So many destination, faces going to so many places

 This is another boring post about the actual ins and outs of travel.

I'm someone who loves airports. Genuinely. I love how they move, the energy, the life. I love all the different amenities offered in different places (and what some consider an amenity). I love the art. I love how an airport is a tiny capsule of the city you're in as if they're aware that this may be your only interaction with this city so why not make a good impression? I have cities I would like to visit simply because their airports are top notch.

SeaTac is not one of those airports. It is a brutalist hellscape. The website promises light and art and a Pearl Jam exhibit. It boasts about being the Best Airport in North America according to Skytrax. These things are all lies. I firmly believe they paid off whoever was surveyed for Skytrax. 

 

Navigating this airport is very difficult. There are few to no wayfaring markers or signs. There are two train loops (to be fair, the train is speedy) to get to the other side of the airport but they really lead nowhere. Finding somewhere to eat is nigh on impossible. If you want a charging port, good luck - I walked every available inch of that airport and found five. Most of the retail and dining options are in a terminal that is a 10 minute walk from the last train stop on either loop. You really earn your US $19 Impossible burger! Finding your gate is even worse - the terminals are labelled very differently from the actual gates. Thankfully the staff is helpful and seems quite accustomed to these kinds of questions. And the Pearl Jam exhibit? I think I may have found it before security but I have no idea. There was a wall with album art by a local artist that I've never seen, that all had to do with Pearl Jam. 

The flight I'm taking to Doha has an hour and a half to connect. That's not a lot of time and when we somehow lose half an hour in the air it becomes even less. I'm not allowing myself to stress out because that won't help anyone. I've been assured that there is enough time (their minimum connection time is in the neighbourhood of 50 minutes for an international flight). Breathe and trust the process.

 

It doesn't take long to figure out why there is such a narrow MCT - you don't get a passport stamp in Doha. If you are only transiting and not leaving the airport, you do not get a visa. Fair enough, I guess but I do love my passport stamps. A quick jaunt through security and I'm in an airport fully decked out for FIFA World Cup. It is a big and airy airport with excellent wayfaring and people movement. Efficient to a fault. Clean and somehow bright but eternally dusk at the same time. It's not long before I'm off to Amman!

I don't have a lot to say about the Amman airport. The inbound corridors are designed to keep you on a path to customs and immigration and they do a great job of that. There is a curious sign directing those coming in for medical tourism in one direction but we'll get to that eventually. The one thing I will say as a positive is that when you get into the arrivals hall there are several kiosks you can buy a sim card from. They're not fly by night places either, they're from the same mobile providers that Jordanians use every day. The pricing is unbelievably cheap and the staff is excellent. 

After China I learned that if there is an airport transfer available from the tour company (and you don't speak the language well enough/feel comfortable enough to navigate a cab), take it. I met my driver and set out for a night time drive through Amman to get to my hotel on the opposite side of the city.

Next: Holy crap I'm in Jordan.

Scrambled eggs, oh you've got such lovely legs

 Here we are, set for 2022's birthday adventure.

The lead up to this trip has a lot of twists and turns. Initially I was to fly Calgary - Toronto - Doha - Amman on Qatar Airways. This was cancelled by the airline and I was offered a refund and compensation (are you paying attention, Canada?). I chose to rebook Seattle - Doha - Amman because I still wanted to fly Qatar and hey - I work for an airline and I love adventure! I can get to Seattle!

The plan to fly direct to Seattle was kiboshed by my own cheapness. I didn't want to pay full fair or 50% off to get there so I flew standby to Vancouver. The hope was to get to Vancouver on one of the earlier flights and catch a bus to Seattle. There was a small buffer built in to this plan to catch any one of three flights to Vancouver. I ended up on the first one which was great - but my bag was on the second one. It was only about an hour later but man that sucked; it reduced my bus options by half. By the time my bag got to Vancouver an hour or so later, I was confused with all my contingency plans and got on the wrong Skytrain. Instead of taking the bus to Seattle, Google Maps got me well and lost through a seedy park in a construction zone under an overpass to get to a train station. At the train station, there are two bus options and the train itself. The train station was very poorly signed and instead of taking the bus, I ended up on a train. 

