Back from Road Trip

I'm back from road trip. It was a great idea to just create our own long weekend because as it would have been really hard to get camp sites otherwise. As it is we found it hard to get campsites. We ended up staying at a hostel in Nelson, and camping in Kaslo.

Nelson, is lovely. I love that everything is organic. There is the Oso Negro café which is oso cute and have delicious drinks. Check out this link for photos. Kaslo is very cute as well. We went to Fletcher falls, which is 10 minutes away to see the falls and the beach. It was berry season so we picked berries all along the trial to the beach. I haven't done that since I was a kid. The water at the beach was cold, but once you jump in and do a little swim it was perfect.

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Summer Roadtrip

A couple of girl friends and I are planning a road trip this summer. We are going to make a long weekend and visit the Okanagan Wine area. Expense will probably be three nights hotel, car rental, gas, food and beverages.

Should be good. It’s our solution to wanting to get away while being both low on vacation time and money.

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Goodbye Summer

Today is the last day of summer. It feels like it too. My last weekend before end of summer was awesome. The weather was great (until that last little bit of Sunday). We rented a little cabin near Radium. Instead of going to Radium or Fairmont Hot Springs, we drove a little ways and went to this hot springs at Whiteswan Provincial park. It’s free, but we probably spent that money we saved on the extra miles we drove to get there. The real difference is that it felt less commercialized. It’s along a logging road, you walk a down this trail and it’s right beside the river.

We also stopped off in Canmore, where we went for a little hike to see the Grassi lakes. The colors and clarity in these lakes were awesome. The photos really don’t do them justice.

Money wise this was not such a thrift trip with gas, cabin rental, and eating out. With some planning it could have been cheaper. Like we could’ve bought our snacks and drinks on our way out of town, which would’ve been a lot cheaper. We BBQ’d one night. Again, it would have been cheaper if we brought some seasoning (which we all have at home a plenty) instead of buying the meat and seasoning from Sobey’s at Invermere.

But it really was a spur of the moment thing. Next time I will plan better.

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Unexpected savings and expenses

The NS trip started with a bit of a hiccup. I missed my flight. I had totally misread the date and discovered it about 6 hours too late. I was freaking out thinking I’d have to book another flight. However, I called Westjet and they put me down as a late show. I was able to get on a standby flight for about $47 and get there in the morning instead of the night before. It was a totally avoidable expense but the damage could be worse.

One of my friends had family in Nova Scotia. They actually offered their cottage for us to stay in. Then we were also invited for dinners, and her mum even packed us a lunch for when we went whale watching. She was so sweet. We also saved us a lot of money.

The trip was awesome. It was such a difference from living in the city. The cottage was right next to the water. We swam every morning. We drove around the south shore and sat on the beaches. We also went whale watching. We first saw three whales, another two together, and another three whales together. In the evenings we played crochet and had BBQ. It was a lovely vacation. I forgot my camera so I don’t have any photos, although, I find it more relaxing not having a camera to take photos.

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Back from NS

I got back this morning. It was great seeing my friends again. We figured out that we haven't seen each other in about two years. It's amazing how people mature and change during those first few years of work. I will write more when I have some more sleep.

Also my friend put all expenses on her card. She is going to send out an e-mail about how much how much we owe her. I will have a better idea of how much my total trip cost after that.

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Any Volunteers?

Yesterday, while I was at another airport waiting for another connection, the customer service rep came on the PA and asked for a volunteer to catch a later flight. The volunteer will get first class on a later flight (4 hours wait), a meal, and a $200 voucher.

A few years ago, I would be running to that service counter, as would a lot of other people. Now, they made the announcement 3 or 4 times and no one budged. Here are my two reasons for not volunteering.

First. I’m tired. To get cheap tickets I had to make connections. I have been up since 5am, and I just can’t imagine waiting another 4 hours and getting home at midnight.

