Air Canada - if I don't have anything nasty to say, I should still say something (begrudgingly)

As you will all remember from my first few blogs about buying my tickets, getting from Victoria to Vancouver and back again was going to be the most complicated part of my journey (booking wise at least). When I finally realized that I was going to be returning to Vancouver on Feb 20, it would be too late (8:30 pm)to get to the last ferry. This meant that my lovely friend Melissa would have to meet me at the airport, let me sleep at her place and get me to the ferry the next day all during Olympic mania. I realized that this was not acceptable, even if Melissa was game - not to mention all the to-ing and fro-ing for tired little me. So I started checking for a ticket back to Victoria.

I started with WestJet but they don't fly between Vancouver and Victoria. Then I tried Air Canada. Tickets for every other day for two weeks before and after my return date were $72 +taxes. For Feb 20th - $207!! I tried other, less obvious airlines. Too dark to fly Harbour Air. I checked Alaska but you have to originate outside of Canada (who knew?). Then I checked Horizon Air. I got very excited that there was a ticket for 50ish bucks. Booked it, hit submit and immediately realized that the flight was for 11:30 AM not PM. I called them right away and they were lovely, cancelled the whole transaction without any penalties.

So, left with only one option, I bookmarked Air Canada and checked it everyday. Then, one fine day, Feb 20 prices dropped from $207 to $72 so I booked it right away. I am flying back to Victoria at 11:45 pm (arriving 12:15 am). Not that I am providing this very specific info in case some kind Victoria soul wants to pick me up (cough cough - volunteer sign up list posted on my fridge).

Me flying to Vancouver on Jan 23rd

So this got me thinking. Maybe it might be easier to fly to Vancouver too, instead of busing it. So last night I looked online for a flight over. It was going to cost almost $100. I left it so I could think about it. So today, I thought about it. I could leave home a couple of hours earlier if I flew and since I haven't even begun to pack (or even pre-pack or even write a list of what to pack), those couple of hours may be essential. So I signed back onto Air Canada today and low and behold, the ticket is now only $39!! ($68 with taxes). That is comparable to the bus. So I booked. Then, just to proverbially poke at the sore Air Canada tooth, I checked Feb 20 to see if those tickets were on sale too. But they weren't. The only seats left for that flight were $157, so that made me happy to be so smart (S.M.R.T).

Me flying back to Victoria on Feb 20 (in the dark)

So much has happened in the last two months...

Yeah yeah, I know, I haven't updated in forever. And the last post really wasn't about my trip, I have been properly chastised.

Ok, I admit it. I was avoiding updating because for a while there my pre-trip excitement was dampened somewhat. Let me explain. As you all know (from previous posts and non-stop India chatter) my plan was to meet Judy at the Bangalore airport at 2 am where she was going to take me under her now India-experienced wing. She will have been in India approx 6 weeks at that point. But then, sometime in early December, Judy got some bad news on the medical front. After discussions with her doctor etc, she decided she just couldn't go to India. She let me know as soon as she had made her decision (at an Indian charity event for those of you who like irony).

Of course, I was upset for Judy. She had really been looking forward to her trip and she might have bad stuff going on. However, I will admit that thoughts of my own plight did enter my mind not too long after my thoughts of Judy's plight. I never said I was perfect.

I was going to be landing in Bangalore in the middle of the flippin night!! Alone!!Priscilla was not too keen to meet me so I was going to be on my own. Now, I have travelled alone before and survived, I knew that it would be alright. I would just have to find a place to stay ahead of time, get a cab, and get some sleep and I would be good to go in a day or two. But, maybe I am getting old, I was having a hard time readjusting my idea of what my trip was going to be like without Judy there. And, because we are all friends here, maybe I was a little (I will only admit to a little) scared.

I hit up a few of my friends who had mildly expressed interest/jealousy about the trip. None of them could come. That is when I stopped posting updates. I wasn't sure if I could be excited and, even harder, sound excited. Thus, the lack of blog.

But wait, there is still a happy ending to this sad tale. After a few weeks, some doctor discussions, some soul searching, Judy decided to ignore the medical issues until after her trip. So, drum rolllllll, she called me up and announced that she was going. Yeaaaahhhh. She said she may not be able to travel around as much as she had hoped and was going to treat the trip as a form of relaxation, hanging out at spas, ashrams and retreats. She wasn't sure about the side trips so I may be on my own for those. But she would still meet me at the airport. Yeaaahhh. For some reason, the idea of that airport was too much for me to handle mentally.

