is beside his bag. He gets no further than I do with his test pack.

I find the sleep sacks in the “maybe” pile and play with one contemplating whether to pack mine. My gut tells me to take it (remember the bed bugs in the Andamans!) but my packing sense says “Wait and see how your bag looks when you actually pack it for real.

So our test pack accomplished some things and didn’t accomplish others. It organized the stuff in the “for sure” pile. It is too early to do a serious pack as we are still 3 weeks out. It got us thinking about warm layers, rain layers, sleep sacks, shirts.

After abandoning our test pack we left the room looking like this:

The condition of our library after our test pack!

The condition of our library after our test pack!

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Travel Adapters for Electrical Outlets

Posted on October 13, 2012 by debbie

We got stung when we went to India and Bhutan because we didn’t thoroughly check what type of electrical outlet adapters we needed. We did have fun shopping for an adapter in Darjeeling and it all worked out in the end so it wasn’t a total bomb.

We learned our lesson and so I am now researching what kind of plugs are used in Tanzania, Botswana, South Africa (we are flying through there from Tanzania to Botswana) and Zanzibar. There are tons of websites to look at, it is a matter of which ones to believe.

Type CType D plug

One website suggests to bring both “D” (BS 546) and a “G”  (BS 1363) type adapters for Tanzania.  The “D” is 3 round plugs with one being thicker than the other two. We don’t specifically have one of those. Although we have a couple with only 2 plugs. Murray says the third plug is the ground, so we don’t really need it. We can probably make due with a 2 prong plug. The “G” is 3 rectangular plugs, 2 horizontal and one vertical.  We have one of these. They do not mention Botswana.

Type CType G plug

Another website lists all the countries of the world and voltage, frequency, plug and comments. The site says that in Botswana plugs are type “M” (BS 546), and that type “G” may be found, but are rare.  South Africa also uses “M”. I noticed that even though it is an “M”, the “BS 546” is the same as a “D”. Interesting. The picture shows that the plugs are alot further apart. The site confirms the “D” and “G” for Tanzania.

Type CType M plug

As far as voltages go, Botswana has 231V and Tanzania and 230 V. Both our camera battery chargers and the netbook cords all have inputs of 100-240V, so we are good to go.

Being not sure where to go in Edmonton to find unusual adapters, I ask the ladies I swim with as the group is very well traveled. The AMA, The Source and Luggage Unlimited were suggested. My next job is to hunt down an “M” adapter.

I stop at a Luggage Unlimited store and inquire about an M plug. They do not sell these separately, but it looks like there is one in a package of 6 adapters for about $60. I decide to pass. Murray and I discuss the options when I get home and decide to live dangerously and not buy one here. We will wait until we get to Botswana and either borrow one or buy one.

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Bicycle Road Riding near Edmonton

Posted on October 11, 2012 by murray

Most of Alberta from Edmonton south is a grid work of county roads. The grid is a one mile (east/west) by two miles (north/south). Over the years, Strathcona County has benefited greatly from the Alberta oil industry. These two facts make for some of the best bicycle road riding anywhere. Almost every county road in Strathcona County is paved. Kilo after kilo of back roads with very little traffic. We do live on the prairies and there are no sustained climbs to test your moxie but what the area lacks in vertical variation it makes up for in the mere number of paved kilometers of road.

I live in the east end of Edmonton and in the summer I ride 4 days each week. 90% of those ride are in the county just to the east. To get out of town I encounter a few busy roads but once I clear the edge of town I am passed by a dozen or fewer vehicles in 60 km. Each weekend I ride with a group of friends and we ride upwards of 100 km. We have a few standard rides but for the most part we will ride the same route maybe twice per summer.

This area is probably the worst kept secret within the road riding community here. When we started to frequent these roads maybe 20 years ago, Debbie and I would cross paths with only one or two groups on a nice Sunday. Now, we will meet 10 groups of 2 to 20 riders plying the same roads. There are definitely more riders in general but I know a good lot of the folks will drive from the west end of Edmonton just to enjoy the serenity of OUR roads.

