We Usually Pack Light!

Stuff has been sitting in the hallway for a while. It was getting harder to walk past the right bedside table too.   Jay and I generally leave for the winter with a total of just two suitcases and backpacks.  However, a situation presented itself this winter.  We knew we were going to Sri Lanka through Istanbul on Turkish Airlines and we acted accordingly.

Our flights from Vancouver to Colombo offer two bags per passenger for free.  Each can weigh up to 50 lbs (23 kilograms).  That means we will be able to fly with up to 200 lbs of checked baggage between us.  

 

There are plenty of things that are a better value in Canada.  They're not big ticket items, but products such as skin cream for his sisters and dried cranberries.  Also, some things are hard to find in the Sri Lankan market, for example, long-lasting AA and AAA batteries or good-quality kitchen sponges.  As long as we had this hefty allowance, it made sense to pack heavily for this trip.  The only consideration is getting to and from the airport on each end.  The transfer becomes the airline's problem.

We packed the bulk of the items this morning.   Not counting our two 15 lb backpacks as carry-ons, I expect we'll be coming in well below the allowance.  My estimate is that we'll only have a total of around 160 lbs (73 kg) when we weigh in at the counter at YVR.

I'll Stay Cozy Near an A/C

Whereas most artists are creating Halloween AI images on Midjourney, I stepped it up a notch with this winter scene today.  It's a bit romantic, I admit.  Even if we were sticking around this winter, I doubt we'd see much snow without getting on a highway for an hour or more.

   

We assuredly won't be seeing any snow if our plans go as expected. We will be leaving on the last day of this month. During November and December, we'll be in Sri Lanka and Dubai.  We may visit other places with Jay's sisters depending on our research once we arrive.  

Jay and I are due back in Canada in mid-March.  There's little chance of seeing any 'white stuff' by then.  That's okay, I titled this image, I'm Allergic to Snow.

Typical Autumn Rainy Day

 

Um, yeah. Like the rain returned today. 

The farthest I got from the couch was into the hot tub on the first floor. In the afternoon, my stretch pants with the elastic waistband seemed perfect for the entire day. I'd better hush up as I'm starting to sound like I'm describing trailer trash. My humour can be harsh but it's also self-depreciating.

We do have a lot of ongoing plans.  Presently, we're most focused on getting everything ready for our departure in a couple of weeks.  We head to Sri Lanka via a transfer in Istanbul.  Before the end end of that same month, we'll head to Dubai for a couple of weeks with Jay's sisters.  We're checking into another little jaunt in SE Asia before we had back home in the middle of March. 

When we occasionally check to see the prices for our flights, we find that we got pretty good deals.  I'm afraid that prices on everything will continue to get more expensive.  It seems as though basic inflation has pretty much become ingrained.  We sort of look at the cost of goods and services and think the new higher prices already seem normal. Sigh!

The Weather and Plans to Escape from Future Rain

The weather really is gorgeous today.  In the fall, when the sun is out, the sky can be a nearly indescribable blue in BC.  It felt great seeing it even as we were running little errands uptown.  

My EV has a heat pump for heating and cooling.  On a day such as this, in order to keep a constant inside temperature of 22.5C, it will switch between heat or a/c depending on whether it's been sitting in the shade or the sun.  I do like things that keep my comfort as a top priority.

Jay printed a few more air tickets this morning.  He logged onto the Emirates website because, after three weeks in Sri Lanka next month, we'll head with both sisters on a small Dubai vacation.  His siblings, of course, enjoy the shopping.  Also, earlier in the summer, Jay picked up a cheap, 3-night MSC cruise for the four of us.  It goes from Abu Dhabi to Dubai with a day on an island.  Although short, this may give his sisters a taste of what we've come to enjoy so much over the last few years: cruising.  We will return to Sri Lanka well in advance of Christmas.

We put today's papers in the blue file folder.  This one is earmarked for reservations, tickets, and documents for our Winter of 2023-24.  We often have a few trips on the back burner at the same time. Our color-coded file folders help keep documents organized. Yes, we take pleasure in using real printer paper. After all, we live in the forests of British Columbia and it's good for the declining paper industry.

