Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Getting Ready to Go to Ethiopia Jan.10-26,2014

I signed up for this tour of Ethiopia (Blue Nile & Lalibela) with Explore blindly, because my Aussie friend was going.  https://www.explore.co.uk/holidays/ethiopia-historic-tour

I have the guide books, culture and history books, and maps ready to read and get up to speed.  They remain on the coffee table untouched, in stark rebuke when I do my morning stretches on the rug in the living room.

No matter, I am a fast reader and it's a 22-hour flight from Vancouver via Istanbul to Addis Ababa.  

Logistics -- Medical, Flights

I've travelled a lot, but this trip will be very different --- both hot and cold weather (mountains), more complex than usual visa and money requirements.  

Yellow fever shot required.  Many others recommended but I don't bother.   Expensive.   I go to the Travel Clinic --- they have all my records.  travelclinic.vch.ca/

I have retirement medical benefits which cover me for everything up to 60 days.  That saves me a lot of money getting medical insurance for all my travel.

I flew Turkish Airlines via Istanbul, the cheapest and the shortest.  I considered a stop in Istanbul on the way back, but adding on to each trip is expensive, and it's another airport hassle (get luggage, get transport to hotel, transport back to airport, security, check-in, etc.).   The other option is UAE airlines via Dubai, but it takes longer and I didn't care to add a stopover.

The Tour Company

Many changes to the itinerary and much confusion with Explore staff contradicting themselves over and over, only to issue a "final" clarifying communique (different again for my friend and for me), which contradicts itself within the message, and then is immediately changed again.  Don't get me started on the Tour Notes.  Oh well, we are there two nights in advance so we an sort everything out I am sure.   I always have a good time, and my friend is also a very resilient traveller.

Why Africa and Ethiopia

It will be only my second Africa trip.  The first one to Egypt was years ago (coincidentally with Explore and that time half the group was stranded in Zagreb when our onward flight was cancelled and the next one was a week later).  I guess I am working my way down the continent.  I am not as curious about Africa as many people I know, who call Africa "their continent", but I am hoping that it will catch me.  I went to India for educational reasons --- I thought I "should" see what other people live like  (not expecting to like it) and fell in love with it, so you never know.   

Anyway, I want to "know" Africa, make it my own, recognize places on the news, visualize places mentioned in books or conversations, know the food and the people, pick up some Swahili.  I do work hard to make each trip personal and not the normal tourist track.

This tour takes place during the Timkat Festival, which is very special time to go I understand.  It is a very ancient Christian country and I believe this is Epiphany.  Although I went to church all through childhood, somehow the meaning of Epiphany did not stick.  Another learning experience to come.  I wonder if there are Mennonites there.  Where there is famine, refugees, or disaster, the MCC (Mennonite Central Committee) is there, first on the ground.  I don't expect to encounter any Mennonites however as the refugee camps are usually not near the tourist attractions.

Packing

Packing is always as easy or as stressful as I make it.  I am going to try to go with the small Briggs and Riley Transcend 20" wide body (not my usual Briggs 26" upright), even though I will check it through.  We take a lot of internal flights so it might be easier.  But, there are no restrictions other than being able to carry your own luggage.  I have seriously considered Briggs & Riley BRX or a Thule rolling duffle but as always, the small is too small, the medium too big.   The BRX has very cute matching day knapsacks but I hate knapsacks (another post on this).

Travelling with carry-on only requires some serious changes.  I usually take a lot of reading material for example.  I have a Kindle now so that's a big step.  Toiletry bottles and tubes are usually too big for carry-on.  I prefer not to have to decant toiletries into 100 ml. containers --- it's never enough or it's too much and it's wasted.   Plus you have to pull the case around the airport with you.

I take only Keen walking shoes and Keen sandals (to the horror of my fashionista hair stylist).   I can walk forever in these so there's no matter what they look like or what I am wearing, the shoes are the shoes.  I can reduce clothing and just wash underwear and tops often.  I am inspired by Save Spend Splurge (she wears only Birkenstocks and travels with only carry-on) to try.

The Budget

The cost estimate and actual for this trip is as follows: (I must learn how to make tables):

Tour - land costs   $3,000. (there's a premium because of the higher costs during Timkat)
Flight  $1,556. (Turkish airline came out the cheapest, with best times, and shortest travel time). 
Yellow Fever Vaccine $170.00
Visa (on arrival) $20 US
Medical Insurance $00 (I have coverage under my retirement benefits)
In country, food, tip for guide, kitty Est. $1,000. Actual $583 ($400 food, etc. $50 tip kitty, $80 guide tip)
Hotels Est. $100. US (my half of hotels for first two nights) Actual $105 US + $22 for WIFI = $151.
Total Est. $5,906. Actual $5,560.
.