So, back on track. Judy, who I would like to note, is a worse procrastinator than me, had to fast track her passport (which she hadn't ordered because she wasn't going). Then, once that was done, she needed an Indian entrance visa. So did I but I had more time. Judy was leaving on Dec 16th (or so) and only had a week to get the visa. So she called me up on Thursday afternoon at work (I had plans that evening so no time to get ready - I filled out the application at work and got my visa photo on my lunch hour and my registered envelope on the way to my event) to see if I wanted to come to Vancouver with her to hand the visa application in in person on Friday (which happened to be a day off for me). The Indian Consulate is in downtown Vancouver. She and I had different forms. Mine said we had to be there by noon or they wouldn't accept it until the next day. Judy's form said 2:30. Just to be safe (heaven forbid that either of us call them to confirm) we caught the 9am ferry. We drove to town and parked under some mall at exactly 11:53. We ran, Judy's GPS on overdrive because neither of us had any sense of where we were in relation to the Consulate. we still went the wrong way but our looks of confusion solicited a kindly stranger to point us in the right direction. We made it, my time stamp was 11:58, Judy's 11:59. HA! Of course, because we made it, the big sign in the waiting area said the cut off time was 2:30 but I still felt victorious.

Judy at the Indian Consulate

Me at the Consulate - note the submission deadline of 2:30

We had to bring a filled out application, our passport, two passport sized visa photos, and a registered envelope so they could send the visaed passport back to me (Judy opted to go back to the Consulate to pick hers up - time constraints and all). As soon as you get in the door, a very stern looking guard checks your stuff (and your paperwork too - hahaha, I crack me up). As I mentioned, Judy and I had different forms because I was using some old site that was being maintained by who know who - not the Indian Consulate. So the stern but nice guard cut my pictures to the proper size, stapled them in place, there was tape involved too but I can't remember why...


Amusing story about this photo. I had brought my big camera with me but I could tell that wasn't going to fly in the waiting room so I got Judy to take this picture and the next one with her cell phone. There was a big huge sign that said "NO CELL PHONES" right there on the wall. But being a goer, Judy took the picture. Just as she did, someone else's phone beeped and guard looked at the group and bellowed "No Cell Phones!!!" I thought Judy was going to pee herself. I laughed like a hyena though so it was all worth it.

We had to wait over an hour to be called to the counter for our check over. I could tell from the wait that Judy was going to be awesome to travel with. She and I were chit chatting with pretty much everyone in our vicinity. We got some interesting tips (none of which I remember) and met other tourists, people who go every year, a guy who was an Indian/Nepalese who gave Judy his doctor-sister's phone number, one blow-hard who was ignored as best as possible, and one girl who was trying to get a business visa (unsuccessfully in the end).

Number 923 please, 923. ARGGGGG.

Eventually we made it up to the front to speak to the nice gentleman who looked at the 9 dollar registered envelope I brought and said it just wouldn't do. I mentioned that the website I was checking (this is where I learned it was being maintained by monkeys) said this would be sufficient. And by the way, did I mention it cost 9 bucks! He took it but he had a look like 'don't blame me if your passport never arrives, stupid white girl'.

Lunch and Ikea and then back on the ferry to end a very full and fun day. Judy went back the following Thursday to pick hers up and mine arrived in my mailbox (crappy envelope - ha!) the very same day (I'm sure, much to Judy's chagrin).

I will stop there. One wants to leave the audience with something to anticipate. I will follow up later with the story of the Indian Charity Event and my stolen philosophy for my trip. Oh yeah, there is another Air Canada story too.

Photography on the west coast

Instead of reading my India book or booking hotels or some other productive vacation planning activity, I am taking a Nature and Travel Photography class. When I am in school and have homework due, this is what I call busy work (quasi homework). I appear to be preparing but in fact am not.

Anyway, my current vacation busy work is that I am learning to take awesome travel photographs. At least that is what I thought would happen when I signed up for the course. What I discovered is that I have no idea how my camera works or really how to take a decent picture. The course description did mention that I should have taken an introductory photography class but I figured - how hard can it be to take a picture. Well, let me tell you, I will never again look at photos in a gallery and say 'I can do that'. Everything is F stop or ISO or shutter speed. I'm not even going to get into lighting and shadowing and extra lenses and filters and who knows what all else. I pretty much stop paying attention when the instructor starts talking about anything that isn't already stuffed into the camera itself. (Cause there is no way I am spending any more money on anything else that might get nicked). But that still leaves those shutters, ISOs (don't ask me what that stands for) and aperture. APERTURE for the love of god!! First day - he starts up with the depth of field and motion and light etc and I have no idea what he is saying about all of the above mentioned mysteries. But I am smart (I think to myself) so I can figure this out. So I nod wisely for two hours and go home and crack open my camera manual. I know, I know, who goes to a photography class without reading the manual... Anyway, my little book tells me how to adjust my shutter speed and aperture and what not but it doesn't tell me why. I need to know WHY!!