The upside of being on a train is that they are HUGE. They also generally take scenic routes through the back sides of towns you don't normally see. When they get to a station, there is no room for nonsense - you're either there and on the train or you're not.  The downside is they take over an hour to go about 4 km inside city limits. They also have shitty wifi.

My birthday always lands on or around an election in the US. This is odd to me but then again so is their entire election system. That said, I do like the placement of ballot drop boxes at transit stations.

I didn't want to get a closer/better picture of it because it is dark and Americans are kind of crazy when it comes to politics. I was honestly surprised there weren't people out there blocking access/protesting/"protecting" it with guns. I don't support the insanity but I do support the access.

At this point, it's about 2230 and it starts to Seattle - it is now drizzling and all I would like to do is get to a bed. Google maps once again gets me lost on what should be a fairly straight path to a hotel. To be fair, it does get me on a straight path that would work either two weeks before my trip or in another year or so: it leads me to a road blocked by construction. It's a dang conspiracy to get me to take a cab. I manage to find my way to the hotel and get a good night's sleep and breakfast. 

Next: well, someone lied and onward.

Blues? What blues? I forgot them

 I admit this wasn't the most exciting of birthday trips. They don't all need to be. There was a lot to take in to account this year from budget to a pandemic. Canada requires a PCR test in order to be let back in to the country, which is expensive. Travel is expensive and we know we need this test so we have to include it in the budget. If we can't afford it, we can't travel; the alternative is heavy fines and potential jail time, which cost a lot more than $125 USD. 

I make lists when I pack. I want to make sure I don't forget anything. Yes, there are usually shops wherever I go but if need be I'd like to go with what I have. So I list everything and cross it off as I pack it. This process usually includes doing a lot of laundry before the trip, unless it is an item I know for sure is clean. For example, I was very sure my swimsuits were clean because I haven't worn then since I got home from Australia. Shorts? I was able to wear those nearly every day until this trip so they went into the laundry. Shirts? Unless it was hanging in my closet, I'm putting it in the laundry. It's a whole process. I even put on things like which chargers to take and which bag things are going in. I leave nothing to chance. I'm usually packed the night before so I can get some good sleep (haha, no I don't get good sleep but that's another tale for another time). I'm so confident in my lists that I don't need to double check them. This will change from now on as I put sunglasses on the list to go in my laptop bag and promptly forgot to pack them. I went to a sun destination with no sunglasses.

I did remember to bring James. He had a dang great time at the resort!

 

 We drank ridiculous tiny coffees on the balcony every morning before room service brought tea.

We had two drinks with breakfast each morning.

Small aside: bloody marys are strange. Tasty enough but strange. They're basically watered down tomato sauce with spices. 

We hung out in the pool. This was most of the time. Hang out in the pool, eat, have a drink, hang out by the pool, eat, have a drink. Go in the pool, have a drink.

 

We went on the lazy river! This was really nice, even the buckets of water that got dumped were nice.

 

We went on a catamaran! Just kidding. We don't do boats.

We hung out on the beach! They brought us food and drinks.

Of course, James and a palm tree.

One of the easy selling points of this resort was the unlimited food and drinks. This doesn't necessarily mean alcoholic drinks; I had many that were non-alcoholic. Probably more than the alcoholic ones. The novelty of sitting by a pool or on a beach and have someone bring me a drink and food was not worn off by the time I left. 

After the rain, the weather was consistently nice. Sunny and warm and everything you'd expect from Mexico.

Next: 41, somehow.

Trying to cach a deluge in a paper cup

Travelling during a pandemic is weird. There is a lot of information from a lot of sources and a lot of those sources are very reliable but the information is outdated, incomplete, or irrelevant. It's hard to sort through things like vaccine and quarantine requirements, mask mandates, COVID testing, pre-entry requirements, visa requirements, and so forth. Some of the information is very easy to find for Americans but I'm not American. 

It took a lot of searching but I found out that all travellers to Mexico needed to fill in a pre-entry questionnaire no more than 12 hours before departure. I have no issue doing this. I have issue with the fact it is a requirement and it is nowhere to be found on the Mexican government's site, nor Air Canada Vacations' site. Ultimately I completed it and got my QR code. This was scanned on arrival at Cancun Airport. I also had to fill in a landing card and keep a portion of it as well under threat of heavy fine. This is why my passport holder has another pocket! 