Monday, December 23, 2013

Blogging Anxiety and Road Laundry Tips

I get my ideas for posts from reading other blogs.  My reaction is --- oh that's a great idea, but I have some better or alternative ideas.  

I am surmising that the really great bloggers have drafts of posts and a list of ideas and a detailed schedule for publishing them.  I am a helter skelter blogger.   I see something on a blog, which gives me the topic, and then I draft mine, edit it, and save it.  For some of my blogs I publish straight away, after polishing.  For others I save them and dither about publishing on this topic at all.   

Most of all, the amazing bloggers out there really intimidate me --- I'm embarrassed to publish my ideas and afraid I can't keep up the responses to comments and comments on other blogs.   Right now, my dilemma is the order of things.   Laundry tips --- really?  I should be publishing travelogues or tips on getting cheap flights.   I really should take more pictures.

But I am not.  So here goes, dunny's laundry tips inspired by Travelista.  

I pack enough underwear, socks, and tops to last 3 to 14 days.  Depending on the type of trip, and how I am travelling, I pack more or fewer clothing items.  If I am travelling by car or just need to transport my case on arrival and departure, or staying with friends, I pack more clothes and take a bigger suitcase.  It will depend on how far I and how often I have to  lug that suitcase.  Twice (airport to hotel/friend's house, and back again) in total, or twice a day (into hotel from car, back out to car), or pulling/lugging on/off trains, down gravel/cobble stones, up/down many steps.

I do laundry in my hotel bathroom every time I am in one place for more than one night. If I am staying with friends or in places with laundromats (e.g. on my friend's boat in a marina), I do a big machine laundry then.  Sending clothes to laundry service is chancy because it usually takes at least 24 hours.  Things seem to come back dirtier or a different colour (machines and soap in other countries are tough on clothes).  

In order to keep the laundry routine manageable and consider my roommate, I do some laundry every night.  If I am sharing with a roommate, I try to be considerate and ask if she will be needing the sink or shower if I am hanging in there, and also not take over the room with my laundry drying.

First, packing:
1. I pack dark colours, lightweight fabrics, and fast dry fabrics. 
2. The easiest fabrics to wash are first, linen and second, cotton. Thick materials can't be washed on the road, unless you happen to find a dryer on the premises.  In other countries dryers are not common. The standard is hanging up in fresh air.
3. I pack a laundry kit in a ziploc bag.  The pack includes a sink plug (the flat type), plastic clips with hanger hooks, and soap.   The sink plugs are available in travel stores and dollar stores.  The clips with hooks are available in dollar stores and are hard to find.  I've scour the stores for them, and never lend them to anybody. 
4. The best soap was Biosuds but it is not available any more.  It soaks out any dirt out of any fabric in 10 minutes.  You can take packets or soap powder or a ziploc of detergent from home, depending on how long you are away.  Remember, no liquids over 100 ml on the plane carry-on.  One of the many many reasons why I usually check a bag.  You can also use the hotel soap bar or pack a small bar.
5. Wringing out.  The best way to wring out the clothes is to roll them in a towel and squeeze very hard.   However, in many hotels you only get one towel and using it for laundry means you will not have a dry towel for your shower.   Sometimes, I lurk in the hotel hall way and grab extra towels off the cleaner's cart.  Travelista has a fabulous idea --- pack a travel towel to use to roll clothes in. These towels dry really fast.   I have not tried this, but I will now.
6. For hanging up, I use the clips with hooks and pack one or two plastic hangers.  I find there is seldom a place to attach a wash line.  The suction cups do not stick with the weight of wet clothes.  I use the clips to hang underwear and socks on any thing -- drawer knobs, door knobs, back of a chair, pretty much anywhere.  The hangers are good for blouses or you can just use two of the clips and hang shirts and blouses from the back of a chair or wardrobe door.

What are your blogging anxieties?  Do you plan your posts months in advance?  Do you alternate types of topics, e.g. financial topic, followed by a lighter topic?

Saturday, August 24, 2013

This Year So Far, Where to Next and Visa Logistics

I've wound up my freelance writing business, dealt with illness and death in the family, finished a construction project, rented out part of my house, and am finally ready to get on the road more or less permanently.

In April, I went south to the arms of great friends in Arizona, who reconstituted me after a year of many trips to Manitoba to take care of family matters.  I thought I was ready for the Uzbekistan after that but I was still not completely recovered physically.  

Khiva, Uzbekistan
In May, I went on a fascinating trip to Uzbekistan with a stopover in Istanbul.  This tour was very special study tour, tracing a group of Mennonites that had immigrated there in the 1880's from Ukraine. 

