Pacific Crossing - At Sea

If you read an earlier post, you know this is one of the key segments of the trip - a two-week repositioning cruise crossing the Pacific Ocean.  We are definitely in the youngest age bracket on the ship because who has the time and vacation to take a slow boat to China?  Professional cruisers, that's who. These are retired people who practically live on cruise ships six months or more out of the year and know all the tips about cruise traveling.  They all have platinum membership access, book the nicest staterooms and know the best times to make dinner reservations. The other three-quarters of the ship passengers consist of loud packs of elderly Chinese traveling home for the holidays via boat instead of plane. No surprise that we're the odd birds on the ship.

This cruise has eleven travel days at sea, a quick refueling day at Dutch Harbor, Alaska, then a couple stops in Japan before we finish in Shanghai, China. After nearly a week of consecutive sea days we're settling into a nice relaxing - if slightly boring routine. While we work to keep interested during the long sea days, the bigger challenge is resisting the never-ending call of the buffets. Who ever thought that scheduling an exercise seminar on "How to Lose 14 pounds in 14 days" at the begining of a two week cruise has a twisted sense of irony.  Here is Brian enjoying his "all you can eat" bacon for breakfast. That's okay because it's low carb and gluten free, right? 

After breakfast we head up to the lounge Brian calls 11-Forward because Brian's a nerd and likes to pretend we're in the Star Trek bar (anyone out there know what the heck he's talking about?).  We find a cozy little corner in the lounge and camp out for the day.  We read on the Kindles, make lists, play card games, drink gallons of hot tea and wander in and out of semi-interesting lectures. 

Of course we take a break in the middle of the day to join the lunch buffet frenzy. Dang good thing they have a decent salad bar to balance out the tempting dessert display.

In an attempt to chip away at all the buffet calories, we try and get a little excersie in the afternoon.  Fortunately there is just enough space in our tiny little cabin to do some 7-minute workouts consisting of some simple calestenics. Thanks to our friends, Jodi and Kay, for introducing us to this fitness app! If we've been especially tempted by the buffet that day, we'll hit the fitness center treadmills too.  We also always try to take the stairs since all the old folks are using the elevators.

Another form of exercise on the ship is full-impact shopping. This is what happens when you bottle two thousand consumers on a ship for a week and then spring a $10 Madness sale on them. It's a whole different kind of feeding frenzy!  Unfortunately, (or maybe fortunately) because I have such a small pack, I don't join in with the Madness mob.  Gotta prioritize my future souvenir purchases over these piles of plastic purses and cheap scarves. 

We've come up with the analogy that cruise ships are like a mini floating Las Vegas.  There's a casino, lots of buffets and lounge acts of varying talent.  There are cheesy evening shows, high-priced drinks and fancy-pants restaurants.  You can even get married here.  While the cruise director keeps saying, "relax, you're on vacation", we're much more in the mode of using this cruise as a transport ship.  A cruise is a very comfortable and civilized way to travel but still isn't our favorite way to vacation.  I'm sure we'll be missing all these luxuries when we're crammed on the train in the middle of Russia.

As mundane/boring/repetitive our long days at sea are, we are definitely enjoying the lack of Internet access.  You can pay for it on the ship of course (ka-ching!), but we've decided to consciously unplug ourselves from the world for these two weeks.  It's both challenging and calming.  It took a couple of days to stop the habit of pulling out the phone to ask google a question or kill a few minutes on Facebook while standing in line.  But now the brain is starting to retrain itself to focus on one thing rather than flit from distraction to distraction.  On the down side, Brian had to wait two weeks to find out who won the Iowa-Iowa State game. Yes, somehow, he survived. 

One side benefit to traveling west like this is that we gain an hour of sleep every time we cross into a new time zone - which is nearly every evening on this cruise.  We should finish the Pacific crossing well-rested, well-fed and ready to explore China. 

"One way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure." - William Feather

Pacific Crossing - Dutch Harbor, Alaska

Half-way across the Pacific we stop in Dutch Harbor, Alaska for refueling and reprovisioning.  It's a very small island in the Bering Sea that definitely isn't on the normal cruise ship circuit.  We are the largest ship to ever port in this small town. It was such a big deal for the locals that they came out to take more pictures of the ship than we did of the island.  If you've ever experienced RAGBRAI, you have an idea how a mass of visitors can overrun a small town.

