Due Vagabondi: 9 Weeks Backpacking SE Asia

Transparency: This post is being written in 2020 as we did not have a blog in 2016. I am using stay at home time to flatten the curve of the global pandemic Covid-19 to organize photos from this trip into a post. Memories may not be exact.

Retirement is time for a change. Paul has been retired for a couple of years. Finally, it's my turn.

It's a time to simplify and to realize our dream of full-time travel. It takes several years to prepare: selling not only a big four-bedroom house on acreage stuffed full of a lifetime of mementos, personal collections and all the recreational toys accumulated over the years. There are several garage sales, much selling through a Facebook site and many giveaways to friends and the thrift stores. At first, there are some tears and many questions about what we are doing, but over time as more "stuff" is shed we feel lighter and happier.

The House is the First to Go

The feral cat who adopted our home and eventually chose us as her family can stay, as the people who bought our home have decided they want to adopt her.

This nine-week trip to SE Asia is a first step out of our comfort zone. Neither of us has ever travelled outside of North America. Our well-travelled friends Nancy, Peter and John offer many tips and words of experience that give us confidence that we can do this. In the end, we loved every minute of the trip and return to Canada more sure than ever that we need to keep divesting things and not stray from this path.

A quote from Anthony Bourdain sums up some of our feelings about travel: “Travel is about the gorgeous feeling of teetering in the unknown.”

Many of these items go later. The RV is our home for over a year as down-sizing continues

So our final days before this trip are:

February 26, 2016 - last day of work

February 27, 2016 - take all work clothes to the local thrift shop

February 28, 2016 - pack up and clean where we have been house-sitting

February 29, 2016 - bus to Vancouver

March 1, 2016 - fly to Bangkok

Bangkok, Thailand is the transportation hub for SE Asia. Part I of the post is here, then it's on to Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and other parts of Thailand over nine weeks.

We find our way to the famous Khao San Road where we have a hostel room booked. Our good friends Anne and Jeff are in Bangkok as they have been many times over the years. It's a great orientation to the city for us newbies.

From Bangkok, I remember the great, inexpensive, new and different (scorpions, bugs, etc) street food and the endless nights of Khao San Road; coming to love soup for breakfast; loving the cool of a cheap, big Chang beer in the humid heat of the city; the hustle of the tuk-tuk drivers and their connections to various shops that needed to be avoided in the name of time if nothing else; the beautiful temples and the variety of statues of Buddha; the markets; people living on and over the water; the love the people had for their king and his presence everywhere; being refused entry to the King's Palace for inappropriate clothing (Paul in shorts); all of the ethnicities in this crossroads of the world and above all the feeling of being welcome here.

Mostly we just hung with our friends for a few days, then flew to Cambodia.