Arriving and Exploring Vancouver

Sunday, May 10, 2009--San Antonio to Vancouver via Denver

My friend Lyn made a brunch for Jack, Drew, and me. We had about 6 cold salads with crusty garlic bread and wine. Then we had coffee with chocoate cookies. It was so tasty and just right as a send-off for the trip.

Jack and Drew drove me to the airport where everything went so smoothly. I already had my boarding passes, so all I had to do was check my one bag. I went downstairs and talked to one of the Volunteer Ambassadors for a while to pass the time. Then I went to the gate.

Both flights were on time, and I had great seating in the Economy Plus sections. The knee room was so nice.

It was drizzling when I arrived. After being asked LOTS of questions by immigration, it took an extra long time to get my bag. Then I ran into a bit of a problem trying to get cash. The first machine would not let a card be inserted. The second machine took my card, but after humming over and over again sent the card back out saying the transaction was canceled. Since all the ATMs at the airport were operated by the same RCB company, I realized I needed another plan. There was a 7-11, and inside it was an ATM for another company. It worked.

Taking the bus to town went smoothly. I waited only a moment for the airport bus, then it took only a few seconds to transfer to the downtown bus at the Airport Station. The bus dropped me off just across the street from my hotel. It was about 20:30 at the time.

The hotel was much nicer than I expected. It is very stylish and seems newly remodeled. There are nice paintings, comfortable comforters, chocolates on the bed, a flat-screen TV, etc.

This trip was scheduled 5 years ago. Unfortunately, that was the trip when Arne had his stroke. After he died, I had to take his remains back to Denmark. It's a nice area. I think he would have enjoyed being here.

Wes arrived about 1:00 having had no problems himself on his flights. We visited briefly, then went to bed.
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Monday, May 11, 2009--Vancouver

It was raining this morning. In fact, the forecast calls for a 60% chance of rain every day this week. Wes had not brought an umbrella, so buying him one was our first task after having breakfast--scrambled eggs with bacon, juices, coffee, muffins, cereals, etc.

We wandered the downtown area seeing the waterfront with all the sea planes coming and going, the Gastown area with its old storefronts, Chinatown, two old train stations, etc. We stopped at the downtown Costco (only 7 blocks from our hotel) to have a hotdog for lunch.

Because of the rain, we went to the Imax in the afternoon and bought a discount ticket for seeing two features back-to-back. We saw Space Station 3-D and Under the Sea 3-D. Both were very good films. I thought that Under the Sea was especially well made, though. The fact that Tom Cruise narrated the Space Station film bothered me; I would have preferred an unknown voice.

The sun was out when we left the theater. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering the downtown shopping area. Vancouver seems like a very big city. It is filled with highrise apartment buildings that all seem brand new, and the residents of all those apartments suppurt block after block of stores.

I'm Off!!!

It's 10:07 Sunday morning, May 10. I have finished everything that needs to be done here at the house except the 2-3 last-minute items such as shutting off the water to the final toilet and taking out the trash. I am expected at my friend Lyn's home at 11:00 to have Mother's Day Brunch with her, her daughter Christa, and our friends Jack and Drew. We will eat and visit leisurely. Then about 1:30 someone in that group will drive me to the airport.

I have already checked in for my flights. I'll be in economy plus, so there will be plenty of leg room. As usual, I have one small 22 inch bag to check (43 lbs/19 kg) and my small backpack to carry on. Most of my weight, as usual, is books. I have 10 books in the suitcase and 4 more in the backpack. As I travel along the way, both will get lighter and I will have more space. Right now, the suitcase is bulging! But I haven't yet opened up the expansion compartment, so it doesn't have to be so tight. Tightness, however, keeps things from juggling around inside. When I get to the airport, all I will have to do is check in my bag, watch security check it, then go to the gate. My flight is at 15:45.

Now to get dressed and do those final chores.... Then I'll literally be off on my trip. Hope Wes makes it today, too. Two years ago when he was meeting me in Anchorage, there were problems with his flights that kept him from coming until a day later. If all goes well, I will be at our hotel around 21:30 to 22:00 and he will be there around 01:00 in the morning.

Note: Canada, being an advanced country, will be a difficult place for me to update the blog. The richer the country, the fewer places there are for people to have computer access away from home. Therefore, during the first 11 days of the the trip, I may not be able to post often. When I do, it may also be with limited time, since it will probably be from a computer at a public library with restrictions on computer use.

Travel Itinerary for 2009

I will be departing on May 10 for my travels for the year. I will complete Around-the-World Trip IX and then will commence Around-the-World Trip X while I am gone. The following itinerary covers my travels from both trips until I return to Texas in October.

May 10--San Antonio to Vancouver via Denver
UA 7571 SAT-DEN 15:49--17:07
UA 281 DEN-YVR 18:12--20:09

Eleven days for travel around BC--Vancouver, Vancouver Island and Whistler as major areas of exploration

May 21--Vancouver to Seoul Inchon
AC 63 YVR-ICN 12:15--15:40+1

May 23--Seoul Inchon to Kota Kinabalu (Flight was originally scheduled for the 22nd to coordinate with the arrival in Seoul, but fewer scheduled flights per week now require me to wait one day in Seoul)
OZ 757 ICN-BKI 18:45--23:05

Twenty-two days to travel throughout the provinces of Sabah and Sarawak and in the Sultanate of Brunei

June 14--Kuching to Kuala Lumpur
AK 5205 KCH-KUL 11:55--13:35

Will spend one night in Kuala Lumpur visiting a friend there.