Photo from My First Digital Camera

Jay and I travelled to Sri Lanka in 2004. It was a two-month trip and the first belatedly chronicled right here in the same space I'm writing today. Click here to step back 19 years to past posts that are in reverse order.  The information is on a number of different pages from October 25th going back through September 2nd of that year.

Things do change.  Three in the following photo are no longer with us.  Jay's dad and brother-in-law passed away as did Auntie.  In the photo, taken in Kandy, Sri Lanka, Babby hadn't gotten married nor had she moved to Cyprus.  We were standing in front of one of the most famous Buddhist temples in the island nation.  A tooth relic of the Buddha is kept there.

 

In less than five weeks we'll be heading back for most of the Canadian winter.  

Now, We've Got Return Flights for March

Yesterday's blog post required this follow-up post. Yesterday, we didn't have return flights back to Canada after our upcoming winter away. However, we fixed that situation about two hours ago. 

Buying airline tickets is similar to gambling. There are few rules nowadays as ticket prices are set by computer algorithms from moment to moment. All the standard, old rules, such as round-trip tickets being cheaper than two singles are no longer valid for many busy destinations. I'm sure even the number of people checking out specific flights affects the price shown on travel websites. Knowing when to pull the trigger takes a whole lot of constant checking.

Anyway, we're happy that our total cost of coming and going was cheaper than if we bought a round-trip today. We've chosen to return on an Air Canada direct flight from Dubai to Vancouver. The new direct service is set to start at the end of next month.  So, we fly a little over four hours from CMB to DXB to catch the longer segment.  Our departure will be on March 17th with an arrival here on the 18th.  The Air Canada flight alone is slotted to take 15 hours and 55 minutes. That is a whole lot of time to spend in one seat.

   

I quickly located this photo from the Dubai Airport in my Flickr photo collection.  I took this image in April of 2016.  So, this was when we were coming back after a winter in Luxor, Egypt.

Our Winter Starts in Six Weeks!

 

So soon? How'd that happen? 

In exactly six weeks, Jay and I will be flying. As we did in 2021, we'll first be on Turkish Airlines from Vancouver to Istanbul. We flew with a friend into IST two years ago when he continued onward to his home in Nepal.  This year, however, rather than stopping in Dubai for a month, we will fly directly to Colombo, Sri Lanka. 

Our plans do include the UAE again, in fact with Jay's sisters, but that'll come toward the end of November. We have a lot of flexible, interesting plans for this winter's trip. What we don't have yet are return tickets.  We are simply waiting for a better deal on fares and may return by flying either east or the west.  Jay and I plan to return to Canada during the second half of March 2024.

 

Uptown Live Street Party

 

It might be a drought, but it feels so good! Today, we had errands to run uptown. The street party started at noon but we parked on the Royal City Centre Mall's roof a lot earlier than that. 

We did have a few things to buy in Walmart. Oh, and we found a good deal on a duffle-bag style suitcase at a store called the Madhatters. As we're taking Turkish Air to Sri Lanka this winter, we can each take two pieces of luggage for free. This comes in handy because Jay finds a lot of things not available there that his sisters can use. I'll also pick up one of the same bags later to supplement our regular suitcases. 

We walked around prior to the music starting. We saw many people heading to the area.  Seeing so many people out on the streets is joyous.  Remember those boring COVID summers?  The Lower Mainland (Metro-Vancouver) is a beautiful place during summer. If there's a drawback to the gorgeous weather it's that too many groups plan events on the same, few weekends of July and August.  It's not possible to go to all the ones that'd be fun.

 

Our Christmas Day in 2024

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“It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt 

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So we'd rather plan.  Planning future travel can be fun. 

It does take a whole lot of effort to learn about an unknown place and fill in all the dots. Yet, I find the time spent doing so very satisfying.  Humans need concrete reasons to learn new things.  Getting ready for an extended journey always provides plenty.

 

As of now, our upcoming 2023-24 winter requires a lot of specific planning. For example, we know our departure date is on Halloween day but we don't have tickets for a return flight from Sri Lanka next March.  

