Packing List – or, as I like to call it, Yoda

          You listen to Yoda.  He is all-knowing, wise, and look what he did to make Luke Skywalker’s journey a success.  For me, the one thing I can’t argue with and it always helps my trips go smoother is my packing list.  Call it 81/2 x 11 piece of mind, but once you have the packing list checked off, you know you’re not going to be stuck in Rio de Janiero while your bathing suit is happily in it’s drawer back in Calgary, and the options to buy in the local stores are nothing but dental floss and a small triangle of fabric that wouldn’t even cover one nipple.

           I find that the best approach to the packing list is to start with the little things, like toiletries and batteries.  For the most part, you’re not going to forget to pack a pair of pants, and even if they’re the only ones you’ve got, you can still survive that two-week vacation without it causing you too much panic.  But if you forget that charger cable for your digital camera, guaranteed you’re going to be spending all your free time hauling your kids to yet another electronics store because “Daddy hasn’t found the right adaptor yet, honey”, and then you know you’re going to pay a fortune for it, and get it home only to discover it only works on European current. 

              My Achilles’ heel are razors.  For some reason, I managed to continuously forget a razor on every vacation for something like five years, forcing me to buy a pack of disposables at the closest drugstore so I didn’t have to worry about hamster-grade armpit  fur every time I wore a tank top.  The catch with these things is that you can’t just buy one.  Nooo, you have to buy them in the packs of six or eight.  I am going to still be using my stunning collection of English, French, American and Costa Rican disposables for the remainder of my 20’s.  On the upside, the french ones are really nice and sharp   Now on my packing list they’re the number one item, double-sized, bolded, underlined and in itallics.  So far so good, two trips to Asia and not a single addition to my razor collection.

           And for God’s sake, put TICKETS, PASSPORTS and MONEY on the list.    I know how ridiculously elementary this seems, but do it anyhow.  They are the make-or-break parts of your vacation, and because of that it’s too easy to assume that “I’d never forget those“.  It can’t hurt to double (or triple or quadruple) check, and it sure as hell beats waiting in line for an hour at the airport, only to discover your ticket is back at home and there’s no way you can drive back and get it in time to make your flight.  I know, in this digital age, that airline e-tickets are more of a formality than a necessity, as all your info is in the airline’s computer system anyway, but if there’s some kind of technical problem and they “loose” your booking (this has happened to me and I’m the freakin’ travel agent), you need that ticket number to prove you’re supposed to be on the flight. 

        All that being said, here’s my Yoda, the guiding force that has saved my ass more times then I care to admit.  There’s no clothing on this list, as your wardrobe can vary drastically depending on the climate/time of year/if you’re feeling fat/etc., but the rest of the items are pretty general-vacation-ish.  It’s always better to have too many things on the list and take out what you won’t need than to forget something important, like razors.  Also, it’s geared for a woman (we pack more crap anyway), but guys, just take out the makeup, use a little common sense and it applies to you, too.  I hope this gives you a few ideas for your own list, and remember when packing to always use the force of Yoda and you’ll have the best trip possible.

Packing List:

RAZOR

Hand Lotion/Moisturizer

Deodorant

Toothbrush/paste

Brush/comb/hair accessories

Shampoo/conditioner

Makeup

Nail polish/remover/non-metal file and cotton balls

Calomine Lotion

Prescription medications

Asprin/Advil

Q-Tips

Travel Curling Iron

Soap/washcloth

Antibiotic Cream/Polysporin

Imodium Pills

Feminine Hygene products

Bug spray

Sunscreen/ sun glasses/ sun hat

Glasses

Cameras/cases/batteries/charger/film/extra memory card

Books/magazines

Playing cards

Trip journal

Moneybelt

Snacks

Maps

Drinking cups/cereal bowls/plastic utensils

Tickets/vouchers

Money

Passports

Backpack

Folding reuseable shopping bag

Voltage converters

Gloves

Umbrella

Exercise bands

Wet wipes

Tags: BlogSherpa, budget, easy, money, Moneybelt, packing, shopping, snacks, tickets, Yoda

