The Day Before and the Day Of ... D-Day is Here

Vancouver ... 2:09 am  ... soon I will be squished again.

I hate packing. I'm pretty good at it, I've had enough practice in the last 25 years, but I still hate it anyway. Maybe it's the size 13 shoes (size 48 for you Europeans) that take up so much space. Maybe it's because there are so many little things to remember, or maybe it's the simpler issue of never, ever, forgetting something really, really important. I packed about 80% of the stuff two months ago, when I was either bored, or procrastinating on my marking. But, it still took about 5 hours last night and today to really organize it all. Everything is suppose to have its own little place, but I can't remember these places now.  Getting old, but at least it's not just me. Happy Canada Day indeed !!!   :o)

You search around without trying ... Oh THAT's where the old destroyed, duct taped blue bag is, with the batteries, the secondary camera, the electrical plug converters, ... this, that, and all the other things. Good thing I accidently stumbled upon this vital junk. It hadn't moved since I put it there on the computer table when I came home last September. Where else would it have been?

Then there is the real stuff. For example, know where your bloody passport is AT ALL TIMES (yeah, yeah, I know). Keep your US cash perfectly protected, straight, and not folded. Oh, and don't forget the nail cutters, the only ones that actually work, not the other ones I bought in Samoa!! Then there are the band-aids, the mp3 player that no one in their right mind would ever steal, their AAA batteries (a bunch were left over from last year that I forgot about, and they expire in 2017, Thank God!), when does it ever end? What else is hiding?

The good news is, I finally bothered to find out which plug converters they use in Myanmar/Burma. Apparently, they are the kind I least figured they would be. The same rectangular type they have in the U.K. and in China. Strange bed fellows indeed ... figure that one out? For Malaysia, I'm good, no problem there, the two pins it is. Don't forget to put BOTH in your little new blue sack. Keep up the good work, Captain Obvious.


Then, I feel like a complete imbecile while watching the Euro Cup Final Football match. Which toque should I bring? There's gotta be some dumb Canadian joke in there somewhere.  Will two toques be better? Will it really matter? Who brings two toques to the bloody equator? Well, apparently me and come August 14th, I hope this feeling of stupidity will make perfect sense when I find myself at 4000 metres or 14 000 feet at 5 o'clock in the morning up Mt. Kinabula.  Oh I can't wait to be right and listen to the advice I was given.

After all the planning, and jogging my memory of all the things I need to do, it still seems weird that I'm gone today. It's not denial, it's just that strange feeling that you'll be having your last sleep in your bed for 54 days. A bed long enough that I can actually fit in. The last bowl of cereal, the opening of your OWN fridge, is almost like a spiritual experience, and being able to read street signs without thinking. That's what will be gone. Done it before, I will just have to do it again, with a smile.

I was on Google Maps last night. How did we ever live without it? I mean really? I was scoping out the very narrow streets around my first hotel in Bangkok, just so I know what I am up against when I arrive around midnight, July 3/4. There were of course the Thai and English signs, then the tuk-tuks, and the 7-11's at every street corner. Then there's the young English tourist who is fingering the Google cameraman very blatantly. Poor cameraman, he's just doing his job!!  It's like I've never left. The only thing that is missing is the smells, the noise, and then it's 100% complete.

If only the humidity's moisture doesn't get inside my camera's sensor again, for the third time in a row, I'll be a happy camper. It's a long story, and I don't even know the beginning each time. Anyway ... attention all mango shakes and Pad-Thai vendors, I'll be there in about 30 hours. Stay fresh ... I'll need you when I can't fall asleep that first night, my first pit stop near Khao San Road Market.  I still had two one Baht coins lying on my dresser drawers that I re-found just hours ago in my room.  Feels like free money, that, and the 15 Hong Kong dollars I found scattered around my room, in the piggy bank, and nearby my stash of pennies and dimes. They've been there the entire time, for a year or more, and I was oblivious to their presence, so I'll bring them too. I'll keep up my accidental brilliance.

The question remains ... how much can I buy at the Hong Kong airport for 15 HK dollars ... I'll be there a couple of hours ... I can't rememer ... it's been an entire year. Hopefully something worth eating ... or another  mango smoothie at the Pacific Coffee Company. Wait ... they cost  $35 HK. That's one thing I CAN remember.