The tour company was TourMagination, which did an excellent job.  Going on a tour of this type provides an experience that no other tourists or travellers get. We met local people that we certainly would not have met otherwise (such as a museum director who had done his Phd. thesis on the subject of Russian Mennonites, and a local imam whose forebears remembered the Mennonites and who still had artifacts and photos), and visited small villages, met villagers, etc.  

Uzbekistan is an interesting juxtaposition of a Muslim population under a Communist government, mainly secular still.  The country is quite modern in many ways, especially Tashkent and the educational and medical systems, but you see donkeys and women covered in scarves and long dresses hacking away in fields with mattock like implements outside the cities.  

There are numerous well-preserved madrases and mosques with stunning blue and green tile work, and wonderful mud-walled cities and fortresses. The land had a cotton monoculture forced on it by the USSR, requiring extensive irrigation in a desert, which has and is causing environmental havoc.   Wonderfully, there is great WIFI everywhere.

I learned a few logistical things about visas on this trip. An Uzbekistan visa must be obtained in advance by sending your passport to New York. You need a letter of invitation from a tour agency in the country, which is obtained by your Canadian tour company. In my case, this document was very late because the company in Canada made errors in the paperwork.  I had booked a trip to Arizona in the month before the Uzbekistan trip, before I was told about the visa requirements, so I  needed my passport for that trip (thus could not send it to New York).  I had a very narrow margin of safety to get my U. visa but I did get it.  It was expensive and complex to get that visa and I thank Tunde at SIAT for handling the application process so well. It came in the nick of time for my trip.  It was very expensive, $356.  because I had to pay an expediting fee as well as the agency fee.  


The second learning experience was concerning flights, which were very inconvenient.  My agent and the tour company kept getting things confused.  Too many agents involved.  I finally booked an overnight Air Canada to New York via Toronto (never again)  myself, and sat in the terminal at JFK all day before finally checking in to Turkish Airlines in the late afternoon (horror airport).  

All went well after that, until the return trip, which was too much torture.  Adjusting to 4 different time zones within 4 weeks, 9 separate flights including 4 overnight flights --- it was a tough one.   Despite that, the month was extremely interesting and unique.

On the way back from U., I stopped in New England to visit a couple of friends (1 in Bristol, RI,  1 in Portland, Maine).  The highlights were a tour of Yale University in New Haven, CT (complete with eye-opening marketing video) and a tour of Maine College of Art by the my friend, the Head Librarian.  It was cold and windy which made the pains worse.

Yale University - Neo Gothic, not very old

I've spent the summer here in Vancouver, relaxing and getting ready for the next few trips.  I took numerous lecture-type courses at UBC continuing education, adding even more motivation to travel.


In September, I am off on two-month trip to Europe, starting with a John Atkin's London Perambulator (walking tours). John's a local guy who does courses on local real estate development and urban change and guides walking tours of  Vancouver neighbourhoods.  http://johnatkin.com/    I'll spend the last few days with an old friend (who met in Egypt many years ago) in London followed by a Eurostar train to Lille, where I pick up a rental car.  


There begins a driving marathon. I am determined to go to the places I keep missing when I am not entirely in control of my agenda. First Berlin, then Nancy, France for the Art Nouveau architecture, then exploring the West Coast of France to see whether I'd prefer it to my beloved Languedoc, into Spain to check out the Guggenheim in Bilbao, then down to Tarragona near Barcelona to stay with friends on their catamaran.


I'll be back to Canada for a couple of months. Then in January 2014, I am booked with Explore to tour Ethiopia.  I'll be meeting a friend from Oz that I met in India many years ago. We'll be there for the Timkat Festival.


In February 2014, I am going to Palm Springs for Modernist Week.  I've been putting that off far too long.  I'll be meeting friends there.


In March 2014, I've signed up for Cory Weeds' (Cellar Jazz)  Jazz Tour of New York. http://www.cellarjazz.com/


In May/June 2014, I am contemplating a Grand Asia Caravan Tour with Sundowners.  There are a couple of logistical issues with this one wrt to visas.  There are a number of visas  that require my passport to go walkabout again, right when I need it to go to the previously mentioned US trips.  So I will be applying for an Enhanced Drivers License from the Motor Vehicle Branch.  This also takes as long as 45 days after the initial appointment waiting for the new drivers license, so I don't have time before the trip to Europe where I will need my drivers license. I don't want to rely on the rental car company being okay with a paper interim license which would probably expire while I am in Europe.  Using the EDL, I can drive across the border (you can't use it when entering the US by air).  I can't start that process until I am back for Europe and I can't make an appointment more than 60 days in advance, but there is quite a wait for an appointment. So, the day I leave for Europe, I will book the appt for the day I return. That should be enough time to get the EDL before I am off to Palm Springs in February.  