If you are coming to the Edmonton area bring your bike, drive to Ardrossan, park in the recreation centre parking lot and go for a ride. You can get a map at the Strathcona County Administration Building, or make a copy from the link above. It’ll be the best ride you will have in the Edmonton area.

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My Travel Purse Has Arrived!

Posted on October 8, 2012 by debbie

I get in the door from my trainer appointment and Murray calls out “Quick, come see what arrived! Open your package!” With shoes and jacket still on, I open the package and there is my new travel purse from CourierWare. WOW! Looks great!

CourierWare Walking Bag stuffed with netbook, cords, camera, binos, 2 pairs of glasses and a shirt

It put it on and it feels pretty good. It is bigger than my old bag. I am surprised at how much bigger it is. It’s definitely big enough. The bag is stiff right now so it needs to be used and softened up.

Old Bag Size vs New Bag Size

Old Bag Size vs New Bag Size

It has all the pockets and features that I asked for, outside zippered front pockets, inside front pockets, inside secret back pocket, padded handle and shoulder pad.

I am excited to use my new travel purse. I added it to my packing pile on top of my suitcase. The old bag goes back into my closet.

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Sidetracked II (the sequel)

Posted on October 2, 2012 by murray

Our trip to Africa is imminent but we must reroute our focus to a trip in the spring. As previously mentioned, one of the participants on our upcoming dive adventure is a teacher and as such she must travel on spring break. As Edmonton Public Schools is not the only North American school division to plan spring break around Easter, we feel it is important to get the foundation for our trip planned and booked in advance. There are a limited number of plane tickets available, if we want good routing we need to book them soon. We will be staying in one location for the entire 10 days, so long as we are reasonably sure our research will provide us with adequate accommodation, we should finalize our hotel. I am not sure it is imperative to confirm which dive shop we will frequent. There are plenty of independent operators in Cozumel and most people will dive with the shop that is resident at their hotel (resort) at which they are staying, so there should be plenty of opportunities when we arrive.

Trip criteria. If we are going that far, spend as much time there as possible. In order to accomplish that we will have to spend a bit more on airfare and ride the airlines with the most efficient routing. Small hotel, clean, with an easy walk to the center of town, and must have some sort of public area (garden and/or pool) to keep our non-diving traveler entertained while the rest of us dive. Preferably a ‘funky’ hotel with a bit of Mexican flair and not so much of an ‘international’ image. Dive operator must have a good safety record, run small boats (8 people or less) . The shop’s rental equipment has to be in good repair and reasonably good quality. Of course price will enter into each one of these decisions.

R has been doing a lot of research while Debbie and I have concentrated on our trip happening next month. He has looked at airlines, routing and fares, and hotels. He has found the most efficient route is with United Air. Their flight leaves Edmonton just before midnight and arrives in Cozumel at 10:30 the next morning. It flies through Houston which is a direct straight line between the start of the journey and our destination. I do a cursory look at other possibilities and there are cheaper airfares but routing is 1/2 way to Europe and back and often requires an over night stay in transit which is not only ridiculous but also cuts into the savings on airfare. Our national gem of an airline, Air Canada, is one of the worst perpetrators of this “fill the empty planes” philosophy. They are always loosing money, little wonder with the level of customer service they provide. This decision seems like a slam dunk. We contact our fellow travelers. A short discussion takes place and we book air tickets with United.

R also looked at United Vacations with the idea of booking flight and hotel combinations. I did a quick check to see if it would be less expensive to book a combination of flights and rooms with diving booked separate, a combination of diving and rooms with flights booked separate or to book all three separate.  I think if we decide to stay at one of the hotels that partner with dive shops it will be cheaper to book with separate flights and combine the dive shop and hotel, but Debbie found a couple of hotels that are more suited to our local flavor criteria that are not connected with dive package deals. In the end the cost would be less to book hotels, flights and diving all separately.

A hotel is next on the agenda. We are about to convene a meeting of all concerned and hash out the pluses and minuses of several locations. After this has been decided, Debbie and I will be able to get back on track to Africa and will deal with trips in a chronological sequence.

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