City Chase – a step by step rocking recap

                     Yesterday the Vancouver edition of the Mitsubishi City Chase powered by Blackberry (might as well get the full name in there, make the corporate sponsors happy, not that they’re reading this) was successfully run, and, as promised, it was awesome.  I dressed up like a fireman, found myself blindfolded no less than 3 times, saw naked people, went shopping and actually went willingly to one of the disgusting food challenges for the first time ever.   This was the first year for me and the bf, and I had no idea how we would react together under stress and physical exertion, but I’m happy to report all is well and no one has to move out!  There was a little sniping in frustration at the first chasepoint, but after that it only got better and better as the race progressed.  So, I promised you a blow by blow recap of my favorite day of the year, so here goes:

                   We started at Granville Square plaza, right beside Waterfront Skytrain Station and with an incredible view of North Vancouver and Canada Place at 9am sharp with the traditional speech and geeky warm up stretch/dance routine.  Then, at 10am sharp, it was go time.  In past years, in order to receive your clue sheet you have to complete a scavenger hunt that I dread with a passion, as it can take up to 1/2 an hour to find all the obscure objects (a business card printed in a language other than English?  A cocktail umbrella?), eating up a huge chunk of your precious 6-hour maximum race allotment.  Even had a homeless man help me out with that one year.  He had heard a lot of the teams run past saying they needed an apple core, so he found one and got it for me.  That was fantastic.  But this year they made it much easier, you just had to find another team with the same last digit of your team number and then check in with them at the Olympic Countdown Clock.  No sweat.  We found a team of girls wearing head to toe metallic pink spandex (not kidding) and ran to the clock, the whole process taking maybe 10 minutes with traffic.

                  Our strategy was to find what we thought was the farthest away chasepoint and head right there, doing a lot of our additional strategizing Geographically, it may not have been the farthest point, but we started with the hardest to get to one at the Cliffhanger rock climbing gym on Terminal Ave.  This was an important point for us, as we had raised CAD$50.00 for charity in advance of the race, and if you went there you got a chasepoint stamp for the fundraising as well as the task at hand, so it was an easy two points right there.  After skytraining it to Main Street, we discovered there is no other form of public transport from there to the rock climbing, so we had to hoof it.  Getting to the gym, Eric (the bf) had to climb a rock wall while I completed a Sudoku puzzle.  Let me just say, he rocked that wall.  It took him like a minute, he just flew up there.  I, on the other hand, did not have that much luck.  With him down and the two of us putting our heads together we managed to finish that damn puzzle in like 20 minutes and hit the road again.   Apparently some teams were working on that puzzle for an hour, so, despite my supreme frustration, we didn’t do too badly.  Two points down, eight to go.

                    From there we walked the 2.7km (once again, no freaking public transportation!  I don’t think in 5 other races I ever had to run/walk that far in one single stretch before) from Terminal, along Main St and up Prior, heading to Strathcona Park.  On the way we stumbled across another chasepoint, this one a block before the park at Fire Hall No. 1.  It had only said “go to firehall no. 1″ on the cryptic cluesheet, and we hadn’t had time yet to get out phone a friend back home (thanks Mom) to google that yet, so we had no idea it was right there, but since we had found it, we were doing it, whatever it was.  Turns out both team members had to don full firefighting gear, pull a firehose out, knock down a target with the water, then drag a weighted dummy across a yellow line, and then one team member had to unroll a fire hose and then the other had to roll it back up again.  Let me tell you, those outfits are not comfortable.  Not only are they hot as hell, but they weigh a ton.  On the upside, the bf looked great all dressed up like that   This point actually didn’t take too long, and soon we were on our way.

                   One block up was Strathcona park, where I got to be blindfolded while the bf, using only words, talked me through disassembling a skateboard.  This wasn’t too bad, he gives great directions and I’m pretty adept at taking things apart, but the grippy stuff on the skateboard deck did horrible things to my manicure!  Four down, 6 to go.

                  One more block up was La Casa Gelato, Vancouver’s legendary home of the 218 flavours of ice cream.  If this hadn’t been so close to the other points and involving the word “gelato” I probably wouldn’t have gone, as they never give you anything good to eat on the city chase.  Ever.  As a rule I usually avoid the eating challenges, but this one just made to much sense logistically to pass up.  One team member was blindfolded (me again) and had to taste 5 flavours  of gelato and try to identify them.  For every one they got wrong, their partner recieved a penalty.  Of the 5 flavours the only one I got right was ginger, though I heard the others were either wasabi, lychee, corn, balsamic vinagar, fish or pesto.  Honestly, none of those rang a bell to what had tickled my taste buds.  But because of my four errors, Eric had to take one for the team (love you, Handsome) and eat two huge oysters.  I really didn’t think he was going to manage the first one without vomiting, he came pretty close, but once it was down the second one was easy and we were on our way. 

