We had an early morning drop off for SPD in Hobart, Sarah was great. Weirdly, we struggled to get an Uber. The first one showed up and drove away because we had “luggage” even though we indicated we had said luggage when we booked. Apparently a medium sized duffle and two small backpacks is too much for a regular SUV! The next Uber driver was great and we made it with time to head outside for some fresh air and coffee. We met a really nice couple sitting on one of the benches who were returning home to NZ after visiting their son in Tasmania. They gave us lots of suggestions for stops on the North Island.

We had a good experience at Melbourne airport, we flew with Virgin Australia who have their own terminal. Check in was easy and we were back by the gate with enough time to grab a coffee. The flight to Hobart was great, short and smooth, grabbed our duffle bag from the luggage carousel and headed off to pick up the van. The dealer for Let’s Go Motorhomes in Hobart is Tassie Motor Shacks who we had dealt with back in 2017. Pick up was great, Sarah was awesome and the van was spotless. Even better, our van was much newer with only 30,000kms and the cushions were in great shape.

Departure day arrived and we were ready… well, we thought we were. Jen drove us to the airport and off we went. The original flight from CNX-SIN was good and we had a nice surprise when we were given a meal. We had a great chat with a lady seated in our row who was heading to Australia to get on a boat and sail around Australia. The landing in Singapore’s Changi airport was a bit sketchy, it was raining and you could feel the plane when it skidded on touch down. The duffle was checked through so we were able to head straight to the Aerotel Singapore and check in. Our room was nicer than expected, we had read mixed reviews online, so it was a pleasant surprise and nice to escape the bustle of the airport. In the evening we braved the terminal for a walk to stretch our legs and search out something for dinner.

Part of being in Chiang Mai was having time to decide what was next. We had extended our lease until September but then what? We decided that we wanted to travel again, great but where? Spoilt for choice we started watching travel vlogs, reading blogs and came to the conclusion that spending some time in a van was a good idea. Considering we had just sold ours this makes total sense… right? Not entirely sure on the thought process that occurred with this decision but once it took hold, we ran with it! Okay, drove with it ;-) Where do you do that? G’day Mate… Australia of course!!! We had already been lucky enough to experience the East Coast portion back in 2017 1,2, with a short 10 days in Tasmania, but we had always said we’d love to go back and the timing seemed right so we started the process.

Like most people, our past few years have been filled with turmoil, stress and uncertainty… a pandemic sure makes you reconsider life choices. Spending time in Canada allowed us to see family and friends, get some things sorted and the van sold. Our last few days in Calgary were filled with visits with my Mom, cleaning the apartment, a trip to the storage unit with John C. and packing for Thailand. We know, Thailand, again!? 🙂

While in Thailand, we had made the huge decision to go back to Canada for the summer and sell the van. We had a pretty decent flight: BKK-NRT-YVR-YWG. Paul had used our eUpgrades with Air Canada to change an economy flight to business class via the latitude-attitude technique. Since the first leg from BKK-NRT was on ANA we were in economy but the next 3 flights were all AC business class. AC is one of our least preferred airlines but we couldn’t let these e-upgrades go to waste. There was a small delay in NRT, the plane arrived late, there were some “mechanical” fixes but all in all it was better then expected. Canada didn’t require PCR tests for fully vaccinated people anymore so it was nice not to deal with that again in Vancouver, also no quarantine. There was still random testing and for various reasons the main airports in Canada imploded so we weren’t sure what to expect. The security lines weren’t open on time, if at all. They were also understaffed so long line ups and delays on arrival for those getting connecting flights. Luckily we weren’t selected for testing and had loads of time to get our connection to Winnipeg, but many people missed theirs.

For those of you that have followed our story, you know that we came back to Canada in Spring 2020 due to the uncertainty of covid. We had purchased a van thinking it would be a great time to get started on building our van life plan. Unfortunately it wasn’t, life happened, and we needed to make a change. With not having a home base, we had been dependent on family for places to stay, parking the van and storing boxes of our stuff. John, Bill and Tracy had already done so much to help us, we can never repay them other than offering our continued thanks, but this wasn’t a long term solution. We debated settling down somewhere so we would have our own place to stay when in Canada. Various locations were on the table and we even looked at some properties. The van, while awesome, added to the need to have something sorted out.

Well, here we go again… same, same but different! Several friends had gotten in touch and were all planning on heading to Lipe for February and March. We hadn’t seen Bram, Alyssa, Rob, Laura or Pascal for some time so we were excited to see everyone. We got in touch with Mikkel and Nok to arrange our stay at The Reef… after last year we had to get the balcony room again!

To get from BKK-CNX we had booked a flight with Thai Vietjet as the time and cost made it the best option. When we purchased the tickets, our credit card was charged twice. We made several attempts online to get it solved but nothing seemed to work. Luckily, when we checked into our flight they were able to give us an email address and we eventually got it sorted. Funnily, we had paid a little extra to book our seats so we weren’t at the very back of the flight… imagine our surprise when we boarded the plane only to find we were in the very last row. Apparently planes were switched and we paid for the privilege of being at the very back by the bathroom. Thankfully it is a very short flight. 😨