Nevertheless, we have started to make bookings for the winter of 2024-25 too!  One month between cruises will put us on another island.  This photograph is located in a part of the world where we've never spent time.  It's been part of our bucket-list travel goals for a while.  The capital has around 150,000 people.  However, it was an uninhabited island during unrecorded visits by Arab sailors around 1050 years ago.  Any guesses?

We've Only Got Tickets to Get There

 

Sure, next winter, there'll be some time at the beach and also a whole lot more. 

We're one step closer as we picked up one-way tickets on Turkish Airlines to our destination. We'll be departing on Halloween.  Presently, air ticket prices are high and we decided that we'll wait and keep checking on deals and different itineraries for a return to BC in March 2024.  As we're returning to visit an island on the other side of the globe, we may well come back here from the other direction!

Where? On What Day?

Yesterday, I mentioned our travel plans for next week. That has kicked off a round of a lot more travel planning.  We have a sizeable number of trips planned between now and the upcoming winter. For example, there's nearly a whole month next to the Mediterranean coming in June. 

However, Jay and I are starting to get a bit more precise about next November through March of 2024.  First, we'll head back to Sri Lanka.

 

We now have some specific dates in December when we know we'll be with Jay's sisters in Dubai on board an MSC ship. Our plans include doing things that simply weren't possible when Jay and I lived there in the early 1990s.

 

We will be researching other trips too.  Jay's sisters are both keen and capable of exploring places with us. The island at the tip of India is centrally located in South Asia, so we'll most probably head east as well.  Maybe we'll again tour the place with the giant, golden, reclining Buddha.

And we may also take a short visit to the city-state where Merlions exist.

For us, getting ready is a large part of the joy of travel.  Rather than seeing work projects sap our planning skills, we retired nine years ago.  We knew we'd be able to devote copious planning time to ourselves.

Holes and Fares

Jay has finally replaced a pair of jeans he wore out. Over the years, he always said it looked like a beggar to wear jeans with holes in the knees, even when it was cool.  Now that it is still a bit fashionable, he is ensuring he avoids the trend.

We drove uptown in the rain this morning.  That's where the photo was taken.  It's continued to rain cats and dogs.  We are still shy of a month back in the Lower Mainland, and I'm already fed up with this climate.  We came back for spring and summer.  So where the hell are they?

Speaking of going away for winter, we're presently deciding on a 2023/24 itinerary.  At the moment, buying tickets is proving a bit difficult as many airlines are not selling a whole year ahead.  It seems that some will be trying out new itineraries.  And these companies do not want to commit themselves to an entire 365 days, I guess.

We're considering returning to Sri Lanka as a base.  Hopefully, we will be able to take Jay's sisters on a number of trips during our five-month stay; perhaps to Dubai, Singapore, and Thailand.

We recently discovered that Air Canada will be flying new, 15-hour, Vancouver-to-Dubai, nonstop flights a number of times per week starting in the fall.  We may have to head eastward because the decline of Cathay Pacific and mainland Chinese airlines is pushing up fares on contenders flying through countries west of our location.

As it does for most things, time will tell.

Asian Elephants Have Small Ears

Day 115 - Today, it felt too hot to do any thorough exploration. We did take a morning walk around this area, and most assuredly will do so again tonight. From next week, I'll miss having such a grand view of the Argentinian Congress when we walk out the main door. 

I was comparing and found that by now, during some previous years, we'd already had a pretty good plan for our upcoming winter.  In fact, there have even been times that we've booked flights, events, or housing in March for the following winter. However, I cannot say we're got much in the way of concrete plans yet for our 2023/24 winter. We generally leave near the end of October and so we'll most probably do this same again. We usually get back in March or April and so I'm sure we'll repeat those behaviours too. 

The location is what is up in the air. I think we'll be heading to Asia again. We will likely spend some time in Sri Lanka visiting with Jay's sisters again.  The little island, formerly known as Ceylon, is nearly on the opposite side of the globe from Vancouver.  That means we can approach from either the east or west. That choice may boil down to being one of the big decisions for our winter sojourn. We could surely combine time in either the Middle East/Africa or South East Asia.   How lucky we are!

An appropriate photo to include today would be this tiny, crystal figurine of a decorated Asian elephant.  I do not own this because it's not real.  However, I created the #AI image with Midjourney.