Second, the only time I had any experience with travel voucher it turned out to be a total waste of time. It was when Sis and I were coming back from an overseas trip. Her flight home was 2 hours earlier than mine. This volunteer opportunity came up for her flight, so she volunteered thinking she’d keep me company and get a flight voucher.

What we didn’t know is that they make it almost impossible to use. She’s tried. They tell her she should book online and pay for her flight, then call a 1-800 number and use her voucher to get her money back. She tried to do that and was told she was misinformed.

Also, do you know they expire in a year? That’s what ended up happening with her voucher. They just gave her the run around until the thing expired.

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Too much flying!

Well, I just booked my flight to Halifax for this summer. My friends (from Toronto) who were coming to visit me decided it’s too expensive. So we are going to Halifax since none of us have ever been except for L. His family lives there.

I know. It’s a little unfair. To save them money my summer expense just went way up because of a $850 flight ticket. The friends thought they’d make it up to me by chipping in a couple hundred dollars for my flight. However, I couldn’t just take money from them for no reason.

Now there is a new saving goal. $850 to pay for flight to Halifax. I’m really looking forward to seeing them though.

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San Antonio

After I finished at San Marco I drove to the Rivercenter mall in San Antonio. San Antonio came as a pleasant surprise. There is a river that runs below street level. The river walk goes through downtown with lots of restaurants, bars, and apartments on both sides. It’s lovely and vibrant. I wish I remember my camera so I could share photos. But check out flickr and there are lots of photos to give you an idea of it.

Photo by PaseoDelRio

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How many camels?

‘Who is this?’ asks cute Egyptian guy.
‘My sister’ I answered.
‘Older sister?’
‘Yes’
‘How many?’ he asks Sis.
‘How many what?’
‘How many camels for your sister?’
‘um...I don’t think I...’
‘2 camels!’ Sis interrupts.

Dear Sis,
When next bargaining camels for your sister, please keep in mind that there will be bargaining. If you set the upper price limit at 2 camels, chances are you will be bargained down to 1 camel or maybe even a donkey. Your sister is worth more than a donkey.

In fact, telling this story upon coming home, I’ve gotten two offers for 3 camels, which I’m sure we can bargain up to 5 camels.

Love,
Esme

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A little reflection

I always like to read about the places I visit after rather than before, probably because it is more interesting being able to relate. This weekend I rented The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, and borrowed Death on the Nile.

It was great seeing some of the places I visited in Egypt and reading about it. I especially enjoyed this passage from Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile. This scene is set in the Old Cataract in Assuan.

They turned to the left out of the hotel [Cataract Hotel]gate and entered the cool shade of the public gardens.

…[conversation]

They came out from the shade of the gardens on to a dusty stretch of road bordered by the river. Five watchful bead sellers, two vendors of postcards, three sellers of plaster scarabs, a couple of donkey boys and some detached but hopeful infantile riff-raff closed in upon them.

‘You want beads, sir? Very good, sir. Very cheap…’
‘Lady, you want scarab? Look-great queen - very lucky…’
‘You look, sir – real lapis. Very good, very cheap…’
‘You want ride donkey, sir? This very good donkey. This donkey Whiskey and Soda, sir …’
‘You want to go to granite quarries, sir? This very good donkey. Other donkey very bad, sir, that donkey fall down…’
‘You want postcard – very cheap – very nice …’
‘Look , lady… Only ten piastres – very cheap – lapis – this ivory …’
‘This very good fly whisk – this all-amber…’
‘You go out in boat, sir? I got very good boat, sir…’
‘You go back hotel, lady? This first-class donkey …’
Hercule Poirot made vague gestures to ride himself of this human cluster of flies. Rosalie stalked through them like a sleep-walker.
‘It’s best to pretend to be deaf and blind,’ she remarked.
The infantile riff-raff ran alongside murmuring plaintively: ‘Bakshish? Bakshish? Hip hip hurrah – very good, very nice…’

I made same walk about six times. I got my silver and turquoise scarab pendant from the jewelry shop just across from the Cataract hotel. The description of the vendors was so similar to what we experienced. Except instead of donkeys there are horse carriages and I doubt anything would be priced at 10 piatres even after bargaining. Actually, I don't know if the kids would even think 10 piatres is decent bakshish (tip) money. Oh, inflation.