I considering getting a Nexus pass (which would allow me to fly to the US), but it can take months to be approved to get the interview, the appointments take some time to get, and then it can take months after the interview. The instruction guide for completing the application is 99 pages long.  I took three tries to figure out what's required, and gave up.  I finally got a good tip -- just to out to the airport to the kiosk there and they help you with the application and answer all questions.


The Grand Asia Caravan starts in Beijing and ends in Turkey, going through 9 countries in all, including Iran.  It's a trip of a lifetime.   Central Asia has always attracted me because my grandparents lived in the area.  I hope someday to go to the villages they lived in in Russia near the Caspian Sea.


There is yet another logistical issue.  Iran has been booted out of Canada and the USA, so it is difficult to travel there for Canadians. There is a travel warning on the government website advising Canadians to avoid travelling to Iran.  http://travel.gc.ca/travelling/advisories   My instincts tell me to just go, everything will be alright.  I never worried about these things years ago (see my previous post, When Ignorance Was Bliss).  But then I thought Russia had toilet paper, road and street signs, phone books, food, and gas stations.

What do you readers think?  Would you go?

When Ignorance was Bliss

Me, France, 2011
When I backpacked through Europe for a year back in the day, I never gave a thought to any of the things you need today.  I never gave any thought to health and safety.  I took it for granted.

I never once considered travel medical insurance or any other kind of insurance.  I don't recall getting any vaccinations before hand but I could have forgotten.  Likewise, an international driver's license wasn't required although we did have a rental car in the USSR.

We needed a passport, but got all other visas along the way (except for Russia, which was definitely another story in 1973). Iron curtain countries required a minimum amount of money to be changed at the border but it was only a few dollars.

We did get a Youth Hostel membership and a gauze travel sheet (much heavier than the lovely silk ones we have now).  Other than booking a cabin on the P & O liner to Southhampton via the Panama Canal and the complex advance arrangements with Russian Intourist, we made no advance bookings.

Credit cards and debit cards didn't exist.  ATMs didn't exist. Every country had a different currency and a border check-point. British currency hadn't changed to metric.   We changed currency at each border. We carried a letter of credit and a list of correspondent banks, which made getting cash extremely cumbersome.  

I never ever checked any travel advisories.  There was no internet to check anything on.  You could seek out Canadian embassies, but we never did.  While we travelled, all kinds of unrest occurred, and we just dodged and ducked.  Greece had 4 different governments, including a bloody coup, tanks in the streets, a tourist shot in Omonia Square, a 24-hour curfew in Athens (and they meant business), and night-time curfew on Crete.  So we flew to Israel a few weeks after the October war.  Nothing like a 100% armed population and war wreckage strewn everywhere to give a person perspective.

We wrote letters and received letters addressed to Poste Restante at the main post office in cities and towns along the way.  We never made a phone call.  Cell phones didn't exist.  Call boxes did exist but were too complicated.  We never needed a phone.

We  heard no news along the way, other than what other travellers told us. All information was exchanged from person to person.  You always talked to everyone coming from where you were going to get tips on places to stay, border crossing, whatever you needed to know, and hopefully traded maps and reading material.  You talked to people who just came over to find out news from home.

We never watched TV along the way.  We read books, which we traded with other travellers along the way.

Cameras required film and flash bulbs. We carried film rolls with us until we got home.  

We carried no electronic appliances, and needed no plug adaptors or dual voltage chargers.

I don't recall bottled water being common, and we never considered paying for water.  We didn't have water bottles.

Wheeled luggage did not exist.  We carried everything in backpacks. 

We hitchhiked everywhere, camped in summer, stayed in hostels and cheap hotels in winter.  Some people bought vans (usually VW) and drove around Europe camping.  We had sleeping bags, a small tent, a tiny one burner stove, and one pot.

Hardly any guidebooks existed and maps could only be obtained in Europe.  No travel stores existed.  People on the road exchanged parts of guidebooks and there was free information and maps at all .  We had Europe on $5 a Day.  We relied on my memory, the sun, and instinct to find our way through Russia and Eastern Europe (no maps at all).

Our budget was $6,000, and we did the whole trip on $5,000.  That was for 2 people and included a ship from Vancouver to Southhampton, a rental car in Russia, and flights to and from Greece, Israel, and Tureky.  We were lucky enough to get work as movie extras in Israel, which was lucrative in those days.  Travel was so cheap then.  We were the rich people then. The Europeans were poor. 

Most people did not speak English.  You had to speak enough of the language of each country to get along.

Turkey was more secular than it is now. 

All of Eastern Europe and East Germany were behind the Iron Curtain and it was serious. I could tell you stories you would never believe.

Travelling is easier now, and I don't regret the changes.  But I am sorry the world is more and more the same everywhere.