             Finally, public transportation again!  It was now just over two hours into the race and we were finally getting to use our provided bus passes.  The 22 bus took us to VVC-Clark skytrain station (the driver helped us out and dropped us off right at the station instead of the bus stop), from where we trained it to Renfrew station and ran to the Grandview Rona store.  Here the task was shopping.  Sweet.  If I can do anything, it’s shop.  They gave us a list of 8 items and we had to correctly find 6 of them somewhere in the store.  They tried to be tricky, asking for 56 lt of bark chips, when the bags came in 2 cubic feet (it works out to be the same thing), but we quickly saw through this and finished in good time.  6 down, four to go.

              Right next door to Rona was Van Tech Highschool, where we wandered around lost with another team for a few precious minutes before we finally found the chasepoint hidden on a lower field.  Once again I was blindfolded (I was the navigator of the team because I rock with maps, but when it comes to giving small directions, like ”turn a little to your left” I have this horrible tendency to mix up my left and right.  Stop laughing, you know you do it to.  Our little saying is “your left or mine?” even though we’re both facing the same direction. Thus, I was always the blindfolded one while he, who seems to know his left and right, directed) and was verbally directed to walk through a field of scattered balls, where if I touched any of them, I had to go back to the start and try again.  No touches, we finished and were on our way.  Time for the home stretch, and we had it all planned out.  from here on out, all the points we needed were along our rapid transit routes, so we were good.

                  Skytrain again back to Science World, where we got to team up with four other teams and paddle a dragon boat through a marked course.  That was fun and fast. Back on the train, it was straight to waterfront station and the start/finish line to pick up the trivia question sheet we needed to complete for our next point.  Let me tell you, it was hard being so close to the finish line and not be able to cross it, then have to run away again and hop on the nearby seabus to North Van.  The questions were hard, random facts about the world, like “Which country has the lowest literacy rate?” and “where in the world is the highest waterfall?” (I work in travel, I knew that last one was Venezuela), but between our phone a friend and working with other teams we got them all by the time the seabus docked and it was time to run again.

                 In North Van we had two options, either learn a dance routine with the BC Lions’ cheerleading squad the Felions, or draw a nude model.  The clue was very cryptic on this one, as it sounded like you had to get naked, so we had automatically ruled that out (my underwear I’ll do, no problem.  Anything more than that, no freaking way.  Luckily Eric felt the same way), despite the fact that he really didn’t want to dance and had warned me it would take him forever.  Of the two of us, I have the rhythm.  But on the seabus we learned that you only had to draw a nude model, not become one, to get your stamp.  If you were willing to get naked you could get a second stamp, but that was optional.  Since the two chasepoints were right beside one another, we figured we’d try the drawing and see how it went.  I’m a half-decent artist if I do say so myself, and we were in and out of there in 5 minutes flat, chorusing a resounding “NO!” when they asked us if we wanted to get naked for point number 2.  Besides, we didn’t need it, we were done.

                 Back to the seabus, a quick stop just behind the start/finish line to turn in our trivia sheet and officially get chasepoint #10, a run through a construction zone to get to the entrance, and we sprinted to the finish, crossing at about the 5-hour mark.  Apparently the winners finished in 2 hours 48, but I’m still really proud of how we did.  We finished.  I’ve had years when you just have to cross the line with 8 stamps because the course is going to close before you can finish.  And we finished still talking to one another!  I’m under no illusions that I’m ever going to win the Chase, I’m not a runner, but it’s all about the journey and the fun, and it was a hell of a lot of both.  On the upside, he’s already willing to do it again next year!  Sweet!  I’ve converted another one!

               Great course, great year, great race, great fun.  If you hear about a City Chase in your area, do it!

Tags: adventure, City Chase, dragon boating, fun, gross, nudity, odd, public transportation, race, rock climbing, running, vancouver, weird

The Chase is on!

