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.

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.

In January of 2019, while we were chilling in Kampot, Cambodia, we were trying to figure out what we would do 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.

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 workaround for that is not deemed legal by the PCTA, if stopped you can get in trouble.

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 ton of people.

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.

So we arranged to get to Cambodia by ferry to the Vietnamese mainland through Andy at Oasis Bar. They arrange you to be met at the ferry, taken to the bar then off to the border. Mr. Chen helps you at the border and gets you in a taxi to your final destination on the Cambodian side.

Our next stop was Vietnam… well, with a stop in Bangkok to get our Vietnamese visas. We decided to stay at the Vie again, partly because it was central to everywhere we needed to go and we deserved to be spoiled after Nepal! We were also able to spend an evening with Ben since he lived close enough to come into the area.

On our way to Nepal—yes, we’re going back to hike the Annapurna Circuit again!—we decided to take a couple of days and spoil ourselves in Bangkok. We stayed at our favorite hotel, the VIE, pigged out on breakfast buffets, sushi, and curries, did some shopping, and got plenty of sleep.