You might recognize the town as the port for the "Deadliest Catch" from the Discovery Channel reality show - one of the captains was on the cruise giving talks about his life. The highlight of our day in town was chatting with a veteran fisherman at the local pub. Carlos, was heading back home in Mexico after just missing his third child being born. For nine months out of the year he works on the Alaskan fishing boats. He works thirty tough days on the boat and then gets only two days on land until he heads out again for another month. That sure puts our week of long sea days on this cruise in perspective!

We couldn't stop in Alaska and not enjoy some great local fish-n-chips at the harbor pub - a great pairing of food and location.  And hey, look!  Alaska has craft beer too!

We lucked out in wildlife spotting while in Alaska - although we weren't fast enough with the camera to capture any on film (or on bits or whatever the phrase is for digital cameras).  We saw a humpback whale in the bay, a couple of huge bald eagles and salmon finishing their spawning run.  It's amazing how this community scratches out an existence here in this rugged and stark country. Here we pose like the tourists we are in front of some crab traps. For us they're just ambiance but for the community they are the key to their livelihood.

"Real freedom lies in wilderness not in civilization." - Charles Lindberg

Seattle to Vancouver, BC

This segment of our trip is ferry hopping from Seattle to Vancouver where the Pacific cruise departs.  We hit a lot of firsts with this leg of the trip: first boat, first bus (double decker - wheee!), first metro train, first international border crossing and the first dipping into our stack of foreign currency.  Every other country's money is very colorful compared to those boring US dollars - it feels like we're buying stuff with Monopoly money.  

While in Victoria, one of the touristy things to do is to have afternoon high tea at the Empress Hotel.  Here we are royally classing it up with finger sandwiches and tea. Good thing it is early in the trip and our fancy clothes aren't too wrinkled yet. 

We spent the rest of the day in Victoria walking off the tea time pasteries, enjoying the sunny weather and harbour views from patios. Hey look! They have craft beer in Canada too!  No surprise that Brian was able to pull this place out of the stack of guidebook recommendations.

A sequence of bus, ferry, bus and metro rides brings us to Vancouver - great practice in navigating public transportation while the signs are still in English. It's been very interesting listening to other tourists struggling with the English language in restaurants, transportation hubs and check-in desks. We're starting to realize the language challenges we will have ahead of us in China, Russia and the rest of the countries. 

We ran across this couple on the ferry...  really showed us what serious backpackers look like!  Wonder how long they have been traveling with those mega bags?  I definitely can't complain about the weight of our packs any more.

Vancouver is known for their great asian-fusion cusine and so we stand in line a while to get into a small little authentic ramen shop.  This stuff is a serious upgrade from the college days of ramen noodle packages (8 packages for a dollar in my day).  It features handmade pasta, delicious broth that takes days to prepare and lots of tasty additions.  

Stuffed after the ramen-fest, we spend most of the afternoon trekking around Stanley Park, Vancouver's huge city park. Here are some examples of the mountains and harbour views we enjoyed.    

We're looking forward to settling in to the Pacific cruise tomorrow. Mostly because that means an end to the daily pack-go-unpack cycle we've been experiencing this first week.  You probably won't see any updates on the blog for awhile since we aren't planning on ponying up the bucks for an internet connection on the ship.  See ya in Shanghai in two weeks!

"Traveling can help us face reality and get a better understanding for others and ourselves." - unknown

Colorado to Seattle

Every hour we drive further west, it's starting to sink in that this is more than just another roadtrip. I guess it's because we're never going to turn around to head home - we just keep moving on to the next leg west. It has definitely turned from a just crazy idea and planning exercise into a reality that we're going to live in the next three months. 

The western states are big!  While we're too cheap to pay for XM radio in our own car, our rental has it and it's been nice to listen to non-stop music and baseball games.  We live in pretty amazing times - Cubbie games beamed from space!  It definitely helps these long miles go by a little faster.  We're also reminded that not everything on this trip is new and interesting, the excitement of these travel days mostly consist of  pumping gas and eating Subway.

We obviously love Colorado, but have also been enjoying the Idaho, Montana and Washington mountains.  Just a day drive north and the trees are already starting to turn yellow and the mountains already capped with snow.  There's that cool nip in the air - fall has suddenly arrived for us!    