I love Agatha Christie and reading Death on the Nile after having visited Egypt I love it even more.

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Egypt Photos

This is a panorama of the pyramids of Giza. The Egyptian dress up in tradition clothing with their camels and charge you for taking photos of them or with them. One Egyptian pound (about 20 cents)for photo with person, five for photo with camel. Lucky for them they have the camel. Some people lug buckets filled with water to sell at three pounds per bottle.

Mosque in Alexandria. Inside it's divided into two sides (by a screen), one for women and one for men. As soon as we got in the women in our group noticed the women's side is a lot smaller. 'Why do we have a lot less space than the men?' asked one gal in an accusing voice. 'Because women can choose between praying at home or in the mosque, men can't' 'Oh. Well, ok'

Temple of Philea. This is during the Greek time in Egypt. Therefore you see Greek influence in the buildings.

Abu Simbel. You can travel to Abu Simbel in three ways. By cruise (the best way to see Egypt I think), by plane (20 minutes flight from Assuan), or by bus (4 hours drive I'm told).

Feluccas. Well, I call them sail boats. Me and Sis took one in the afternoon and watched the sunset, while everyone else rode camels. Of course it was praying time for the Nubians so they just prayed towards mecca at the front of the sail boat. It was a neat experience. The sunset and quiet all around us, Nubians in their long robes(very bad of me not to remember what they are called) praying at the front of the boat.

That's our hot air balloon...on the ground. We woke up at 4:30am to get there but it was too windy to fly. Oh well, we saw a great sunrise over Luxor. I definitely recommend it though. It's quite cheap compared to if we do it anywhere else (only 80USD for 1 hour) and you will see the Valley of the Kings and the Nile from the air.

One of the earlier pyramids in Saqqara.

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Home

The Egypt trip was packed full of highlights it’s hard to put it in one reasonably length post. I saw and experienced so much that I’m still processing it all. Needless to say it was amazing.

We saw the Pyramids of Giza and Saqqara, the new Alexandria library, the Catacombs, and Temples at Abu Simbel, Philea, Kom Ombo, and Edfu. We rode the overnight train to Aswan and took the Nile cruise to Luxor (very Agatha Christie).

I didn’t take a lot of photos but I will post some when I have a look through them. I’m suffering a little bit from the vacation blues. All in all though I’m happy to be back home and have my own things about me.

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Link Exchanges and more

I love my local coffee place. It’s got great atmosphere and a central location. For $2.25 I can have a Vanilla Bean tea and an hour of Internet to blog on while I wait for my friends to show up.

I’m going to take this opportunity to blog about the little miscellaneous things I wanted to write about but always get left behind.

Link Exchange (something I’ve been meaning to put up)
If you like to exchange links please leave a comment or e-mail me with the URL of your page. I will put the page through a very rigorous test based on a list of criteria before linking you on my blog roll…no, not really. I like people very easily, so pages should be the same. But I will check it out before linking.

One more thing. I visit everyone I put on my blog roll. It’s like my bookmark. If a site is rarely updated, I get sad at repeatedly opening a page and not seeing any updates. So I probably take it off after awhile. But then again let me know when those regular updates start again and I’d be happy to add the link.

No Spend Day Counter
I added the no spend day counter

Yellowstone National Park
I found a new blog this week - We are Rich . It’s three girls from Chicago getting together to blog about their financial matters et al. PayDaze mentioned some places she’d like to visit in the US. I wanted to share a few photos from my trip Yellowstone National Park last year just to give her some more motivation. Unfortunately, I don’t have a photo of Old Faithful.




Inkpots are usually blue, but this one had such a vibrant color it was amazing.



