The Travelonians

Luggage.   What size?   Hard case or duffel?   Roller or backpack?   Lots of issues when deciding but especially when travelling for 3 months.   We know it's impossible to carry 3 months’ worth of clothes and because we will be in Southeast Asia, we know the coldest temperatures will be in North Vietnam at around 16-20C.   Also, a good portion of our transportation will be local buses and trains so our luggage will have to be as small as possible, rugged, and light.   After weighing all of the variables, we decided to bring a week’s worth of clothes, with a light jacket and a couple of pairs of footwear, namely sandals and walking shoes. So, now what…..?    Here’s what we know about luggage. We know there are 4 basic categories of luggage: t he suitcase with 4 wheels or 2 wheels, the duffle bag, the traditional backpack, and some hybrids or combinations.   The most interesting of the hybrids have 2 wheels and decent attach...

And the research continues…… We had to find a secure way to navigate the internet while travelling. Almost every day you read about internet security lapses or breaches of personal information. Since we will be connecting mostly on public Wi-Fi networks, we wanted to find a way to keep our information secure at all times. We think it’s important to ensure that your data is encrypted in order to protect your credit card numbers, passwords, and usernames on public Wi-Fi networks . Public Wi-fi networks are always vulnerable. There are several VPN providers offering this service which can be free or have a monthly fee. After reading the good and bad on a free service, we opted to pay for the service to make sure that our data will be safe, and that the VPN will be effective in as many locations as possible. When choosing our VPN provider, we also looked for a service that could be used on all of our devices at the same time and accessible in most countries. Now that we are secure, ...

Once you have decided which countries you are visiting, it's time to see what VISA requirements you need to enter each country. This is very important, and even points of entry can change requirements. Entering at an airport can be different than an overland border crossing.   More research.   I will not get into the intricacies of visas, but the government of Canada's travel website has information on the visiting countries and provides information for each as do the countries themselves.   It is also a good idea to register with the Canadian government under "Travelling Abroad" to let them know you will be in those countries in case of an emergency. Next step, do you need vaccinations to enter these countries?   I recommend that you visit a doctor/nurse specializing in travel. They will be able to assess vaccines you may require depending on where and what kind of trip you will be making.   For instance, if you are spending 3 months in the jungle, yo...

The obvious question…where do we go? We spent many summer evenings drinking some cold sangrias discussing destinations. There are many factors which come into play but let's just say follow your heart and budget. For us, South East Asia was the choice, we haven't been there, the weather is good, and it is relatively inexpensive. South America was another possibility, and we will likely revisit it next year. Our original thought was to spend a month in each country, concentration on beaches and comfortable living but as usual, the lure of hard travelling always seems to prevail. So, we decided on Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. The first step was to start monitoring air travel websites for alerts and special offers on flights to Bangkok. We soon received an email that Air China had flights for $850 round trip going through Beijing (with a long layover). We decided that this would probably be the best deal we would see, so we booked. We were right, flights...

Okay, let’s take care of some necessary business-like introductions and a little background. We are Johanne and Ed , a Canadian retired couple in their ‘60s who are not quite ready for rocking chairs and safe food.  In our previous working lives, we did some extensive travelling, visiting 20 or so countries on trips that usually, like most people, lasted up to three weeks. But the urge to travel like hippies never left us, and now that we have some time and energy, well, we’re heading down the highway and looking for adventure (apologies to Steppenwolf). We’re not talking backpacking and hostels, more like “flashpacking” and two or three-star hotels and guesthouses, travelling for at least three months and having a very loose itinerary. We plan to pick a destination and make most of the trip up as we go, staying longer (or less) at places and changing itineraries on the fly. The thing is, we travel well as a couple. We complement each other under the pressure of a cris...