                Saturday in Vancouver, the Chase is on!  It’s time again  for the Vancouver City Chase and I can’t wait.  This is year six for both me and the Chase, and it’s going to be the best race ever.

               For the uninitiated, the City Chase is like The Amazing Race, but all contained within one city, and you can only travel by public transit or foot.  An urban adventure race that’s part scavenger hunt, part footrace, part strategy and part “what the hell, let’s do it”, it’s a ridiculous amount of fun.   Being that I’m totally obsessed with the Amazing Race, this is as close to being on the show that this Canadian girl can get: six hours of running around Vancouver and completing various random tasks at ten chasepoints scattered throughout the city.  Oh, and you’re with a partner, so there’s someone there to drag you along, be dragged, argue with and hug in celebration along the way.  Check it out online at mitsubishicitychase.com or on Facebook and see for yourself.

           The big question is, as usual, what are they going to make us do this year?  All they tell us going in is where the start line is and it’s not until they say “go” that you get your clue sheets, so it involves a lot of blind faith.  Sometimes the tasks are fun (modeling your partner’s likeness out of play-doh), sometimes they’re physical (climbing the 700 stairs to the observation deck at Harbour Centre), sometimes they’re wet (the organizers promised not to make anyone ever do the underwater bowling ever again, as it was almost impossible), and sometimes they’re gross (anything with the words “smoothie” or “dog bakery” mean you’re going to have to eat something really, really gross, and last year for the first time I downed a live meal worm.  Yep, it’s as unpleasant as you’d expect, but thankfully they’re small and can be taken like pills).  God knows, it could be anything.  Kayaking.  Fencing.  Wheelchair basketball against professionals.  Nudity made it’s first appearance last year as one of the optional points was to run an obstacle course at Wreck Beach full-on starkers. 

              But that’s the fun of the chase.  The unknown.  I’m not exactly an overly-outgoing person, my friends would probobly describe me as the “quiet one” in our group, but I am incredibly competitive.  Over the years I’ve discovered that in the heat of the race I’ll do pretty much anything.  Approach random seniors and ask if I can hold their false teeth in a photo; eat the aforementioned mealworm; strip to my underwear in public for a water challenge (because, really, bathing suits are not supportive running attire); and one of my prouder moments came by completing a high ropes course, complete with rappel.  I was shaking the whole time, but that competitive streak of mine got me over that fear, and afterwards it felt really good.

             From a travel perspective (this is a travel blog, after all), it wasn’t until I started this race that I really learned how to navigate Vancouver.  Before the first year I literally studied downtown maps like I was cramming for an exam, and now this girl from the ‘burbs knows her way around.  But also, the race takes me places I might never have gone otherwise, like being a very fast-paced tourist in my own city.    Every year I end up with a shortlist of places that looked really cool as I ran through them, so now I need to go back and really enjoy them.

              But the coolest part is that this is an international race.  All across Canada, the US, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Madrid, Paris, London… they’re adding more cities every year, and the winners of each go on to the World Championships, which have been in Rome, Chicago, Morocco, and this year are in Argentina.  Sure, it’s way easier to race around a city you already have some knowledge about, but still I have this fantasy of running the London or Hong Kong race some year, zipping around on their great public transportation, trying new things…

              We’ll soon see how this year plays out, and I’ll post an after-race recap, but it’s going to be fun!    

mitsubishicitychase.com

Tags: adventure, City Chase, competition, fun, odd, public transit, race, rapelling, The Amazing Race, vancouver

Insurance – why you want it, but don’t.

              It was embarrassing.  I was in highschool, looking forwards to going down to Seattle with my first able-to-drive-without-adult-supervision friends for a little outlet shopping, and Mom refused to let me go unless everyone going had travel medical insurance.  So we all paid the CAD$2.00 for one day’s coverage, went, and grumbled about how we didn’t even need to use it.  But now, looking back, I see how right she was.  That’s the whole point of having insurance, to have it but not use it.  If you do have to use it, it means something horrible has happened, and nobody wants their vacation ruined.  Plus - and take my word on this, I see it every day at work - all those unused insurance policies seem like a bargain the second you actually have to make a claim.  