We added an extra day in the schedule to spend time with our friends Diane and Mike in Washington.  Washington has some great wine, so we took the afternoon to sample some wine tastings and bottles at the local wineries.  

Then because this was our last chance to have a real kitchen on the trip, we did some home cooking at their place for the evening. Here are the two wanna-be chefs' rendition of pasta carbonara.  I'm feeling very appreciative to get to spend some time with my BFF and get to do one more load of laundry!  I also got to catch up with another high school friend in Seattle, Brenda, after not seeing her for over 35 years!     

We turned in the rental car to complete this segment of the trip.  Time to give our backpacks a live tryout as we had a little 1 mile trek to our downtown Seattle hotel.  We'll be up early tomorrow to catch our ferry to Victoria, Canada.  On to the next leg!

"You may never know what results come from your action.   But if you do nothing, there will be no results."  - Gandhi

Westbound and down...

... loaded up and truckin'.  Now that song will be in my head all morning.

It's another beautiful morning in sunny Colorado - a great day to start the big trip.  We picked up the rental car this morning, loaded up our backpacks and we're heading west - for about 22,000 miles!  

Our first leg of the trip is about a 20 hour drive to Seattle - with a couple of overnights in Idaho and sight-seeing along the way.  Hopefully the wild fires are calming down and we'll be able to enjoy some Cascade mountain views.

See you in Seattle!   

"Today is your day!  Your mountain is waiting, so... Get on your way!" - Dr Seuss

How do you pack for that?

If organizing the logistics for the trip was fun, figuring out what to pack was tough! I've gotten very good at packing light on vacations thanks to Brian's 'Never check a bag' rule (thanks Brian). But this trip poses a big packing challenge.  We need clothes for multiple climates, grunge wear for the 7-day-no-shower Siberian train and fancy-pants evening-wear for the cruise.  And it all has to fit in one bag since we're literally schlepping it around the world.     

There is no shortage of example "essentials only" packing lists out there on the Internet. I got to the point where reading yet another list was boggling my mind a bit.  So I went back to the basics and tried to follow a simple strategy: pick neutral colors for the bottom and upper warm layers and then use pops of colors (all in the same family) for the different shirts and blouses.  Hopefully that will give me lots of options to mix and match without getting too bored with my limited pieces.  I've got three months of not being able to open the closet to wear whatever I feel like that day!

The next question is what bag to take. I was leaning towards the average carry-on suitcase with wheels.  Brian (wishing he had been able to tramp around Europe in his 20's) thought backpacks were the way to go.   So we did a 'test pack'.  We jammed our pile of stuff into the carry-on suitcase and then into the backpack.  Brian was right, as usual.  I was forced to admit the backpack was lighter and more mobile - definitely a plus when we're running to catch the next train. Plus Brian will now be able to say he backpacked through Europe.

I still had one issue with the backpack.  I didn't like the idea of having to dig to the bottom of the bag every time I wanted something.  The solution was to get a bunch of mesh packing cubes that will fit stacked on top of each other inside the bag.  The backpacks, all stuffed, weigh in at a reasonable 20 pounds and will hopefully be maneuverable through the crowded public transportation, cobblestone streets and hotel stairs.

We are able to fit about a weeks worth of "essential" clothes in the backpacks.  So we will get to do some laundry in the hotel sinks along the way.  I found these cool little travel laundry detergent sheets that turn into soap with water.  Hopefully, they do the trick or our clothes will just have to smell like shampoo.  We're also hoping to find a laundramat or a hotel with facilities somewhere about half way to do a full-load refresh.  

So that's how we did 77 days worth of stuff in one bag. I'm even leaving my blow dryer at home just so I have some extra room for souvenirs!

"He who would travel happily must travel light."  - Anntoine de Saint Exupery 

Lovin the Logistics

Yah...  we might be a little geeky about planning and organizing.  But it sure has been fun figuring out all the logistics for our around the world trip.  Here's how we put it all together.  Hooray for the Internet!

Leg 1:  Loveland to Seattle via rental car (3 days).  This leg was easy.  A one-way rental car through Hertz and a couple of hotels along the way and we're good to go.  Add a night of mooching at a friends place near Seattle (thanks Diane!) and plans for this leg are complete.   

Leg 2:  Seattle to Vancouver via ferries (5 days).  There were several different ways to get from Seattle to where the trans-pacific cruise leaves in Vancouver.   We could go by train, rental car or bus but we thought the more iconic way was to do a little Pacific NW island hopping via ferries.  Some easy internet booking got us ferries to and hotels in Victoria and Vancouver.  

