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Travel Decisions Part 2

So, finally after all the months I am finally getting around to continuing the traval travails. I's a slow day at Air Force and there's not much I feel like doing so I might as well get this taken care of. I'm sure my one or two loyal readers are just beside themselves waiting for the next installment ;-)

Anyway, travel stuff. As mentioned in my last post about this subject I laid out all the traveling I've done over the years. I don't really consisder it a lot but I guess compared to the average person it is a fair amount. I've also been pretty lucky to have some of my travel subsidized (see Germany 2000-2001) or friends in the right places (last three trips to England). But it certainly hasn't stopped me from thinking of other places.

A few years ago either through an email or on a travel site like Travelocity.ca I saw an ad for an All Asia Pass with Cathay Pacific Airlines. It went sort of like this: for around $1600.00cdn you got 21 days of unlimited travel in Asia amongst some 22 cities. And the price is the same whether you depart from Toronto or Vancouver. And for about $200.00cdn more you could extend it 30 days. So that got me thinking about that but all I could really afford were the trips to England.

When my mother passed away last year I ended up getting some money this past March. Most of it went toward bills (I will never admite to even being slightly astute about my own personal finances) but I was able to use a lttle to finance the trip to SXSW in Autin, Teaxs in March and to keep a chunk free for future travel. This now really had me thinking about the All Asia Pass, I could actually afford it and the other expences involved.

So I started looking at it a bit more carefully, figuring out where I could go, etc. There are some add ons that allow you to go beyond the cities covered in the initial pass such as Delhi, India for an extra $350.00. While I was looking at all this I was thinking, this is a trip of a lifetime. I may never have this chunk of money again to go places that out of the ordinary. As stated in my other post, most of my travel has been Eurocentric. I can always go to Europe and, believe me, I never get tired of Europe. There are still big areas of Europe I have not been to yet but Europe is an easy trip from Montreal. I don't consider it a big expense to go there. This was now a chance to go to places like Africa or India.

That got me thinking about why not do an around the world trip? I turn 50 next year, this would be a great 50th birthday gift to myself, an around the world trip. I started doing some research on it and found out a couple of things, it is an extremely popular trip to do, there are tons of blogs of peoples trips and there are a lot of website and travel agencies devoted to just organizing around the world trips. I really could do something like this!

The biggest problem I had was time. It seems that most people doing a trip like this take minimum 6 months to do their trip and the average seems to be one year. Well, I do have a job, an apartment, car lease, etc so that length of time was out of the question. Most people chuck all that, sell off property. possessions and such then take off. I am not quite prepared to do that. I figure I can propably negotiate to get 4 to 6 weeks vacation pay for next year (transfer some over from this year, I have only taken one week and I will take another week if I go to California in November for my 30th high school reunion, yet another story). and then maybe take a couple of week "leave without pay" to try to plan for 6 to 8 weeks of travel.

I figure with 6 to 8 weeks of travel that I would pick about 6 places and spend a week to 10 days in each place. Obviously not nearly enough time but better than nothing. I tentatively made out an itinerary: Montreal-London (just a stop over)-Johannesburg(Victoria Falls)-Delhi(Agra-Taj Mahal)-Bangkok-Sydney(Cairns/Great Barrier Reef)-Auckland-Tahiti or Fiji-Los Angeles(just a stopover)-Montreal. I have been checking airfares, there are air alliances, independant travel flights and set itineraries. There are some really good deals out there but it is difficult finding an itinerary that does Africa, India and Austalia. Bit of a drag but I am going to have to spend about an extra $1000 to $1500 to fit in the type of itinerary I want.

I have about $10,000 available for the trip which should be more than enough. About half of that will be taken up with airfare. The sort of sad thing about it is that it probably wouldn't cost me much more than that if I went for 6 months, I would end up spending less on flights and have more available for ground costs. I would also be able to spend more time in the countries (Africa, India, SE Asia)where the cost of things are very low.

I have taken a preliminary look at issues such as weather and monsson seasons and I think that the best time of the year to do this trip is in the fall (our fall). I will be stradling the equator for this trip and shouldn't have to endure extreme temperatures, after all, I am still that beach bum from California and beaches and nice weather mean a lot to me. If I can hit Thailand by the middle to end of October I should miss out on it's monsson season. Of course, I still have a lot of planning to do but I have over a year before I plan on going so I should be able to come up with something. Who knows, by the time I finish my research and such I may be on a completely different itinerary.