            Here in Canada, we take a hell of a lot for granted.  With our free medicare we can go the doctor or hospital any time we need to and only have to pay for the prescribed medication.  But the second you cross any international boarder, all those luxuries are gone.  Years ago we had a client who drove across the boarder to play golf in Blaine, Washington, when he had a heart attack. You could practically see Canada from where he was, and since he wasn’t going to the US for long, he didn’t worry about insurance.  Then he got the bill for the medical treatment and ambulance transport back to Vancouver, and he had to mortgage his home to pay it off.  Granted, that’s an extreme case, but no one wants to go into serious debt in exchange for their health.  You shouldn’t have to trade one necessity for another.

                Then there’s cancellation insurance, the most underrated of all policies.  Nobody plans to cancel their vacation, if they did they wouldn’t have booked it in the first place.  But nowadays pretty much everything in the travel world is at least partially nonrefundable, so if you do have to cancel, you’re going to pay for it.  For the most part, cancellation insurance covers you if a serious medical condition pops up prior to your departure.  Just deciding not to go is not covered.  Some policies do offer “change of mind”, where, a certain number of days prior to departure you can cancel for any reason and claim back a percentage of your travel costs, but it’s never, ever, 100%.  If you break up with your boyfriend or get into a fight with your roommate and just cannot imagine traveling with them anymore, the change of mind clause would kick in and you could at least recoup some of your costs.  Once I had a honeymoon couple who called off their wedding right before it was supposed to take place, and were no longer speaking to one another.  They had opted not to take the cancellation insurance because they figured hey, it’s their honeymoon, there’s no way they’re going to cancel.  The bride ended up going on the vacation alone (most packages don’t allow name changes, so we couldn’t substitute a friend instead at that late date) while the groom stayed home and sued her to get his money back.  Last I heard they were still in litigation. 

                   Oh, and not getting your passport/entry visas in time is not covered by insurance.  Ever.  It’s considered your own fault for not getting the paperwork in sooner.  If you find out you can’t get your passport in time enough days prior to departure the change of mind clause in your cancellation policy may help you get some of your cash back, but for the most part, you’re hooped. 

             And please, God, do not assume your credit card will cover you.  Yes, some credit cards offer cancellation/medical insurance, particularly the higher-end platinum cards, but whatever you do, call the credit card company and double-check what coverage you have before you decline the optional insurance offered by the travel agency.  Sometimes the credit card coverage is all that you need, but they’re notorious for having low limits on how much they will pay out in case of emergency, or restrictive age limits.  One of my clients had relied on his Avion card for years without a problem, but when he did need to make a claim, he was told that, while his card did offer full coverage, he was a year older than the age limit, so he got no coverage at all.  So please, please call your credit card company and make sure you know all the details before you rely on their insurance.

         It hurts to add that extra CAD$200.00 or whatever to your already expensive trip.  I know.  But in comparison to the money and heartache that not having insurance can cause, it’s a small price to pay.

Tags: BlogSherpa, budget, Canada, cancellation, health, insurance, medical, USA

Road snacks

                I’m thinking with my stomach again.   On my bus ride to work this morning I found myself watching a little kid eating goldfish crackers with little faces drawn on them, and started thinking about food that travels.  With airlines no longer offering free food on shorter flights, packing enough to sustain you so you’re not gnawing off your seatmate’s arm is becoming increasingly important.  So I post the question: what is the perfect road snack?  

             Personally, I can’t call it a vacation unless I’ve treated myself to a bag of wine gums.   Love those things.  Small, non-gooey, easy to stash in pockets and they don’t go bad if you don’t finish the bag in one seating (like that ever happens, really).  I love them  to the point when I discovered light wine gums in Hong Kong I stockpiled them (customs must have thought I needed to go to Wine Gums Anonymous or something) and now only break them out for travel or road trips.  They’re my ultimate treat.  And with the light ones, they’re like treats without guilt!   And slurpees.  Nothing makes a trip happier than the icy goodness sliding over your tongue…  I’m starting to think I need to reduce my sugar intake…  oh well, they’re vacation calories, they don’t count anyway.  These are reserved for road trips though, something with a cupholder and no restrictions on liquids and gels.  I somehow don’t see splitting your slurpee into little 100ml or less bottles and putting them in your airline-approved Ziploc baggie working out too well.

