I can't believe another trip is happening

With the memories of my last trip still fresh in my mind, it's hard to believe I'm setting out on another one.  Judith has planned what promises to be a memorable trip to Malaysia and Thailand.

I'm hardly ready even though I'll be leaving in about a day and a half.  The minimum I need to bring is my passport, credit card and my toothbrush and those are easily at hand.  I managed to scrounge up some last minute Malay ringgit and some Thai baht on Friday on my last working day before my vacation, so clearly my pre-organization is somewhat lacking.

The great news is that Judith has been sending me messages of what to pack - i.e., rain poncho, the type of electrical adapter to bring, an extra change of clothing in my carry on because one of our connecting flights is a bit tight, etc.  Every time I get a suggestion from her, I think of how great it would be to have someone like that for the other 344 days of the year that I manage on my own.

Some of this information is neatly included in the travel agency's app.  It details our itinerary and flight information so that as long as I don't lose my phone (as I did in Quito) we'll always have our trip info close at hand.  For this trip, I thought I'd share our trip itinerary so you'll know ahead of time what will be going on.

https://db.tt/vp9oMjX6ly

As with all the trips I've taken with Judith, I just come for the ride leaving all the planning to her.  It's a great way to see a part of the world as all the hard work is done ahead of time by someone else.  So far, we have traveled in style as we operate as a tour group of two.   In big tours, you're only as fast as the lowest common denominator and in our tour group of two, that happens to be me.  And I don't think I'm slow when compared to the general public.  Just compared to Judith.  Together, our tour group of two manages to cover a lot of territory.

I've been super busy leading up to this trip.  Mostly with work, but also with responsibilities of my volunteering, my short notice of agreeing to take on a student tenant, keeping up and visiting with friends and trying to fit in some musical practice and playing.  The tenant was surprisingly easy; it was the fact that I thought I would put him in the bedroom that's currently functioning as my music room that became the problem. This requires me moving out my music room contents into my daughter's old bedroom, which in turn, requires cleaning out and moving out her contents.  Yikes!  I have filled a small fortune of clear plastic bins with her stuff. And I'm still not finished.  This project will have to wait until my return.

This weekend I planned to pack in a leisurely fashion.  It clearly didn't go as planned.  I was out for a fabulous dinner on Friday with friends I hadn't seen for a while.  Saturday, I organized and mailed out a care package for my son, precipitated by the fact he forgot a couple of things when he left to go back to U of Waterloo.  Then I went to the funeral of my first boss, John Newman.  It was my first job out of high school and the number of great friends I have from that time in my life both amazes me and fills my heart.  Right after that event I went and got some Japanese takeout, brought it home and arranged it on my own serving plate to make it look way better than the plastic take out box look.  I then took the serving plate to the pot-luck party to celebrate a friend who just became a newly minted PhD.  On Sunday, I went to the store to pick up an extra battery for my camera, and then went into work in the afternoon to do as much as possible before I left.  I feel badly leaving things for my colleagues but there are lots on the go and somethings can't wait.  I then had to go to the Roger's wireless store to check out travel coverage.  I had thought that I was covered under one of their other plans but it turns out Malaysia and Thailand are excluded from their standard travel roaming coverage and I learned I need an expensive travel pack.  It's $125 for 50 mb of data.  How ridiculous is that?  Then I have to buy another one when we get to Thailand as the travel packages are country specific.  We're only there 4 days; maybe I can get away with the $70 package for 20 mbs of data... My phone is still locked otherwise I would get a sim card over there.  Enough ranting.  I then took my RV over to my Mom's place for storage over the winter because my neighbourhood has rules that do not permit RVs to be parked in driveways.  Another last minute thing that has to be done today because the insurance expires when I'm away.  Despite being late for dinner, my mom left dinner on the table waiting for me to arrive.  And then my two siblings and my mom, who had already eaten, re-sat themselves with me at the table as I ate and to engage in conversation.  I do have a great family.

And so, the packing started after I got home from dinner.  It wasn't as frenetic as the last trip, but it does take a surprisingly long time to gather everything up and organize it neatly and logically (or as close to that as possible)

Now I'm finishing the first blog post and sending it out to everyone.  Several people have asked about it and admittedly I'm somewhat surprised how much people seem to enjoy it.  I started it with the intention to maintain a record of these trips, then thought others might enjoy reading about what I was up to.  

Anyways, here is the Malaysia Thailand blog.  Enjoy.