GOOD LUCK
I have good luck. I am a white man from Canada. Born in 1952, I am a baby boomer, the generation that has had it best – cheap education and unlimited career opportunities resulting in the last generation making more than their parents. I went to a university that gave preference to students with only two years of pre-med and the last year that a one-year internship was available – I started working when I was 24.
I inherited good health and was fortunate to be born with a wonderful gift – Asperger’s Syndrome that gives me great focus to excel at any special interest.
I joined a practice in a rural community with no specialists. We were encouraged to develop a special interest and I eventually had the most interesting practice imaginable – I did abortions, tubal ligations and caesarian sections, developed a referral practice in dermatology (and worked as a dermatologist five times in the Canadian Arctic) and finally had a large methadone practice developing experience in the area. addiction medicine. That is in addition to a full-scope family practice with work in emergency, hospital inpatient care, obstetrics, and pediatrics.
We had a day off every week and had to take nine weeks of holidays a year allowing me to travel 37 times to the desert southwest of the United States.
I was fortunate to be able to save enough money to retire at 53 and start travelling to see the world. With good investment opportunities, I had more money after 18 years of travel.
When travelling, I rarely worry about anything as most things turn out. Even when things turn sideways (as is so common with travel) they add to the experience and unbelievably often have a positive outcome. I
“Attitude is the difference between an ordeal and an adventure.” — Bob Bitchin
• Zambia May 2023. I was in a bus station waiting to go from Kapiri to Ndola in the northwest Copperbelt. Sitting next to me was Jerry, a missionary from South Africa who had devoted his life to God. He had no interest in marriage but was married to the church, He was a smart guy and easy to talk to. As an atheist, I am interested in people who are smart but also have unfaltering faith in something for which there is no proof. The conversation turned to how lucky we both felt. Jerry didn’t believe in luck – he knew his good fortune was a blessing from God. Could be.
• Drive Across the US and Canada. March to May 2020. I crossed into the US on March 15, 2020, just before the border closed to finish seeing all 50 US states. This allowed me to still travel during the early days of COVID. After seeing the last of the states, on May 12, I returned to Canada from Maine crossing at St Stephen, New Brunswick. I had been perfectly self-isolated in my truck/camper and had no symptoms of COVID. I was under quarantine for two weeks in a lovely hotel room in Fredericton, New Brunswick for 2 weeks.
Two hotel floors were reserved for the entire province but I was alone for 10 days.
All my meals were delivered – I had pizza on my first night. They also sent 8 cheese poppers and a box of brownies I didn’t ask for. I was going to get fat. I didn’t like my restaurants and got them changed. My laundry was free. Two lovely Red Cross volunteers looked after my every want. And, it was all free! I was as happy as a clam getting two welcome weeks of rest.
I got to go outside for 30 minutes twice a day. This is more exposure to others than I had had for two months. I was much safer travelling in my camper. And they said “This is for your safety”. OMG
Every province in Canada had one quarantine facility like this. It was another crazy idea of some public health officer with no common sense. Why didn’t they expedite a test and when negative send me on my way? This costs the government a small fortune. The money could be used in more productive ways.
After the two weeks, I drove back across Canada stopping to see long-lost cousins in Calgary.
Meeting people you know in distant places. I think this is a form of luck. It has happened to me four times.
• Bahia Concepcion, Baja Mexico December 2006. I was sitting on the beach in front of my camper. A guy walked in front of us and I chatted him up. I recognized something about him and said “Brian?” I had known him since I was three years old. His family lived across the street in Glentworth, Saskatchewan, a town of 100 people (they moved away in 1959 and our family moved in 1960). Our families (their 4 boys were all the same ages as our 3 boys) had remained close since then but I had not seen him for a few decades.
• Mulege, Baja Mexico Dec 2006. The next day, while doing the laundry in Mulege, we ran into Kim, the fellow who runs the water taxi business on Slocan Lake, British Columbia! I knew him casually. His partner, Sydney attended Barb’s wedding and they hadn’t seen each other for 30 years!!
They were building a house in Mulege. Nine of us had a lovely Christmas dinner, complete with a mariachi band, at one of the hotels in Mulege. We even danced. It was an unbelievable 2 days.
• Sapa, Vietnam December 2017. Here with my girlfriend, we went to an obscure restaurant and ended up sitting next to Larry and his wife Hazel from Rossland BC. I knew both of them from hiking camp. They had just come from the rice terraces in southern China.
• Teatro Massimo, Palermo Sicily February 2018. I was at a Gershwin/Ellington concert in this magnificent theatre. I sat next to a couple now living in Vancouver, who grew up in Medicine Hat, Alberta, where I spent all my school years. They were good friends with my brother and knew all about me. We walked back to our hotels together.
BAD LUCK
• Mexico September 1980. I went to climb Popcatepetl, Iztaccihuatl and Orizaba, the three highest mountains in Mexico. I lost my luggage and only climbed Popo, at over 17,000 feet still my highest mountain. I picked up my luggage on my way home.
• Channel Islands September 2022. On arrival in Guernsey, a PCR was required and I had to isolate for 2 days until the test result was available in a hotel that cost CAD$218/night + food. Then the bad news came. I had just come from Jersey which was level 4, the UK didn’t accept Canadian vaccination records, and I had to quarantine for 14 days. I appealed this on compassionate grounds and only had one more day in the hotel until I could board the ferry to St Malo France where my van was parked. I only saw the airport and the inside of an ugly hotel room and felt lucky to be able to do that. The experience cost over $750.