So now I have a few books I have bought and dozens of bookmarks on my computer and I look at all the possibilities. I have been reading the blogs and the informational sites. I'm doing the daydreaming. I figure I don't really have to come up with a firm itinerary until at least January - February. Til then the sky's the limit!

Mini Vacation Part 2

Went and got Brent this morning and we went into Lenox for breakfast. Wandered around a bit and then took off for Lee, about 5 miles away, where there is this big CD outlet place. Bought a couple of those then returned to Miss Hall's School because Brent had a rehearsal at 1:30. It was for a woodwind quintet (flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, french horn) plus bass clarinet. I sat in on the rehearsal, they sounded great.

After that we took off for a lake next to Tanglewwod where there is a small beach beach and swim area. Nice setup. Afternoon was sunny and the water was really nice. we were floating around looking at some little fish that were swimming around us. I was floating on my stomach supporting myself with my arms on the bottom when all of a sudden I something grab my inner elbow where I have a small mole and start tugging. It was one of the bloody little fish! Shook him off, he actually drew a little blood! I shall ever be scarred and never want to set foot in a lake again, next thing you know it will be crocodiles! ;-)

Anyway, we finished off with that then went off to eat dinner at a nice restaurant. Brent had pasta and I had steak. We were looking to see about going to the movies but by the time we got back to the hotel room and I checked out the situation with my laptop it was too late. Any movies in the area were starting in about 10-20 minutes and we were at least that far from any of them. So we just hung out and watched TV. I dropped him back off at his residence.

Just finishing off a few things like this posting and then will hit the sack. I have to get up and be on the road my 11:00 as I need to get back to Montreal by 4 because I have to go into Air Force tomorrow night.

Mini Vacation

Sitting in a hotel room tonight writing this in Lenox, Mass, home to the Tanglewood Music Center. One of my friends, Brent, won a very prestigious scholarship to attend the summer program here. I had promised him I would come down and see a concert but, as usual, I've been so busy. I realized he was finishing up in a week so it was now or never.

Left Montreal at around 8:30am (about an hour later than I wanted to leave). Only had about a half hour wait at the border. I was making good time until I hit Saratoga Springs where I had to stop in at the Saratoga Diner (formerly the Spa City Diner from when I used to do all those overnight bus trips down to NYC in the early 80's) for some corned beef hash. Got out of there at 12:30 with the idea that I could still make it to Tanglewood before 2:30 so I could catch a Boston Symphony Orchestra concert. Well, that wasn't to be.

As I left Saratoga Springs I continued on the small roads instead of getting back on the highway. So, by the time I arrived in Lenox it was 3:00. I checked into the hotel and promptly went for a swim in the pool. It was starting to get close to 5 so I thought I should hunt up Brent.

I went to Miss Hall's School in Pittfield where all the Tanglewood Fellows (as they are called because they have fellowships) stay. Got his room number and phone number but he was no where to be seen. I knew there was a Milton Babbit concert at 6 so I figured he was there. As I approached downtown Lenox it was a massive traffic jam as all the people who saw the BSO afternoon concert were leaving.

I decided to bypass that for the time being and try to find a gas station before I ran out as the gas light had been lit for sometime. After winding around forever I finally found a gas station and filled up. Not a moment too soon, I'm sure. I then headed back up to Tanglewood where most of the crowd had dissipated. Parked and got my ticket I had reserved for the evening Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra concert. Wondered around a bit, picked up some food and wine and then sat outside the Ozawa Concert Hall to listen to the last part of the concert.

As people were leaving I caught a glimpse of Brent so I ran off to go grab him. He was really happy to see me. I finished off my food while he ate a sub he had brought. I was only playing in the last piece being played on the corncert, Daphnis and Chloe Suite so he sat with me for the first have. The hall was really great, standard shoebox type concert hall but the backend opened up to a big lawn that people were picnicing on. The concert was really great, it was an incredibly talented group of musicians. We went to after concert party and then I drove Brent back to Miss Hall's School.

Lightning

We've had some fierce storms here lately. On Tuesday nigh was another doozy. I have been trying to get shots of the light show but it has been difficult. The skies on Tuesday were on fire so it made it abit easier although I had to take about 50 shots to get three decent ones. Until I get a chance to put a thumbnail up you can see the in my photos section.

Stormy weather

Click on the photo to see the rest of the photos

Wow

I just realized it's been over two months since I made the posting about travel desicions Part 1 with the promise of writing part 2 in a day or two ;-) Guess it's been longer than a day or two!

Life just flies by way too fast. I will write up the second part ASAP, I promise, no...really!