Canada travels

For this weeks Thursday Thirteen I interviewed a friend of mine. She has been a travel agent for as long as I’ve known her, she works for Travel Professionals International. I wanted to know what her top 13 travel tips were, so she shared them with me and now I’m going to share them with you. I hyperlinked it up (with all the Canadian companies I like) and added my opinions here and there!

#1. Photocopy your passports, make 2 copies, take 1 with you & leave 1 at home with someone that has access to fax machine. In case they are lost or stolen, it is so much easier to replace.

#2. Sun screen for those hot spots, start with a 30 or higher. (Based on my – Shan’s – experience, I’d recommend a sun burn salve for those “just in case” moments!)

#3. Tie a colored ribbon on luggage, so much easier to identify, or buy purple like I did. (I totally agree!! I even posted about loosing my bags a couple months ago)

#4. Spend a few days there in the sun before booking day trips/excursions, if not you could burn badly ruining your holiday right off the bat. (I have a not so funny story about this… a couple we met while on our honeymoon… where on their honeymoon, 2nd day there… they were burnt to a crisp and had to spend the remainder of their honeymoon in their room, one on the couch and one in the bed. Burnt like lobsters! Not the way to spend your honeymoon!!)

#5. Take your own soap for the shower if you have sensitive skin.

#6. Book a stopover hotel prior to your trip if during the winter months, it’s not worth taking the chance. (You only need to spend one night on the floor of the airport to know THIS IS GOOD ADVICE!)

#7. ALWAYS purchase travel insurance. (Couldn’t say it better myself!!)

#8. Take along a bottle of after sun Aloe Vera gel, you will thank me later! Your skin will drink it up!

#9. Drink bottled water when away.

#10. Pack your carry-on in such a way that if it was lost or stolen, you could survive a few days. Create a few outfits out of a few items & be sure to have a swimsuit & wrap in there.

#11. Remember to take your own snacks when traveling to the Islands, they can be very expensive there.

#12. Take along a scented candle or 2 for your room, they are great for the high humidity & your room with smell awesome. (Not to mention… ROMANTIC! I was going to hyperlink the company I worked for when I met my hubby but I wanted to highlight all things Canadian…)

#13. Have a great time and make certain to relax; holidays are not holidays if you come home exhausted. (CAN I GET AN AMEN?!!)

#14. And… because Sherry did this for me out of the kindness of her heart… here’s her email if you need a holiday!!  swatkinson@tpi.ca

Thanks Sherry!! I really appreciate it!

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My heart sank as I heard the news that another earthquake rocked Haiti this morning. 6.1 on the Richter Scale. I’m told that that is 10′x lower than the one that destroyed much of Port-Au-Prince just a week ago but still big none-the-less. I can’t imagine the panic that consumed them during the 5 or so seconds that the ground shook.

This isn’t exactly “Wordless” but I am speechless…

I can’t stop crying every time I turn on the TV, the scenes of despair and destruction are almost too much for my soul to bear. I wish there was more that I could do.

The abject poverty that is prevalent in Haiti reminded me of my trip in July 2008 to the Valley of 1,000 Hills / Embo Township in South Africa. To go from having nearly nothing to absolute nothing would crush the strongest person I’m sure. I pray that the funding and support continues, that people will not just turn off their TV’s and close their eyes like to say, “If I don’t see it… it doesn’t exist”. I pray that hope lives on.

If you haven’t had a chance to donate to a relief fund for Haiti as of yet… I’d encourage you to do so. The Canadian Red Cross or The Salvation Army are good places to start. I would caution you however; there are a lot of pseudo organizations out there looking to take advantage of this tragedy. Charlatans are always among the crowd.

walked in... wheeled out

Remember what this picture is from??….

This morning I emailed (because there is no number listed on their website) the hospital that I visited back in Pigeon Forge, TN way back in August 2008 to get this “outstanding bill” figured out.

They sent me back a reply quite quickly, impressed at how quick actually, the phone number to reach the company that the Doctor’s bill through.

So I called them.

Buffy told me that yes there was an outstanding bill but she can’t send it to my insurance company because they already submitted it to collections. She gave me the phone number for them.

So I called them.