The bison are such powerful looking animals. We were very close to this one and our SUV felt very flimsy.

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Cost for peace of mind

I just came back from posting my Egypt tourist visa applications. In total, including the money order for the $26 Visa fees, it cost me $67.99.

I could have just got the visa at the Cairo airport. However, I’m arriving late at night and Sis didn’t want me to take the chance that there might be some glitch. I agree.

The embassy only accepts money orders so it cost me an additional $4.95 for the money order.

Then I paid Priority post - $24.29- for overnight delivery, and $10.99 for an Xpresspost return envelope.

I did this because we are getting close to the travel date – Feb 20, 2008. I paid for the extra quick delivery so my application gets in right away. Then I will call to make sure that all paper works are in order. If not, I get some extra time to fix things. Xpresspost takes 1 to 2 days, which should be ok provided I stay on top of my application status.

This is an additional $41.99 compared to if I got my Visa at the airport. But it’s worth it for the peace of mind it gives me. It’s much easier to get things done before hand and in your own country, than doing it last minute at the airport of a foreign country with a tour starting the next day with or without you.

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Saturday in San Francisco

The bf and I drove into San Francisco on Friday night and stayed at the Hotel Griffon. It’s very close to the piers and has a view of the Bay Bridge. The location was great –walking distance to a lot of things – but the valet parking was pricey. We paid $40 per night plus about $5 of tax.

Saturday morning was warm and dry – very different from the rainy, cold weather forecasted. We walked over to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Arts. The entrance fee was $12.5 for adults. There was free coat check, which was great. Works there start from Matisse, Picasso and beyond. The photography sections were great. Also other interesting art that was more interactive.

Afterwards, we walked through the Westfield mall – Bloomingdale, MNG by Mango etc. We saw signs pointing to North Beach and China town. Handy GPS said that we were over a mile from Chinatown. So we leisurely strolled over and got some yummy Dim Sun.

I was pretty tired by then so we headed back to the hotel for a rest. For dinner we decided to go to Fisherman’s Wharf since Google map says we weren’t too far. We were about 5 minutes from Pier 1, beside which is an indoor market. There were lots of yummy seafood restaurants, a wine bar, and other shops where you can get fresh food and ingredients.

It was quite a nice stroll (but a little long) from Pier 1 to Fisherman’s Wharf. It was warm and we took our time. We had a back up plan in case it rained or we get tired of walking. There were trolley stops all along our walk where we can hop on a trolley.

All in all quite a nice day. Another snippet of information: there is a submarine at Pier 45 that we can tour. Apparently you can also stay in the submarine overnight. We were talking to some people who were going to do just that…after they get their coffee at Starbucks.

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More on those Frequent Flyer Miles

Yesterday I started about how frequent airline miles are rarely worth the max amount quoted. Here are a few of the reasons why. When conditions are right (i.e. high season, infrequent flights, or popular destination) it’s possible you can be hit with all these obstacles like we were.

Unless you know a year in advance and book your reward flights then, chances are you have limited choices which require more miles. Yes my coworker booked a return flight for 15,000 points but he booked almost 8 months in advance. I booked the same flight a month in advance and it cost me 25,000 points one way.
- limited choice and more miles required unless booking way in advance –

Also, with these limited choices you will most likely have to make stopovers. So you are paying more taxes than if you took a direct flight. Also, sometimes partner airlines are used for these stopovers. Meaning? More points.
-more taxes you pay out of your pocket, lost time during stop overs, and more miles if partner airlines are involved –

Then there are stopovers where you have to do overnight. Not wanting to waste a day in the airport Sis and hubby are going out on the town. Result? Extra hotel and transportation costs. This also means taking more vacation.
- extra vacation days, accommodation and transportation costs associated with overnight stop overs -

All this and not counting the cost of spending hours on the phone, the frustration, and the stress. In my case, I ended up paying 50,000 British Airway points, $430 in taxes, taking extra 3 days off work, staying in London for one night, and routing through Seattle to get the return flight from London. I had to book the London to Cairo trip myself because even though British Airways have seats on the connecting flights, they were not available to people using points. This is probably a very bad deal on our 50,000 BA points, however, one look at Sis on our other phone trying to work a flight through London, Madrid, Cairo, US, and Canada for her and hubby, I thought I better shut up and be grateful.

