2008 - Washington DC
2010 - Cuba
2011 - DR, Bermuda, & Cruise
2012 - DR & Costa Rica
2013 - Cruise, CR, & USA
2014 - SE Asia
The Year Off 2015 - 2016
- Preamble
- Thailand & Malaysia
- Italy
- Germany, Belgium, & Lux
- Czech, Poland, & Germany
- Austria, Slovakia, & Hungary
- Slovenia, Croatia, Austria & Germany
- England & Scotland
- Turkey
- Colombia
- Peru: Lima & Amazon
- Peru: Cusco & Inca Trail
- Peru: Cusco to Lima
- Mexico, Guatemala, & Belize
- New Zealand
- Australia & Thailand
2017 - The Balkans
2017 - Hungary, Romania, & Switzerland
2018 - New York
2018 - Amsterdam, Poland, & The Baltics
2019 - Costa Rica
2019 - France
2020 - Thailand
2023 - Mexico
2023 - Iceland & Cruise
2024 - Philippines
2025 - Japan
2025 - Iceland
Short Trips
Lists
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|
Once I knew that my company was being sold I started planning for my year
off. I knew Europe was going to be a place I spent a bunch of time. Problem
was the weather doesn't get nice there until later in the year. So I booked
a month long trip to Thailand starting the first week of March. That would
allow me to travel for a month and then get back to Canada to turn over my
apartment, then leave for Europe. For this month I did not plan or book too much ahead of time. I knew I wanted to get my SCUBA certifications and do some diving. A co-worker had mentioned the island of Koh Tao, which was apparently THE place to get it. I also want to see some of the islands and basically take it easy. |
| March 7, 2015 - Saturday | Bangkok | Thailand |
|
Flying into Bangkok was the normal 24 hours of travel, and since I can't
sleep on planes I was exhausted. I arrived around midnight and then it took
an hour or two to get through customs and the taxi ride to the hotel. I
actually screwed up here. I arrived at the hotel around one or two am on
March 7th. I had a hotel booked for March 7th. Stupid me should have booked
the hotel for March 6th, since check in on the 7th wasn't until two in the
afternoon or something. Luckily the hotel had a vacancy so I was able to get
a room and crash.
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| March 8, 2015 - Sunday | Bangkok | Thailand |
|
I had a couple of days in Bangkok, and I walked around a lot. Explored the
area around my hotel and some the malls (they have great malls with tons of
food options).
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| March 9, 2015 - Monday | Bangkok | Thailand |
|
More walking around Bangkok.
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| March 10, 2015 - Tuesday | Koh Samui | Thailand |
|
I flew to Koh Samui, an island south of Bangkok. A business class ticket was
only slightly more expensive than economy, but I decide to try it. It was
about a fifty minute flight, and about 2 minutes after take off while still
ascending the stewardess started preparing and serving a full meal. Not bad!
and certainly better service than the crappy airlines in Canada. Koh Samui is a fairly large island and the boat to Koh Tao leaves from here. ‘Koh’ means island. I booked a hostel on the north coast. Since I hate taxis I decided to walk from the airport to the hostel. I forget how long it took, maybe an hour or hour and a half. My luggage was a small gym bag and my backpack, so that wasn't a problem. The hostel was run by a very nice young lady and was new, so in good shape. For less than ten dollars I had bed in a pod type thing. It's hard to describe, but the room had six pods. It was a bit stuffy but otherwise okay, and it was only for one night. |
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| March 11, 2015 - Wednesday | Koh Tao | Thailand |
|
In the morning I went to the ferry terminal and caught the ferry to Koh Tao.
I had not made any arrangements before arriving at Koh Tao, but had
researched a couple of diving companies. I saw a sign for one of them (Big
Blue Diving) and a guy took me and a couple other people in his pickup truck
to their office. I lucked out, they had a class starting in about half an
hour and room in their resort. It was a shared four person room, but it was
included in the cost of the diving program and in good shape so it worked
out great. There was also a restaurant onsite that had amazing Thai food.
Our instructor was an English guy named Steve (SteveO). He was a great instructor. He had a divemaster-in-training assisting him who was also pretty cool. That first night on the island was spent on theory in their class room. I should mention that I had previously certified as a PADI open water diver back when I was fifteen or so. I could have just taken a one day refresher course but since it had been so long ago I wanted to go through the full course. I found the theory and course pretty easy, but had a great time. We did the SSI course instead of the PADI course, as that is what the school promotes. |
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| March 12, 2015 - Thursday | Koh Tao | Thailand |
| More theory, then in the afternoon we went into the pool for instruction. | ||
| March 13, 2015 - Friday | Koh Tao | Thailand |
| Into the ocean for our open water dives. There were two dives today. On each dive we practiced the skills we had learned in the pool and swam around for a bit. I loved it. | ||
| March 14, 2015 - Saturday | Koh Tao | Thailand |
Another two dives done, and I have the basic certification. There were six
of us in the basic program. Since I was having such a great time I decided
to do the advanced certification immediately after finishing the open water.