One exciting thing I learned about my camera while reading my manual in bed was how to take Macro (close up) shots. Gingy Puss was the unhappy model for that revelation. Like a haughty supermodel, she didn't enjoy her shoot but she looks gorgeous.


Saturdays are our field trips. So the first Saturday we met at Beacon Hill. Our mission, composition. Armed with my new knowledge of how to speed up and show down my shutter speed and adjust my aperture (when I say knowledge, I mean at midnight, the night before, I skimmed the manual, said 'holy cow, who knew my cheap camera had so many functions' and fell asleep), I tried to adjust everything wilynily. Every time I adjusted something, I ended up with a black screen. It seems that shutter speed and aperture effect each other (in some unknown way). Plus, everything is backwards, the bigger the number, the smaller the aperture, the smaller the fraction, the faster the shutter speed. Too many variables! Too many variables!! Plus, if it wasn't bad enough, I added my tripod that I could barely figure out.

Did I mention it was pouring rain too. So I was trying to do all of this with an umbrella and my camera encased in a ziplock baggie with a hole cut out for the lens.HaveI mentioned the plethora of variables. The PLETHORA! But for all that I did take a couple of half decent pictures. At the beginning of the next class, we critiqued some of each other's work. I submitted two for comments.

Here is the photo that I took that the class liked.


And this one - not so much. At least it had stopped raining by then.


The next field trip was to Goldstream but I must admit, it was raining again on that Saturday so I didn't go. Tomorrow, the next trip, is to Witty's Lagoon. And guess what. It is supposed to rain. I will cut the hole in my baggie tonight to save time in the morning.

But, despite the rain, the class is interesting and gives some good tips on taking better pictures (I would get in trouble for saying 'taking pictures' we are 'creating images' cough cough). So today I bought a Digital Photography for Dummies book - in colour, no less. That way I might be able to catch up on what the heck an ISO is and how it affects my aperturittude. Let's all see if I actually read it or just skim it and fall asleep. Of course, I could be reading it now but you will notice that I am updating my blog instead. The sacrifices I make for you people...

Pictures from Witty`s Lagoon

Bite Me with Dr. Mike Leahy (India episode) is NOT about food!!

So, more research. My next research project was very enjoyable. I went to Vancouver and met up with Melissa's friend Alisma (who is awesome by the way). She has been to India twice and she was willing to have dinner with me and discuss some tips and ideas. She was very positive about both trips. She backed up what my book had said. Occasional inappropriate touching and disconcerting staring but nothing too too bad. She and her companions weren't robbed or assaulted. People were friendly, the food delish etc. Travel was inconsistent and prices cheap. Excellent tip: in the south, hotel means restaurant. Always just ask for lodging to avoid confusion. Good stuff. Alisma brought pictures and the scenery is amazing. She has visited both the North and South so she has lots of places that she recommended and a few to avoid. I am keen on the camel safari (once I research the state of the animals well being) in the North and a backwater boat trip in the south. Are both possible? - that remains to be determined. Stay tuned for itinerary updates. I have now spent several hours with my nose in my Lonely Planet India and am realizing just how big a place India is. For comparison's sake, from what I can tell - Camels = Vancouver and Backwater Boat = Toronto. Bit of a distance. One month - can I do it??

So, all excited about my trip again, I get home and sit down to watch a show I had taped, Bite Me with Dr. Mike Leahy. I thought it was about foods of India. The Dr. part should have tipped me off. Not about food, Dr. Mike is a virologist who likes parasites.

The parasitic worm called the Ascaris

In fact he seems to like them so much he actually drank from the Ganges and had a little swim about. I could barely watch. Surprise, surprise, we then got to watch him take a stool sample to a clinic because he had 'an upset tummy' which changed to diarrhea, gas and bloating when he was talking to the doctor. It seems he has giardia. I figure he got off lucky. But that was far from the worst things he showed us. Alisma mentioned that she didn't like the monkeys. I have tried to keep a healthy respect and distance whenever I have seen them as well. Not so Dr. Mike. He was telling us about the many diseases they carry while sitting in a temple dedicated to monkeys. I expected the rabies but apparently they also have a form of herpes that causes brain swelling and goopy eyes (perhaps not listed in order to importance). The best part though was that as he was talking to us, a monkey attacked him and bit him. No trip to the clinic this time, fortunately it bit his pocket with a notepad inside. He looked scared though as he dropped his pants to check for punctures ( we saw way to much of this guy with his pants down or off but that is another issue).