Leg 3:  Vancouver to Shanghai via repositioning cruise (15 days).  This was the key segment of the trip as we found only one cruise per year that crossed the Pacific.  So all the dates of the trip revolved around the dates for this cruise.  There may have been a way to get across by renting a cabin on a cargo ship but we have a certain accommodation which we've become accustomed :).  The cheapest cabin on the cruise will do just fine.  

Leg 4:  Shanghai to Beijing via train (7 days).  Trip Advisor reviews and Expedia searches handled accommodations in China.   A few emails to an agent in China took care of booking the train to Beijing.  We also found a great internet site called Viator (http://www.viator.com/) to arrange most of our excursions through the whole trip and especially in China.  We'll let you know how those turn out.  

Leg 5:  Beijing to Moscow via Trans-Siberian train (7 days).  (http://www.seat61.com/Trans-Siberian.htm#.VdD2pz2COrV)  The easiest way we found to get across Asia is the Trans-Siberian train.  It's pretty much a 7-day non-stop train ride across the Russian wilderness.  There is only one train per week departing out of Beijing so that determined how long we got to stay in China.  These tickets were purchased via the Internet through a Chinese travel agent.  I hope our tickets are there waiting for us when we get to Beijing or we will have to scramble for another option!

Leg 6:  Moscow to Warsaw via train (5 days).  Our Eurail passes aren't valid in Russia so we needed to book an overnight train from Moscow to Warsaw through a Russian travel agency.  Hopefully those tickets are waiting for us in Moscow as well!  Add a couple of hotel nights in both cities to complete the planning for this leg.  

Leg 7:  Warsaw to Rome via Eurail (22 days).  For the main Europe leg, we had to choose between city-to-city train segments or renting a car.  Ultimately we decided that since neither of us got to backpack across Europe in our 20's, we'd like to have that train hopping experience in our retirement. We had friends that really enjoyed Prague and Budapest in their trip last year so we planned our travel down through eastern Europe rather than through the western countries.  Again, we're trusting Trip Advisor, Expedia and Viator reviews to lead us to good hotels and tour ideas.  

Leg 8:  Rome to Florida via repositioning cruise (15 days).  There were a lot of options here since there are many ships that move from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean in fall.  We picked one that left out of Rome and departed around the time our Europe leg was finishing.  It was a bonus that the cruise also includes some interesting port stops.  

Leg 9:  Florida to Loveland via car rental (2 days).  We booked another one way car rental home with just one hotel stop in Tennessee.  Power drive!  We know we'll be itching to get back home!

Hotels:  For hotels, we mainly relied on Trip Advisor, online pictures and reviews.  We were looking for small, non-chain, authentic-ish hotels in walking distance to tourist areas but still bookable through Expedia.  Pretty sure most of them have a receptionist that speaks English.  Hopefully the hotels also have reliable WiFi so we are able to update the blog and connect since we're not getting international phone packages.

Visas:  There are three countries that require entry visa's prior to arrival, China, Russia and Belarus (as far as we know!)  We found out thanks to the state department website.  It's kind of scary to ship your passport off with a large check but so far they have come back okay.  Hopefully the border patrols will approve too!

Currency:  As best as we could determine, we need 8 different types of currency to complete the trip.  Canadian Dollar, Japanese Yen, Chinese Yuan, Russian Ruble, Poland Zloty, Euro's, Czech Koruna and Hungary Forint.  Wells Fargo's web site made it easy to order a stack of each these to get us started and all delivered directly to our door.  We'll hit ATM's in each country if we need more.  

Language:  We printed off a couple of simple phrase sheets and installed the Google translate app.  Hopefully with these and a lot of pointing, gestures and smiles we can stumble our way through our interactions with the locals.  

Budget:  So what's the price tag for all this?   Obviously that depnds on what type of stuff you book.  We mostly did mid-range hotels, better-class train seats, economy car rentals and the cheapest cruise cabins.  Add in prices for visas, organized tours/excursions and spending cash and our total cost will probably end up in the $20k-$25k range.  Not too bad for a crazy big trip like this - but definitely something that we'll only do once in our lifetime.  

"All you've got to do is decide to go and the hardest part is over."  -  Tony Wheeler