Conclusion: Always opt for cash over miles when given a choice. The credit card companies totally wise to this.

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To continue on the theme of flyer miles

My lovely sister offered to fly me on her British Airway points for the Egypt trip. We have been looking up flights for the last couple of weeks this would save me about $1600!

Well, for the last week, we have been going nuts with trying to co-ordinate three people’s schedules, sold out flights, and ridiculous large number of connections with those British Airway points.

Eventually Sis and her hubby got their flights but with many over night stop overs. I could only get one leg of the flight (home to London) on BA points because I’m less flexible on dates. Sis has been turned off the whole thing and won’t be doing this again anytime soon. Me, I’ve always been a skeptic.

How could I say that after my previous post about my points collecting frenzy? Well, I won’t refuse something when it’s free. But give me the choice between using miles for flights, or a less but still reasonable deal on miles for gift cards? I choose gift cards. Given the choice of collecting miles for up to 2% cash value for my credit card use or 1% cash? I choose cash.

Yes potentially the return is higher with miles but there are many, many things working against that return. Whereas, cash/gift cards is less hassle and guaranteed return.

I will post later about how we don’t usually get the full quoted worth of miles but now I have to get back to looking flights: London to Cairo.

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Egypt!

I'm home! It's so good to be home. When I have more time I want to make a post about all the goodies I bought in China. However, the more current news is below!

I just booked a trip to Egypt! Sis, her husband, and friends have been talking about it. They invited me before but I wasn’t really in the mood to commit. Anyway, sis called today and I’m booked for February.

It was a spontaneous decision to go to Egypt. However, a personal trip has been in the plans since a year ago. I’m so excited. As of now, I know very little about Egypt since I’ve done no research. However, I’m going to start now.

I always like to be really, really prepared before I go to a place. I will be armed with details like things to eat, places of interest, big festivals and events, customs etc. This doesn’t mean I will have any kind of schedule for the time I’m there or a check list of things I need to experience. No. No.

Once I get there, I just go with the flow and see what happens. I like the research because it gives me a better understanding and appreciation for my experiences.

I find Lonely planet guides are my favorites. I’m going online to order a copy for Egypt from the library.

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Free Airport Internet

Here I am waiting for my flight at the airport. I am so excited about being home soon.

In the meantime, here are two airport places that I found free wireless Internet. In the Hong Kong International Airport near the food court I got a good signal. Also, the domestic terminal in Vancouver Airport near departure gate B12. I was at B16 and didn’t get a signal but at B12 I found a good signal.

Also, I took the direct ferry from Zhuhai to the Hong Kong International Airport. To my surprise I got a 120HKD airport tax refund. Last time I got to the airport from Kowloon and didn’t get this so it must be because of the ferry.

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The price tag for a little bit of home

Here I am soaking up the culture in China. But once in awhile I get a little home sick and go looking for something familiar from home. Usually this leads me to McDonald or Starbucks. Yesterday, I found this coffee shop nearby the apartment that’s got everything imported from Philadelphia Cream Cheese to Spaghetti.

Needless to say I was quite happy. Grabbed a Newsweek and an InStyle from the magazine pile and sat down to enjoy my curry chicken with rice and coffee. It wasn’t too bad. The meal was about 60RMB.

There is also a little shop attached to the coffee shop. I had a look around after dinner. A 2L bottle of Cranberry juice is 60RMB (almost $10!) and the InStyle magazine is 68 RMB. That is pricey. I don't know. If I was here for 6 months, like some people are, I might be tempted to sell out the $10+ bucks for InStyle by the 5th month.

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