I finally reached the revenue recovery organization (fancy word for collection agency) & the department that was “handling” my claim. This time I was as sweet as cherry pie!

It’s true that you can get more bees with honey than vinegar!

The lady on the other end took my insurance policy information and told me that she’d send them a bill and help me take care of this issue. So there it stands. Hopefully soon this $326.00US bill will be paid and my credit score will be fixed!

Lessons learned: Check to see if the hospital and the doctor you visit in the US bill separately or all together. Read the small print!! Second thing…. don’t snap at the collection agents when they call… they are just doing their jobs. I apologized for being a cranky pants the last time we “chatted”.

13 places I’ve been worldwide (Canada excluded) or want to go to!

1. United States ~ I’ve been to almost every State, with the exception of Alaska (which is odd since I worked for an Alaskan cruise line for 4 summers as a teen), Vermont & Maine. My favourite was Hawaii followed closely by South Carolina (Charleston in particular) and one day I’d like to see the beaches along the Gulf Coast.

2. Mexico ~ I don’t really remember Mexico, I was really young. I do recall the locals had a thing for my little sister who had white blonde hair and bright blue eyes.

3. Japan ~ I lived in Kanazawa for a year after high school on an exchange program. While there I visited Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe.

4. France ~ My hubby and I backpacked through parts of Europe when our oldest was around 7 months old. He was a perfect traveler. We stayed a few days in Paris in a place a step up from a hostel on Ponte Neuf. It was incredible to walk this beautiful city.

5. Switzerland ~ While we were backpacking we made a stop off for a week at a friend’s place in Lucerne. They were proud to show off Zurich and a little village near the Swiss/Italian border. The Alps (& the Matterhorn) were exquisite.

6. Italy ~ While Lucerne was our “base” we took a train to Venice and Florence and back again in just a few days. We spent a night in each city and took in as much history as we could. We joke to our son (who is now 11) that he slept through some of the most famous museums in the world. Note to self: do not eat – while seated backwards – on the Italian speed train! blech…

7. England ~ OK, so I haven’t actually touched UK soil… I was trapped inside the airport in London while on the way and back from location #8.

8. South Africa ~ I took 5 teens from our church on a Mission’s trip in the summer of 2008. We spent 3 weeks touring and working throughout KwaZulu Natal.

Places I’d like to visit:

9. Egypt ~ The history and archeology intrigue me, my momma raised me right.
10. Israel ~ Biblical history… need I say more!
11. Greece ~ Same reason as #9 & 10 and it’s only increased since my parents took a cruise throug the Mediterranean a few years ago.
12. Ireland ~ My sister went on a Mission’s trip while she was still in high school and after seeing “Leap Year” I want to experience those lush, green, rolling hills myself!
13. Norway ~ It’s a part of my family heritage on my Dad’s side (he’s half Ukrainian and half Norwegian). The closest I’ve come to experiencing anything Norwegian is on the Ship my parents took my husband and I on a cruise around Hawaii for our 10th anniversary back in 2006.
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I was watching the news last night – in particular – the crazy weather that is happening around the world right now!

Snow in Dallas, Texas

Ice in Florida

Blizzards in England

What’s Global Warming!!

The other day a friend of mine from Fort Myers Beach in Florida emailed me to “brag” about their weather, “It’s 30 this morning,” she writes. I responded… “WOW, that’s hot, it’s minus 12 here!” It took me a day to realize that she was talking in Fahrenheit!

Being a Canadian, I think in Celsius.

It was then that I saw an image on the news with icicles dangling delicately from orange trees.

The CTV news correspondence in Washington, DC made me laugh. He finished off his story about all the strange, cold weather going on all over the US right now and says, “Canadians just call it, Winter”. Yup, that’s right. It’s just another normal winter up here. Maybe that’s why we have so many “Snowbirds“?! Just because we’re used to it… doesn’t mean we like it!

If you’re traveling this winter season to a location North of the 49th Parallel in particular… make sure you’re covered. I saw a whack of people sleeping in the airports in London, stuck there because they didn’t purchase the proper trip cancellation  / interruption insurance. That’s not how I’d like to spend my vacation!

Speaking of vacations… it’s been a great week at the cottage but it’s back to reality tomorrow. I hope you’re having a good start to 2010!