I also needed a QR code from the Alberta government as proof of vaccination. Easy peasy! What was less easy was the nosy woman at the Air Canada check in desk who looked in my passport holder while I searched for the QR code on my phone and tried to accuse me of faking my vaccine record because I have a yellow Health Canada Record of Prophylaxis. Apparently there is "no such thing as a Health Canada Record for COVID-19 and you will face serious jail time and a huge fine for faking such a document." I was too busy making sure I found the right QR code on my phone to understand what she was saying so I asked her to please repeat herself. She did, in a very testy manner. I showed her the code on my phone for COVID-19 and asked if I needed to show my yellow fever for Mexico as well. She looked at me very cross and said that no, but fake vaccine passports aren't accepted and I clearly had a fake vaccine passport. Minor panic! I asked her if there was a problem with the scan and she said no but there was with the yellow paper in my passport. I took it out and showed her it was a yellow fever vaccine record from seven years ago and she didn't have a lot more to say. 

Travelling during a pandemic is weird. 

After all of this, I get to Mexico!

 

 

Cancun airport is chaos. More than any airport I've been to, people are trying to sell you things. It is loud and confusing and growing ever muggier the closer I get to outside. (That? That's called foreshadowing.)  When I was a travel agent and we booked people for transfers we told them to look for people in bright orange shirts. I saw those people! They were not the people I needed.

Nowhere on my information from Air Canada Vacations does it mention my transfer to the resort. I eventually find what I thought was the transport, given that it said AMResorts but was informed it was not. Thankfully the man I spoke with walked me over to where I needed to be.  

I get to the resort and get checked in. I'm greeted warmly with a glass of prosseco. It is lovely. I get to my room and change into shorts. It's dark now but that's alright. I check out my options for dinner and one of the restaurants has barbecue. That sounds like a great plan! I go down to the restaurant and wait in line for the barbecue. And then there is thunder.

The skies unleashed a walloping of rain. Sheets and sheets poured down for about an hour. Thankfully we were under a glass canopy! Less thankful that every walking surface of the resort (except near the pools) was made of marble or tile of some sort and I was in my Havianas. The barbecue was great!

Next: Adventures with James!

Open your heart let the life blood flow

 It has been two years since I've travelled. I don't like that. 

There's been a few reasons why - primarily a global pandemic. Don't get me wrong, we're not out of the pandemic yet but there is a vaccine and enough safety measures in place to make travel possible again. These didn't happen over night and didn't come a moment too soon. 

The plan was to go on a small trip to Mexico for my actual 40th and then my "birthday trip" in February - a cruise to Antarctica. This plan was cancelled and refunded (the cruise portion - the Mexico portion wasn't anything more than an idea) thanks to the pandemic. 

All things considered, it's probably better that I didn't travel for my 40th birthday. Even without the pandemic it would have felt more like running away. There would have been very little draw to return. Shortly before my birthday last year, my best friend died. Then on my birthday, Alex Trebek died. I didn't have any personal attachment to Alex Trebek but it didn't help the grief.

So now it is 2021, we can move a little freer, nobody important has died in the last two weeks. Things are looking up in my world! I booked a trip to Dreams Natura. I've sold AM Resorts a lot as a travel agent and figured this is the right time to check them out. I book through Air Canada Vacations which may have been my folly; there is limited to zero communication when I need it, including things like transfers.

The day of travel, I actually got some sleep! This is rare but it happened. It wasn't a lot of sleep but it was sleep none the less. The plan was to be on a bus at 0549. For a multitude of reasons this plan did not go through. I did not panic because I also had an alternate plan and an emergency back up plan. I ended up at the airport half an hour later than I planned. 

 YYC is generally a good airport. You can navigate it quickly, the people are friendly, things make sense, security is speedy. This is not pre-pandemic YYC. Pandemic-YYC is a shit show.  The domestic terminals are empty. Yes, it is early in the morning, but there should be at least business travellers. There is no one. It is eerie. As with all things airports, there is a reason for this; the airport will tell you they're streaming everyone through the international terminal to reduce exposure. The airlines will tell you it's because people quit due to the vaccine mandates and there isn't enough staff. I don't think either is true.