Monkey Attack!!! Watch out for the shifty eyes.

Ok, so we have rabid dogs, treatable if quick enough; crazy monkeys, hopefully avoidable; body lice, wash your clothes with hot water; scabies, itchy but unlikely to kill me if I have a healthy immune system; round worms growing in my gut, some quick anti-parasite medicine before they enter my heart; leeches, no swimming in swamps. All good, I can live with any of those. It was the elephanitis that got me. It is caused by worms that breed in your lymph nodes. It makes your limbs swell up, well, like an elephant. And it is incurable.

Elephanititis. 'nough said.

It has only been a half hour since the show ended and I have already forgotten how to contract or avoid that parasite. Clearly, I will have to re-watch Dr. Mike. For some reason, I feel itchy.

A quick end note. I looked up the website for Dr. Mike's show and found his blog about his trip to India. There, I learned that the the giardia was not just a bit of discomfort and the quick fix he mentioned on the show. Apparently, he pooped himself mid-filming while in a crowd of people. Further reinforcement for my decision not to drink from the Ganges!! although he thinks it might have been unwashed fruit - harder to avoid but good to know.

Research - not for the weak of spirit

I finally got my Lonely Planet India book but I haven't had a chance to crack it open yet. I know it is going to take a lot of time. And a lot of space.

Lovely Melissa, always so thoughtful, gave me a big (BIG) map of India that is specifically designed for planning your trip. I know it is going to be fully spread out with post-its at the ready for when I start Lonely Planeting.

What I have read so far is Wanderlust and Lipstick for Women Traveling in India. The linked review calls it a pre-guidebook guidebook. Too true. It doesn't really tell me anything about specific places. But it is full of advise on how to behave and what to expect. The chapter on Indian Men was eye opening. Basically, never be alone in a room with a man, don't look a man in the eye, don't where sleeveless shirts or you will be presumed a prostitute etc etc. Always assume that whatever you say, any gestures or basic North American politeness will be taken as some sort of sexual invitation. Female tourists will be generally ignored or harassed. Book advise - learn to avoid what can be avoided and live with what can't.

This was really only a couple of cautionary pages. Overall the book was very positive about travelling solo in India. One just has to be ready for transportation delays and impromptu festivals where people throw things at you. I think my time in Mexico will work as a primer for living in a slow moving culture. The book also mentioned (numerous times) that the people are beyond friendly and tourists will have lots of opportunities to meet Indian folk who will invite them to their homes for visits and meals. All good (unless the invitation comes from a man).

It also has interesting advice about what to wear and where to buy appropriate clothes. How to get around and how to find safe and cheap transportation - trains, cabs, cars for hire, in country flights. There was even a bird watching mention!

So I am trying not to let my pre-guide guide book scare me too much. Especially since I didn't start reading it until after I had already bought my ticket.

Shots, drinks and pills - Maybe we need rehab instead of vacation.

So Judy and I went to Nova Travel Clinic on Friday. It turned into quite the epic event, almost two hours with the nurse. I figured I must be almost immune to every travel issue on the planet by now but not so apparently.

Judy was starting fresh so she got two shots, Twinrix for Hep A&B and tetanus. I got the Twinrix to complete my Hep A, I have to go for my last booster for Hep B after I get back. We are both good for polio, rubella etc. India doesn't have Yellow Fever so I didn't need to worry about whether or not mine was still active from our Africa trip. My typhoid shot was only good for two years so I have to update that. Judy and I both decided to go for the drinkable version which is good for 4 years but apparently it is quite the regiment. Drink, day off, drink, day off, drink, day off, last drink on day 7. No food before or after, keep refrigerated. I can barely remember to go to work for a whole week, this is going to be a challenge. I think that is why they usually just do the two year shot. They even gave us a reminder bracelet (although I will just look like I am supporting Lance Armstrong) and stickers and a magnet. I wish it came with reminder phone calls too. We know who to blame if I get typhoid - Lance Armstrong!!

There was much discussion about Japanese Encephalitis, a mosquito borne nasty that is in India. Apparently there is a one in a million chance of getting it. We would have to be hanging out for extended periods in rural areas and living in a barn with the livestock, eating live mosquito salad. Plus the vaccination is almost $400 (!) for three (!) shots (!). I will be there for a shorter time than Judy so it was a no-brainer for me - no thank you. But Judy wisely weighed all of the factors and then also rejected it. I think it was the discussion about the brain swelling side effects (you lost me at "don't fly for 14 days after the last shot or you could die because they can't get you to a hospital fast enough to save you")

Then the standard rabies talk, don't touch dogs, don't play with bats (although what if I want to hang out with cricket players?). Even cats are off limits. I know they can't be serious about that though, because who can say no to a kitten, even a rabid one, if it is fluffy and big eyed.


