This was a very short visit… less then a week in all. We decided we needed to see the dentist for a cleaning, it had been a year! That and we liked the food and comforts of Kuala Lumpur. There was a lot more caution around travel at this point, people were wearing masks and using sanitizer. We had tried to get some masks but they were sold out everywhere.

Kampot again you say… well yes, there are a few places that we have been that keep us coming back and Kampot would be one of those places. Of course, being able to see our friends like Lee, Dean, Dhieu and the kids, Paula and Sydney. Hang out at our favorite places like the NYNY with Tavi, Stumble Inn with Harry and Keemi, Aroma House with James or Couch Potatoes with Jem. There are constant changes but it always feels good to be back.

Hanoi January 11 - 22

We flew from Chiang Mai to Hanoi, it was a short flight and we arrived in the afternoon. We cleared customs and headed out in the chaos to find the bus. There was a shuttle that was advertised by Vietnam Airlines that could take you down by the Hoan Kiem Lake for 35,000VND. We thought we had found it but they wanted to charge us 200,000VND so off we got. Luckily we were able to find the bus that took us down to the lake area for the right price. They were really nice and asked where we wanted to go so that they could let us know where to get off the bus.

John and Rita dropped us off at Cranbrook airport on December 12. It was a nice morning but there had been some snow. We’d left early so we could take our time on the drive and went for coffee together before leaving. Our flight this time was Cranbrook-Vancouver-Tokyo-Bangkok. I had arranged to meet my sister Jayne at the airport. We were supposed to have 2 hours in Vancouver but it was pouring when we arrived and took over 30 minutes to get a gate and get off the plane. We did get to spend a quick half hour with Jayne before we headed through customs.

Leaving the PCT was one of the hardest decisions we have made but we both believe that it was the right choice. Paul’s knee was getting worse, my feet were constantly sore and neither of us was feeling right. We called our parents from our last camp spot to discuss options. All of them were so supportive and encouraging about our decision. It helped us to feel more comfortable about the decision to return.

In January of 2019, while we were chilling in Kampot, Cambodia, we were trying to figure out what we would for the summer of 2019. Eventually we decided that we wanted to hike the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) from the Canadian border in Washington to the Mexican border near San Diego. So using our phones at 3AM in Cambodia we jumped online for the second permit lottery and got 2 permits for northbound PCT hikes. Unfortunately we couldn’t get 2 on the same day so we had to switch them out for southbound (SOBO) permits which didn’t require specific dates for heading in that direction.

We flew back to Canada to get organized to hit the PCT. John and Rita were kind enough to let us stay with them in Creston while we got ready. When we applied for permits we were not able to get the same dates. There was a 2 weeks difference in our start dates and the work around for that is not deemed legal by the PCTA, if stopped you can get in trouble. In the end it was a non issue since we changed our permits to head Southbound on the PCT as we weren’t even close to being ready to head off on our original dates. SOBO permits aren’t in demand, something about it being harder to go straight into the mountains instead of building up to it. We were easily able to get a date for both of us and planned to hit the trail June 26. It worked out as since we could give ourselves time to train and get our gear organized for our start date.

In all the years we had been coming to Lipe, we had never arrived on the ferry from Langkawi before and in all likelihood never will again. The ferry was great, getting off the ferry was the usual chaos but waiting to get stamped through customs was nasty. It was hot, not much shade, we weren’t supposed to leave and there was a tonne of people. The local Thai customs will check your passport, call you up in groups per country and give you a form to complete then you go through to another line to get stamped in. I think this took well over an hour.

We had decided to head to Malaysia next, giving ourselves about a month before heading to Lipe. We went from Phnom Penh to Kuala Lumpur on Air Asia, it was a short flight. The airport in KL is massive but modern and we moved through everything quickly. We got sims and a Grab Taxi to downtown KL.

We booked a suite at Mercu Summer Suites, which are 99% AirBnb’s. It was a great location, close enough to get places by walking or Grab. We had great plans in KL, but our experience turned out to be different then expected.