               On the other hand, my BF is all about cookies.  Specifically chocolate chip cookies.  Sometimes he’ll just space out, and when I ask him what he’s thinking about, it’ll be cookies.  Those little individually wrapped ones are like gold to him.  It makes his good vacation even better, though they do have a slight tendency to get crushed in carry on bags.

            That’s what makes trail mix so wonderful.  You can customize your own blend, as healthy or crappy as you want, and then stuff it in assorted bags and pockets, all the little individual pieces malleable enough to be packed around other objects without breaking.  You can do almost anything to a bag of trail mix (playing catch is always a big hit) and it’s still perfectly edible.  And the action of eating all the little bits is good for you, too, as it takes more brain power than just popping one stick of gum into your mouth, and helps pass the time on what can be a mind-numbing travel day.  For my Mom, a smoker, this helps her a lot to fight off the cravings, and she’s incredibly pleasant to fly with.  Just don’t stand between her and the smoking lounge when we land   Love you, Mom.

                       Granola bars are another popular choice, as they’re healthier than Snickers bars and individually packaged and portion-controlled, though I find they have a tendancy to squish or break (depending on if you bought the chewy or crunchy versions) as I shove everything into and out of my giant purse.

             So what does it for you?  What is your ultimate road snack and why?  I’m looking for suggestions, I’m almost out of light wine gums and airfare back to Hong Kong isn’t in the budget!

Tags: BlogSherpa, carry-on luggage, cookies, Food, granola bars, slurpees, smokers, trail mix, travel, wine gums

Grocery stores as a tourist attraction?

              Think about it.  Have you ever walked around your local supermarket and stopped at the ”international food” section, looking at all the different uses for rice or the cool/odd/disgusting/unpronounceable sauces on offer?  It’s fun, right?  Or at the very least, interesting.  Possibly even enlightening.    Multiply that by fifty and you get why I always try to swing by a grocery store in every country I’m in.   

             Doing  a bit of your own cooking (and by “cooking” I mean mainly buying bread and meat and making sandwiches or pouring your own bowl of cereal, unless you have a kitchenette) is always a great way to save money.  Even if it’s just snacks, bringing your own granola bar and water bottle can easily save you $5-$10 a day, depending on your destination and appetite.   That’s valuable souvenir money!  So while you’re at the grocery, you might as well take a few minutes to walk the aisles and see what culinary treasures you can unearth.  You never know if that brand of beer you had once ten years ago and could never find again is hiding around the corner, or if the chili lime chicken bouillon you find in aisle four is going to become the centerpiece for your new signature dish back home.  And when someone asks you where you got it, you can be all mysterious and say “it’s imported.”

           When in London, I’m all about finding the cool flavours of crisps.   We have your standard salt and vinegar, ketchup and nacho cheese in Canada, they have roasted lamb and mint, chargrilled steak, pickled onion, seafood mayonnaise, crispy duck in hoisin sauce, turkey with paxo sage and onion… if you can braise, boil or bake it, they probably have chips to match.  Southeast Asia is also good for this, though they have substantially more seafood options and their packaging usually involves more google-eyed animated characters.  One of my coworkers in Spain said the prawn cocktail is great, though I’ll have to take their word for it.  On one trip I actually kept a list, and found no less than 25 different flavours in one country in the space of a week.  Think I tried two of them.  And these flavours are, for the most part, incredibly accurate.  The chargrilled steak I tried smelled like nothing, but once on the tongue, you were just looking for the side of mashed potatoes and steamed veggies.

            I’m always drawn to snack-type foods, like chips, gum (oooh, there’s this applemint Dentyne in Thailand I loved so much I brought like 10 packs home with me) and candy, mainly because they’re cheap and small, so you can try something really experimental and, if it’s totally revolting, you can throw it out and you’re only out a buck.  Meat always intimidates me (especially since you can’t always read the label), but one day I’ll have a place with a stove in some far-flung destination and I’ll go for it.  It’s all about embracing the local culture.  In Singapore this past march we discovered pea cheezies (for lack of a better comparison).  They were made entirely of peas, green and shaped like a pod,  but puffed up, deep fried and lightly salted to the cheezie consistency.   Sounds strange on paper (hell, it looked strange in the bag, too, that’s why I bought it), but these were surprisingly good.   In Costa Rica, tamarind drink, once you get past it’s industrial-waste brown colour, is incredibly sweet and yummy.  I got all excited here when, on a day trip across the boarder to Seattle, I found some Tamarind Kool-Aid, but when I tried it back home it tasted kind of like cardboard.  Total let down.  Oh well, it’s a reason to go back to Costa Rica! 