June 15--Luala Lumpur to Bangkok
AK 742 KUL-BKK 13:40--14:45

Four days in Bangkok to see my dentist and buy my new ATW air ticket

June 19--Bangkok to Phnom Penh
FD 3616 BKK-PNH 14:50--16:00

Ten days to explore Cambodia--mainly Phnom Penh and Siem Reap (location of Angkor Wat)

June 29--Phnom Penh to Bangkok
FD 3617 PNH-BKK 16:30--17:40

Four more days in Bangkok to return to my dentist and to enjoy the city--massage, films, etc.

Note: The remaining dates for flights are all temporary until I finalize my new ATW ticket while in Bangkok

July 2--Bangkok to Delhi
TG 315 BKK-DEL 17:45--20:45 (Most Likely)
or
TG 323 BKK-DEL 7:30-10:30

Eighteen days to visit Chandigarh, Dharamsala, Amritsar and maybe to go to Jaipur and Agra.

July 20 (Late night of July 19)--Delhi to Istanbul
TK 1071 DEL-IST 4:20-8:40

Will depart Istanbul that evening of July 20 via train for Thessaloniki in Greece and will spend the next few weeks as follows with the number of days in each place being only an estimate:
Thessaloniki 3-4 days
Macedonia 6 days
Albania 7 days
Serbia 3 days
Bulgaria 8 days
Romania (Coastal) 5 days
Moldova 5 days
Romania (Central) 3 days

Sept. 3--Bucharest to Copenhagen
SK 1782 OTP-CPH 13:35--15:05

Will have 10 days to see my friends in Copenhagen and to say good-bye to the city, since this will be my last ATW trip and, therefore, my last time to visit the city for many years.

Sept. 13--Copenhagen to Casablanca via Lisbon
TP 503 CPH-LIS 8:30--11:05
TP 228 LIS-CMN 14:55--17:40

Eight days to explore Morocco--mainly Fes and Marrakesh after a brief stop in Casablanca

Sept. 22--Casablanca to Lisbon
TP 229 CMN-LIS 16:05--18:35

Will arrive in Lisbon too late for a connecting flight to my next destination, so will sleep at the airport

Sept. 23--Lisbon to Caracas
TP 121 LIS-CCS 11:10--14:50

Nineteen days to explore Venezuela

Oct. 12--Maracaibo to Aruba
RV 300 Mar-AUA 14:10--15:40

Four days to enjoy the beaches and towns of Aruba

Oct. 16--Aruba to Charlotte
US 874 AUA-CLT 16:45--20:53

Will arrive in Charlotte too late for a connecting flight to San Antonio, so I will sleep at the airport

Oct. 17--Charlotte to San Antonio
US 315 CLT-SAT 9:45--12:10

Arrival will be 157 days after departure for the trip and travel will have included 17 countries (Canada, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, Cambodia, India, Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Denmark, Morocco, Venezuela, and Aruba)

26 Days to Go

It's 26 days and counting until I depart for this year's travels. I have a long to-do list that I am working through. I have waited later than usual to get organized. That's because my heart just hasn't been in it. I'm tired of the details involved in planning such a trip. But I now have a tentative itinerary and bought 4 extra air tickets for traveling around in Asia when I get there. In the next few days, I will be making hotel reservations, compiling guides for the countries where I will be only briefly, gathering the last items I will need for my trip, etc. This year's trip will involve more countries than ever before. Usually, I visit 10 countries, but this year it will be 16. Of those, 8 will be new countries for me. This is to be my last around-the-world trip, so I am trying to stop in some places where I have missed all along the way. I'll post my itinerary in the next 2-3 weeks.

A Week at Home, Yet Still Traveling

It's been a week since I arrived in San Antonio. It is nice to be back home, although I haven't had much of a homecoming yet with many of my friends being gone this week. My sister Sue has been visiting our mother, my friend Merryl is off to Egypt and Jordan with her Adventure Women tour group, my friend Jean has been down in Corpus Christi at her condo, my friends Bob and Judy Maroney are off for 18 days in Argentina, etc. But I have needed the time to unpack, put things away, do laundry, go through the mail, update my account files related to my spending while gone, etc. Even though a whole week has passed, things still are not back to normal. And even though I am now at home, I am still traveling in a way. During the past week, I have:

1. Attended a concert by Heinavanker, an Estonian vocal group that is just fantastic with their polyphonic a capela singing of folk songs and their performances of renaissance music. Here is a second link to a You Tube recording of them.

2. Seen foreign films on DVD from the Czech Republic (Autumn Spring), Iran (Baran), and Israel (Late Marriage which is about Georgian Jews living there).

3. Attended the International Accordian Festival downtown hearing performances of groups from Panama, Romania, the Basque region of France/Spain, etc., as well as local groups playing conjunto music. Click on the Artists tab on that page to find links to the various groups that performed. Some of the better ones were Rupa and the April Fishes, Daddy Squeeze Trio, Amuma Says No, and Paris of the Heart.

In addition to those international-flavored activities, I went to the play Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead which transports the characters from the Peanuts comic script into their high school years with accompanying frustrations, hangups, and insecurities that have developed. Snoopy has died of rabies after having first killed the bird that sits on his dog house. Beethoven is gay and avoids the toilets and the lunchroom as a way of hiding from harrassment by his old friends. Pigpen has turned into a super neat freak. Lucy is exploring life with different personas almost weekly. The little curly headed girl (The Doctor is In) has been committed to a mental institution for being a pyromaniac, and Charlie Brown is discovering that he is also gay and wants to become Beethovan's lover. It was hilarious. But it was a bit too mature a subject for the local audiance whose members were shocked by the gay kisses and simulated sex.