No surgery, sex, dental work, manicures, knife fights, intravenous drugs, eye poking, vampirism. So many rules. I can handle those but the food restrictions are too much. Don't eat at street vendors (phsshh, whatever), don't eat raw veg, ice cubes, under cooked meat, eggs, food of any sort, beverages of any sort, water. I can say already that I will ignore most of that. I think Val and I were in Thailand only a few hours before we were buying food from a moving buffet table in the street in Bangkok. I can pretty much guarantee that the temperatures on that did not meet food safe recommended levels.


Cholera - something to avoid

Which leads me to the Dukoral. E-coli in a cup. Yes, despite my whining about the disgusting flavour, I will be partaking again. I only need one dose this time so at least that is better. Judy gets the full two fizzy-lisious doses.

Dukoral - poop in a cup.

Plus we each got a prescription for the don't-die-of-dehydration anti-diarheal pills but the ones I got for Africa haven't expired yet. Knock on wood, I haven't had to take them yet.

I got my ticket and it was almost painless!!

So after speaking to Ms. RBC Travel yesterday, I called them on my lunch hour (I use the term lunch HOUR loosely as this story will show). I called up new RBC guy, Abdoul. Abdoul was very pleasant and looked at the 1700 flight that I had discussed the night before. He called the 'consolidators' and was able to save me a couple of hundred bucks. Excellent. But there was no way around the overnight in Delhi. So, I said I would do it as long as I could check my bag all of the way through to Bangalore. That way I would only get robbed of my carry on. He checked and found that, no, I would have to keep my bag with me overnight in the airport and then check whatever was still in my possession in the morning onto my connecting flight to Bangalore. He suggested that there might be lockers at the Delhi airport but then he had the decency to laugh at his own suggestion. I said I would rather just buy my ticket through Flight Network and save my points if this was my only option.

Just for fun I searched for images of the Delhi Airport, Instead I found the The Guide to Sleeping in Airports website who gave Dehli the title "past worst airport winner".

After an hour of me rejecting options and whining about Delhi, Abdoul moved up several notches in the best phone service ever poll. He suggested that maybe a Vancouver departure might work. I had sort of rejected that option earlier when I was doing my own online search for tickets. I had found that to fly out of Vancouver would cost several hundred dollars more than from Victoria and I would have to get to Vancouver to boot. But at this point, I figured if it cost a bit more, it would be worth it so that I could avoid the whole Delhi issue. So Abdoul ticky ticked away on his computer for many minutes of silence and announced that he had found a ticket from Vancouver that got me into Bangalore at 1:30 AM. I don't even have to land in Delhi. Excellent. So then Awesome Abdoul asked if I wanted to know the price. He seemed almost giddy. It was three hundred dollars cheaper than the overnight Dehli option!! By now Abdoul and I were old buds so we had a over the phone high five. It turns out I am booked on the Lufthansa flight from my first attempt, the one that cost $3000 yesterday. But the consolidators came through for me. Abdoul checked the price without the consolidator and it was still almost 3K but with the consolidators, less than $1500 minus my $1200 in points = only $240 out of my pocket. Yeah!!!

I can't seem too happy here so I will add a Air Canada rant just because I can. When Abdoul went in to see if he could book my seats, he said that he could reserve my seat from Frankfurt to Bangalore because it was with Lufthansa however the Van to Toronto and Toronto to Frankfort legs he couldn't reserve because the actual airline is Air Canada. Arrrrg. Stupid Air Canada doesn't let you reserve ahead. Many of you may remember my last encounter with AC so you will know I wasn't too keen about flying with them but the price is right so I will survive (hopefully).

Before we locked in the booking, I had Abdoul check how much it would be to throw on a connector from Victoria to Vancouver since I was going to be on Air Canada anyway. Ok, remember, my ticket from Van to India is $1485. Add in Victoria to Vancouver - drum rollll - $2300+. $800 more!. Honestly. Another good laugh with my new best friend Abdoul. One more travel agent to add to the list of AC haters. We are legion. Any way, Abdoul checked the price of a ticket from Victoria to Vancouver without the official connector status. Air Canada price - almost $500. I would rather swim there than pay that so I left that leg of my journey open for now.

So, e-ticket in email inbox, I finally officially requested my previously unofficial vacation time and it was officially approved by Lynda and all is well in the world except for an extra long lunch 'hour'. I will make up the time, I promise.

Next on my to do list - travel clinic. I can't wait for the liquid e-coli raspberry delight beverage mix - yum.