            Also in Costa Rica I discovered my beloved coco pops (there is not a breakfast buffet worldwide that doesn’t have coco pops) are endorsed there by a space elephant named Melvin.  That was just funny.

            International grocery shopping can be a fun thing to do if you’re traveling with kids, too.  While you’re picking up the necessities, you can challenge young Jimmy to find the craziest looking fish in the seafood department or weirdest-sounding product name (this one can be particularly fun if you can’t speak the language).  Kids usually seem to gravitate to the gross, or what they think is gross, anyway, and this is where the cheaper options like candy come in handy.  Treat them to one small thing, but make it the grossest they can find, and hear the giggles start.  This can also be done locally, just check out the various ethnic food stores around your area and keep the kids entertained on a rainy afternoon.

          For me, I think this all stems back to my Grandparent’s travels when I was a little kid.  When they’d come back from driving across the US or touring Europe they’d bring me something we couldn’t get in Canada, like Barbie breakfast cereal, or Swiss cow-shaped chocolate, so now I always want to see what other surprises the world has to offer.  This can also be a good way to buy a gift for that impossible-to-shop-for person on your list.  Nobody ever turns down food, especially if it was brought into the country especially for them and you know it’s something they’ll like.  The one exception to this was when my BF got a bag of dried bean and anchovy trail mix from Hong Kong.  It’s been months and that’s still sitting unopened on his desk, but I can’t really blame him, the fish are dried whole in there, complete with the little dried heads and eyes.  But still, because we got it at a grocery store as opposed to a souvenir place, the cost was low enough that I don’t give him a hard time about *sniff* rejecting one of my gifts.

            Ever found anything spectacular/weird/memorable in the food aisle when on vacation?  Let me know.  But if not, try spending an hour of your next vacation at the supermercado and see how much culinary trouble you can get into!

Tags: Asia, BlogSherpa, budget, chips, coco pops, cooking, Costa Rica, Food, grocery stores, Hong Kong, kids, London, odd, souvenirs, Spain, tamarind

Concert night in Vancouver

       Tonight I’m taking a chance to enjoy some of the best that Vancouver has to offer:  Japanese/Korean BBQ and Rod Stewart live at GM Place.  There is a vibe in downtown Vancouver that I just love, an electricity that comes out when the sun goes down, and when you combine that with some classic rock, I’m getting ready to party! 

               The plan is to hit one of my favorite downtown Asian eateries, Shabusen, a place where you can cook your own Korean BBQ right in your table while also having thirty types of sushi to choose from.   This is what makes Vancouver so much fun, with so many ethnicities, in a geographically small space, you get a plethora of this awesome  fusion to choose from.  And, with our large Asian population, my addiction to all foods Asian gets easily satisfied.  There are so many options.  Had an Indian/Malaysian/Thai combination once and it blew my mind.  The big question is whether or not tonight I’ll order off the menu or be too overloaded with the options and go for the all-you-can-eat again.

            Then a short walk’ll take us to the Garage (I mean, GM Place) for the Rod.  I hear they’ve been doing some renos in preparation for the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics in a few months, so I’m interested to see if it’s any different.  For a hockey stadium, the acoustics are pretty good, so it’s going to be a night to rock out and remember.  As the BF says, they should totally make a Rod Stewart Rockband game, because I’d love to be belting out “Hot Legs” in our living room! 

            This I’m looking forwards to.  Now I just need to figure out which shirt to wear.  I need something not too low-cut (when eating wih chopsticks, there’s always the possibility of dropping something on yourself – maybe this is just me, but I can be clumsy from time to time – and it’s awkward fishing some edamame out of your cleavage), but stil something that says Rock and Roll.  Any suggestions?

Tags: asian, culture, Food, music, vancouver

London – Shopper’s paradise. New wardrobe anyone?