SteveO was available to teach it and three of the other people who did the
course with me also wanted to do it. The advanced course certifies you to go
deeper (about 30 meters or 100 feet).
 |
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| March 15, 2015 - Sunday to March 16, 2015 - Monday | Koh Tao | Thailand |
| We did a night dive, a wreck dive, and three other dives to get the certification, which took two days. | ||
| March 17, 2015 - Tuesday | Koh Tao | Thailand |
| After diving for four days in a row I wanted a day off to take it easy. It was actually a good thing I didn't book anymore dives as I woke up with an ear infection. A trip to the local doctor confirmed the infection, and diving was out for the next week. I had been on Koh Tao for about a week at that point, and since there is nothing to do on the island except drink and dive, I decided to get out of there. | ||
| March 18, 2015 - Wednesday | Koh Phangan | Thailand |
| I was currently on the east side of Thailand. From previous research I knew there were several places I wanted to see on the western side. But first I took the ferry to Koh Phangan. Koh Phangan was famous for its full moon parties (it was not the full moon at the time I was there), and was roughly in between Koh Tao and Koh Samui. I spent one night at this island, and other then eating some pretty good street food I did not do much. | ||
| March 19, 2015 - Thursday | Ao Nang | Thailand |
| I left for Ao Nang, which is a town right beside Krabi on the mainland and a perfect spot to stop in-between islands. I spent two nights here. | ||
| March 20, 2015 - Friday | Ao Nang | Thailand |
Today I took a boat tour which included a stop at James Bond Island, which
was featured in the movie "The Man with the Golden Gun". We also stopped
somewhere where we got to see some monkeys.
 |
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| March 21, 2015 - Saturday | Koh Lanta | Thailand |
| I transferred to Koh Lanta. Koh Lanta is a beautiful island with a very long beach. I spent three nights here. | ||
| March 22, 2015 - Sunday | Koh Lanta | Thailand |
I rented a scooter and went down the island to a park on the southern tip,
where I went for a walk on the paths through the jungle.
 |
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| March 23, 2015 - Monday | Koh Lanta | Thailand |
| Relaxing day. | ||
| March 24, 2015 - Tue to March 26, 2015 - Thur | Koh Phi Phi | Thailand |
Next stop was Koh Phi Phi (pronounced Koh Pee Pee). This is an overdeveloped
tourist island. It is right beside an island which is famous for being the
movie "The Beach". I spent three nights here and went scuba diving on both
days for two dives each day. The fish and coral were not as good as Koh Tao,
in fact the coral was mostly dead, probably from all the tourists.
 |
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| March 27, 2015 - Fri to March 30, 2015 - Mon | Phuket | Thailand |
|
The island of Phuket is a large island, with a small city/town and very
touristy. It was my next stop for four nights. I did not like this place.
First of all the traffic sucks. Second, every single local only sees you as
a walking ATM. The guys all want you to eat at their restaurants or go see a
sex show, the woman all wanted you go for a massage. And it was non-stop
harassment from them. I would avoid ever traveling here for a vacation.
It was here that I discovered I had made a potentially big mistake. When I had booked my airfare to and from Thailand I miscounted the days. I would be in Thailand for thirty one days. My visa was only good for thirty days. Some furious internet searching later, I discovered that while I would probably be okay, if I got an immigration officer that decided not to let it slide I could be banned from the country for a period of time and might have faced a fine or something. I decided to play it safe and booked a flight from Phuket to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). It was quick and relatively inexpensive. |
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| March 31, 2015 - Tue to April 2, 2015 - Thur | Kuala Lumpur | Malaysia |
I stayed in KL for three nights, and that was about two too many. There is
really not much to do here. There are lots of malls that sell high end
clothing and stuff. I did go up the Kuala Lumpur Tower, which is the seventh
tallest in the world.
 |
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| April 3, 2015 - Fri to April 5, 2015 - Sun | Bangkok | Thailand |
| I flew to Bangkok for a couple of days, and then back home. Despite a few minor issues, this was a pretty good trip. | ||