It had been my intention to return to Thailand in November, for a holiday, free from the usual work at the Orphanage. Because of the heated words and unbalanced minds of the North Korean leader, and his chief antagonist, mr Trump (small mr intended), I wanted to avoid the six to ten hours that one would normally be in the immediate danger zone, in an aircraft,if it came to actions, rather than nasty words. The falling debris from an August missile test missed one flight by ten minutes. The flight had just passed the zone of impact by about 60 miles. While it is, in my view, unlikely to happen, I do not wish to take the chance at this time.
In July, I received an email from United Airlines, informing me of the large pool of points on my file, and asking me to use or lose them by May 2018. I have been able to accomplish both objectives.
I am departing Ottawa on November 01, at 10;25 P.M., (2225), and flying with Air Canada to London. This is a trip of about six and a half hours. After about two and a half hours in London, I will take a Thai Airways flight direct to Bangkok. This will take about eleven and a half hours. It will be the first time I have traveled to Asia with only one stop, from Ottawa. It will also take about ten hours off the travel time. I will arrive in Bangkok at 0615 on the morning of November 03.
The return flight will be the same route and carriers, departing Bangkok on December 07, however, because we are then going into head winds all the way home, (usually prevailing westerlies), we will be almost two hours longer going into London, and over an hour longer to Ottawa. I depart Bangkok just after midnight, 0015, and arrive Ottawa at 3;15, (1515), on the afternoon of the same day. That makes for one very long day!.
United, Air Canada, and Thai Airlines are all part of a consortium of about 31 carriers known as "Star Alliance". These carriers all work together to make travel quite "Seamless", and use accumulated points interchangeably. That is why I am travelling on a free ticket, with these two airlines,with no United involvement, with airport taxes the only out of pocket expense.
Later in October, probably around the 20th, I will do an update as to what I will be doing, including some work on my Thai family' farm, and doing water park things in the Mekong river nearby, with the kids.....all of us.
Sunday 24 September 2017
Saturday 2 September 2017
Ottawa, September 2, 2017
In my (un)biased opinion, the only good thing that I can say about Toronto is the fact that it is 500 kilometers from where I live. More about that later.
We spent a great afternoon at the Heritage Park in South West Calgary, and took the old trai ride and finished the visit with the paddle wheel boat on the Glenmore reservoir. The weather was ideal for the activities. The following morning, we drove to Edmonton, with a three hour stop in Red Deer for shopping. We spent Tuesday evening with former work associates from Yellowknife. A very nice touch to a most enjoyable two week vacation. When I returned the car to Enterprise on Wednesday morning, we found that we had completed 3134 kilometers in the two weeks. Amazing. We found prices within the parks to be outrageous, but since the federal government was gaining the tax money, there was no attempt to control prices, even though it was in and on Federal property. Would you pay over one hundred dollars for a canoe rental at Lake Louise..for one hour?. Hotels that offered rooms at eighty dollars a night last summer were up to three hundred this year, and the streets were lined with cars bearing plates from south of the border. At the Icefields, sandwiches were nine dollars each.
We stayed outside the parks and drove in each day.
Thursday morning, we took the shuttle to the airport at Edmonton, and checked in for our flight to Toronto. All went as scheduled until we got to Toronto. Our Westjet aircraft had to wait ten minutes at the assigned gate for someone to marshall the aircraft up to the bridge. We then waited just over an hour for the luggage to get on the belt. After we did get our luggage, we waited another hour for the shuttle bus to get to us...it was 15 minutes away when we got our luggage. The scene outside terminal three was nothing short of chaos. taxis, limos, and shuttle buses, along with private cars were all fighting for space and passengers. People were leaving their vehicles to go look for passengers, and during our more than one hour there, not once did an airport authority or security person come near the assigned pickup location. Absolute madness. We took the shuttle back to the terminal one location the next morning at noon. It was more civil at the departure gate. My friend went to check in for the Air Canada flight home to Warsaw, I took the train downtown to Union Station. Union station has been under modifications and renewals for nearly three years, and is a mess, no better than when renovations started. Luggage carts are not allowed in Union Station, so one must carry all luggage by hand. VIA did depart and arrive on time for my trip to Ottawa. In typical VIA thinking, they are now integrating new cars into the system...each new car is half facing forward seats, and half facing backwards...a good reason not to use them unless one must....there is still the bus. No wonder, Toronto has loosing Baseball, soccer, basketball and hockey teams....peoples interests are never taken into consideration.
I will be back by the end of September with plans for my next trip to Asia...probably via Europe due to the situation with North Korea. I do not want to spend six hours flying within the missile landing zones of their rockets....which are never advertised in advance as required by law.
We spent a great afternoon at the Heritage Park in South West Calgary, and took the old trai ride and finished the visit with the paddle wheel boat on the Glenmore reservoir. The weather was ideal for the activities. The following morning, we drove to Edmonton, with a three hour stop in Red Deer for shopping. We spent Tuesday evening with former work associates from Yellowknife. A very nice touch to a most enjoyable two week vacation. When I returned the car to Enterprise on Wednesday morning, we found that we had completed 3134 kilometers in the two weeks. Amazing. We found prices within the parks to be outrageous, but since the federal government was gaining the tax money, there was no attempt to control prices, even though it was in and on Federal property. Would you pay over one hundred dollars for a canoe rental at Lake Louise..for one hour?. Hotels that offered rooms at eighty dollars a night last summer were up to three hundred this year, and the streets were lined with cars bearing plates from south of the border. At the Icefields, sandwiches were nine dollars each.
We stayed outside the parks and drove in each day.
Thursday morning, we took the shuttle to the airport at Edmonton, and checked in for our flight to Toronto. All went as scheduled until we got to Toronto. Our Westjet aircraft had to wait ten minutes at the assigned gate for someone to marshall the aircraft up to the bridge. We then waited just over an hour for the luggage to get on the belt. After we did get our luggage, we waited another hour for the shuttle bus to get to us...it was 15 minutes away when we got our luggage. The scene outside terminal three was nothing short of chaos. taxis, limos, and shuttle buses, along with private cars were all fighting for space and passengers. People were leaving their vehicles to go look for passengers, and during our more than one hour there, not once did an airport authority or security person come near the assigned pickup location. Absolute madness. We took the shuttle back to the terminal one location the next morning at noon. It was more civil at the departure gate. My friend went to check in for the Air Canada flight home to Warsaw, I took the train downtown to Union Station. Union station has been under modifications and renewals for nearly three years, and is a mess, no better than when renovations started. Luggage carts are not allowed in Union Station, so one must carry all luggage by hand. VIA did depart and arrive on time for my trip to Ottawa. In typical VIA thinking, they are now integrating new cars into the system...each new car is half facing forward seats, and half facing backwards...a good reason not to use them unless one must....there is still the bus. No wonder, Toronto has loosing Baseball, soccer, basketball and hockey teams....peoples interests are never taken into consideration.
I will be back by the end of September with plans for my next trip to Asia...probably via Europe due to the situation with North Korea. I do not want to spend six hours flying within the missile landing zones of their rockets....which are never advertised in advance as required by law.
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