              I buy almost all my clothes while on vacation.  Mainly this is due to the fact that when I’m home I’m saving up to pay for that vacation, but there is something really cool about going through my closet and being like, ”not that Bangkok shirt, the pink one” (and before you ask, no, all my clothes do not have the tacky ”I went to LA and bought this shirt” slogans on them, though I do love my tacky souvenirs).  I have this theory about ”vacation money” : anything you spend in the local currency while on a trip is free money, more like trade really, as you’ve already spent the Canadian money by buying the foreign currency.  I’ve allocated that much money for spending, and if I burn through every penny, it’s fine.   As long as I don’t go over budget and dip into the credit cards (unless it’s really, really, really incredible and worth it), it’s game on.  And when I go to London, I know I have to make sure I budget enough, because, while I can shop anywhere, London fashion and I just click.  We’re talking pack-an-empty-suitcase good shopping here!

               The biggest thing I love about London shopping is that their “high street” (mass market) stores have great styles at great prices.  It’s as if the English approach to shopping in general is to make sure it’s accessible to the masses.  Affordable and easy to find.  Now you’re talking my language.    You’ll also notice here I’m not going to talk about Harrod’s or Selfridge’s, London’s uber-famous and uber-expensive department stores.  This is because, honestly, regular people do not go there to buy.  They go for the spectacle of it.  I always go and look at the GBP$10 000.00 dresses, entire rooms full of nothing but purses and Egyptian-themed escalators, but the only thing’s I’ve ever bought there are magazines, because they have the prices printed right on them, so they’re the same price there as they are at the corner newsagents.  But I still got the cool Harrod’s bag to wave around.

              Naturally, the place to start is Oxford street, otherwise known as the big awesome and freaking crowded street of all things good and wonderful.  You can’t throw a stick without hitting a clothing store.  But all of these stores are pretty much everywhere around the country, so if you don’t want to battle the crowds, it’s not hard to still find great fashion.  The suburban shopping malls offer huge selection without having to face the weather running from store to store.  Smack in the middle of Oxford St. is the English institution that is Marks and Spencer’s, where you can get pretty much anything, the focus being wardrobe basics and career wear.  They’re a touch on the pricey (for this focus-on-cheap blog, not compared to DKNY) and middle-aged side, but everyone can usually find something there.   Oh, and you can’t miss their awesome food hall, where you can pick up a great selection of groceries or ready meals for good prices.   Love their wine gums.

             If you’re angling for something on-trend while not being too “oh my God, is she wearing a duck on her head?” over the top, some of my favorites are:

 Dorothy Perkins - Aside from the adorable designs, their 2-for tank top deals will be my wardrobe staples forever.  Their “tall” line, aimed at those of us over 5 foot 7, keeps the fashion world open to everyone.  Their shoes and accessories are hot for a steal, and they have a new organic/free trade/eco-chic line geared for the environmentally conscious amongst us.

New Look – Bright colours and wild patterns mark this store as probably the most funky on the list, but don’t let that scare you, they have everything from sexy/sweet dresses to career wear to teeny-bopper tween styles.  I got one of my most professional looking dresses (that I just so happen to be wearing today) there for under GBP$30.00.

Next – More classic and stylish while not being old or boring, this is a great mix of business casual and weekend chic.  Not too over the top, but far from boring.  Also with an excellent denim section – lots of cuts in tons of lengths.  One of my favorite pairs of jeans is their bootcut.

Topshop – More pricey than the other three, this is where you go for trends.  On occasion, they do have the “oh my God, is that a duck on her head?” over the top styles, and they wear them with pride.  Partnerships with top designers and exclusive lines from the likes of Kate Moss makes sure they are always on the cutting edge.

             And then there’s Primark.  You want cheap, shop here.  Period.  End of story.  For what you’re paying (GBP$6 for a hoodie? Sweet.) the materials are not top of the line, but they look way more expensive than they are, and the quality is better than average. The aforementioned hoodie I’ve lived in for three years, and it still looks perfect.  Be prepared to carry a big bag, because with their prices, you’re not getting out of there with just one item.

            When traveling to London, make sure you have some room in your suitcase, are under your luggage allowance and have time to shop, because you’re gonna need it!  Last time I had to leave some things behind in order to squeeze all my new purchases in!  And it’s soooo worth it.

Tags: BlogSherpa, budget, Dorothy Perkins, exchange rate, London, Marks and Spencer's, money, New Look, Next, Primark, shopping, Topshop