 

There was a bear at the Banff Springs Hotel!

At check-in, I managed to get an upgrade to business class just by asking. This sounds pretty excellent! I get lounge access and meals on board (as opposed to my plan of getting Subway and eating it halfway through the flight). And then......security.

Usually at YYC - especially in the morning - security is a breeze. 20 minutes to half an hour in line, done. No big deal. This time? Over an hour. Both domestic and international travel was all filtered through the same security check point. Add in people who don't know how/forgot how to travel, and it was a nightmare. If this was for reduced COVID exposure, they are doing it wrong: hundreds of people crammed in an area with little to no social distancing. Someone at the front is upset they have to dig through their carry-on to pull out their laptop. Someone else is upset they have to take off their belt and jacket. These are not new requirements! They have been around since the dawn of man! There are even signs! I feel bad for the CATSA people working and having to put up with these idiots.

Eventually I got through and had about 10 minutes in the lounge. It is a hike from the gate to the lounge but damn if I wasn't going to do it. 

I got on the plane and settled in. The woman who sat beside me had the absolute audacity to ask if I'd consider moving back to coach. Apparently, her and her husband always have these seats but Air Canada said their dog-in-a-carry-on wouldn't fit between them (but would fit in coach), so her husband had to give up the seat. When she sat down, her husband made a comment about the dog absolutely being able to fit but if coach is the answer he'd sit in coach. The dog probably could have fit between the seats but I wasn't giving it up. The woman was not happy and made a terrible seat mate. I was watching Canada's Drag Race and she asked me not to as it offended her. I smiled behind my Pride mask and asked if she had a problem with gays. She stumbled over her answer and I suggested that if she did, maybe she should watch something straight on her own screen because mine was going to be be gay as hell. When breakfast came, she asked if I could please not eat my maple butter pancakes while she was there because the smell was too sweet for her. I told her I can't eat omelettes so I didn't have any other choice. The Baileys on ice I ordered was "so cheap looking, not what she was paying for in business class." I told it was a good thing she wasn't drinking it or paying for it. Everything I did she had an issue with. I didn't care! I was in business class and she wasn't going to take that away from me.

The flight was bumpy almost the whole time. The combination of this and me forgetting my sunglasses (yup - go to a sun destination and forget your sunglasses!!!) lead to a massive headache on my part. The service in business class was reduced and the seats were not lay flats. Overall it was a meh experience. Glad it didn't cost me more than asking a simple question.

Next: Viva la Mexico!

Armed with will and determination

It's been a second, again.

I will fully admit that three quarters of my purpose of going to Perth was so I could go to Rottnest Island. All I knew about this island that there are quokkas.

Thing is, as I'm sure you can tell by the name, Rottnest Island is indeed an island. It's a 45 minute ferry ride from Hillary's Boat Harbour. "Ferry" is just fancy for boat. And as we learned from my last trip to Australia, I'm not so good on boats. As with every trip on boats I seem to take, the day started early. I had no idea how long it would take to get a cab or how long for a cab to get there, so I was early to the harbour. I thought there would be coffee - there was not. On the ferry they were showing Mr. Bean but there wasn't any sound. Didn't matter because me being me, I was in the washroom throwing up. Good times.

Rotto is not a large island. I got a bus ticket for the hop on hop off and I'm glad I did. At most of the stops, there were volunteer tour guides! They were very knowledgeable. One of the guides told us about the Rottnest Island daisy, a native flower that isn't actually a daisy, it's a member of the carrot family.

He hadn't seen them for many years and was very happy to see the two that we did. Apparently they used to cover the island for a couple weeks a year so it looked blue from the higher points.

One of the higher points is Wadjemup Lighthouse. There are apparently two lighthouses but you need a bike to get to the second one.

Wadjemup is an aboriginal word meaning "place across the water where the spirits are".
The Island is considered to be a place of transition between the physical and spiritual world and the spirit of the deceased is believed to travel to Wadjemup during its journey towards to the afterlife. When the spirit is ready to leave the physical world it moves to the west end of the Island, where the whale takes the spirit on to its final resting place known as Kooranup, located on the horizon in the deep ocean west of the Island. There is a Whadjuk Noongar burial on the site, though I didn't choose to pursue access (or even if I could).

I'm well aware that no one is reading this and everyone just wants to see pictures of quokka. We're getting there.

I stopped at a spot called Little Salmon Bay at Parker's Point. There were enough people on the beach and in the water that it was nice. The water was a little cooler than I expected but so very clear. I also learned an important lesson here: Havianas are buoyant. They want to float. They want to float right off your feet! I managed to get it back and take them both off before I had no shoes to speak of for the rest of the day.

Looking back at the pictures I had to work hard to figure out if my foot in the water picture was on my phone or on my camera.

 Really, the water was this clear!

Quokka? Quokka.

Quokka are marsupials that live mostly only on this island. There is a teensy population on the coast of the mainland in WA, but far away from Perth (and I don't think they're native to the area).

Further up Parker Point is a snorkelling trail. There are plaques under the water to guide you on and teach you about the marine life in the area. Very cool!

More quokka? James and a quokka!

There are signs everywhere saying don't touch the quokka, don't feed the quokka, the quokka are wild animals, please give them space. This did not stop people from touching, feeding, and crowding the quokka. I was getting very irritated! I put James in the general area of the quokka and they came to him.

My main google searches in the day before this side trip mostly concerned if I could see a quokka this time of year (yes), where (everywhere), and if they're humanely kept (they're wild).

I also saw a lizard.

Not a big lizard, bit a lizard nonetheless. I let it be.

The water is just beautiful. In the far distance, you can see Perth.

The island is mostly accessible by the hop on hop off bus, which do a great job for the price. The only other motor vehicles I saw were government. Everyone else was on a bike and it was so nice to see.

It was getting to the end of the day and I was on the opposite end of the island. There are four ferries a day from each company that runs them - two in the morning to get there and two on the way back. I hadn't taken the "early" ferry back because it was my birthday and I wanted more time on this amazing little island. So I went to my favourite spot in Little Armstrong Bay and took one last picture.

I was smart enough on the return to get a seat on the top deck of the ferry for the return. I was right at the side of the boat as well, so the open and the wind helped a lot. I didn't get sea sick! I was also napping.

Quokka.

Next: Anatomically correct.

Straight on till morning

Have I mentioned the CAT yet? I can't remember.

The Central Area Transit is made up of four colour coded routes that get you all over the central area of Perth. They're free as well! You don't need a hop on hop off bus tour at all. The CAT is frequent and goes pretty much anywhere you would want to as a tourist. There is a bit of overlap in the heart of the CBD which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Transperth also runs a CAT in Fremantle, but we will get there in due time.

I took a nice walk along the Swan River. Did I get lost? Not "lost" as much as "didn't know there wasn't a way off the path". Whoops. It was a lovely path and a lovely walk but it did not get me to where I wanted to be. Their river is very wide! I honestly thought Perth was a shore city.

When Mom visited Perth many years ago, she went to Queens Gardens. This is a wonderful oasis in the middle of the city. It isn't far at all from the Western Australia Cricket Association. It also happens to be a stop on the Red CAT.

Ever since I arrived, Mom was asking if I went to King's Park. When I did, she was very excited and asked if I saw the swans! No, but I did see a duck. "No, the swans in the pond by Peter Pan!"
So I set out to find Peter Pan, because he wasn't in King's Park.

Arriving at Queens Gardens, you need to go through a wrought iron gate. If you're like me and a gate generally means something is closed, you follow a local and be ready to plead ignorance. Once inside, the garden is full of green grass, swans, ponds, and lily pads.

There was even a gosling!

In front of this was the Peter Pan statue Mom was so excited about!

James and Peter.

This feels like the right time to talk about the grass in Perth.

In the parks, the grass is green and beautiful. It is also very short and coarse, for lack of a better word. Perth isn't a very rainy city, and Australia isn't a very wet country. It would be fair to think the grass in the parks is astroturf.

Looks fake, right? Kinda feels fake too. I can assure you it is not. I don't know how they grow it and how it's not brown, but it is not fake. I may have tugged some up to check.

Next: Birthday on the Indian Ocean!