• Iraq 2022. I was to fly to Basra which had the craziest rules. A 7-day reservation in two hotels that couldn’t be booked was required. Our guide said everyone ignored the rule and not to worry. When I checked in for my Qatar flight in Cairo, the agents enforced the rule, I wasn’t allowed to board the flight and lost the fare with no recourse. The other three in my group flew on Emirates who ignored the rule.
• Tuvalu December 2023. Just as I was to board the flight to Tuvalu from Fiji, it was cancelled because of a cracked runway due to a heavy rain the night before, Because of a fixed schedule and flights were booked through Christmas, I could not get to Tuvalu. It was my last country on the way to 193. I wasn’t able to have a refund for the $800 flight. Interestingly, the Tuvalu airport is FUN. This was no fun.
• Watch Adventures. I have had an inexpensive Timex digital watch for decades. It is waterproof and has served me well. But twice, on its own volition, it changed time spontaneously.
Java, Dec 2014. I reserved the Argo (air-con) train for the 518 km and 7 hours trip from Jakarta to Yogyakarta, departing at 16:20 and arriving at 23:40. I then had one of the more disorientating experiences of my life. I went to board the train and my seat was occupied. Then I learned that it was Sunday, Dec 28th not Monday, the 29th and that it was 4 pm, not 5 pm, like it says on my watch. Wow, how screwed up can one be. I have just gained 25 hours and didn’t cross the international date line. I have not taken any drugs nor have had anything to drink for months. It is amazing how reliant we get to be on our watches, and I believe that it has been right up to now, at least it was for all the flights and trips I have taken in the last 4 months.
Don’t ask me what happened. Maybe it is aliens.
I now had plenty of time, bought a new ticket for a $12 penalty and got on the train. I wondered when my hostel was booked. It turned out, I had missed it too.
Italy, August 2021. The weirdest thing of my life happened on my return flight from Cagliari, Sardinia to Turin on August 12, 2021. The departure was at 06:00 and I had slept at the airport. I woke up at 04:30 with lots of time. I checked the departures board and my flight had departed ten minutes earlier!! My watch said 04:55 on October 22 and it was 06:10. The time had been correct all the previous day as I had taken buses to see a WHS on Sardinia, eaten at 19::00, talked to my girlfriend and gone to bed at 01:00. I rarely sleep more than 4 hours so I doubted I would sleep in.
I purchased a flight on Air Italia for 140€ with a stop in Rome and arrived at 14:30.
I had the strongest premonition that something bad would happen to my original flight. In many ways, I have had tremendous luck all my life. Maybe it was continuing??
STUPIDITY
Courage is knowing it might hurt, and doing it anyway. Stupidity is the same. And that is why life is hard.
• Leaving things behind. It is astonishing how many things I have walked away from. My best travel tip (for myself) is “Wherever you have been for more than a second, turn around and look back.”
Rwanda September 2022. I left my Kindle under the bed covers in a hotel. I didn’t realize it until about 200 km later and drove back. The cleaning woman had kept it and had gone to church. I eventually got it and ended up driving the same road three times.
• Pickpockets. I have been pickpocketed four times, all because of stupidity – putting my wallet in my back pocket with no closure, carrying a new iPhone in a front pocket on La Rambla, Barcelona, the pickpocket capital of the world and taking my phone into a crazy crowd at the Goroka Festival in PNG when I was floated above the crowd and lost control of the shoulder bag it was in.
• Ecuador 2014. I sterilized some tap water with a defective device (a Steripur) and drank the water. I got terrible traveller’s diarrhea that lasted for my entire trip to the Galapagos. I took Ciprofloxacin which finally dealt with the problem.
• Uzbekistan 2015. In Bukhara, I purchased a gorgeous suzani for US$495. I mailed it. with an expensive Arcteryx jacket to my home address where Canada Post was holding my mail. I hadn’t read the fine print that they don’t accept parcels. It was returned to sender!
• Dubai November and December 2015. Dubai has become a major flight hub and I transited or stayed here three times in late 2015. On my first trip, I did a very dumb thing. I decided to walk from the airport to the Dubai Youth Hostel (it said it was an option), but that was a poor choice, especially as the metro would have been easy. I wanted some exercise, but became hopelessly lost and almost died trying to cross a freeway.
Dubai is not made for pedestrians. I hadn’t progressed to a smartphone with maps and my Lonely Planet map was on my computer, much less convenient than the paper edition. Luckily a nice Indian fellow finally gave me a ride. One might think you were in India as the only people you see anywhere are South Asian. And if you want help, ask them – they give great accurate information and are sweet people.
• Forgot where I had hidden a wallet. I put my wallet with my spare credit and debit cards in a place in my van that I wouldn’t forget – until I forgot. I cancelled all the cards. I was down to one card that somehow was hacked by a Scottish gaming company. It was a disaster. To use the card, I phoned the card company and had the block lifted to allow the booking of lights.
• Break the back window in my van. In Spain in 2018, I was parked at a McDonald’s. A large truck was pulled up alongside the outlet. There was room for me to back up and leave. Just as I started to back up, the driver opened her big door. My back window hit it and shattered. After difficulty ordering and installing the window, I was 1000€ poorer.
• Left my pack at Charles de Gaulle, Paris. I entered at a transit entrance and left my large pack on the end of the security X-ray scanner. I then forgot where that was and travelled to four countries in West Africa with what was in my daypack. I “borrowed” two airline blankets, purchased a cheap shirt and toiletries and managed. That was lightweight travel! I had to return to Paris to get the pack, another adventure.
• Getting from SE Turkey to Kurdistan Iraq. Dec 2019. At Akdamar in SE Turkey, I had a decision to make. I wanted to go to Kurdistan Iraq but Google Maps only showed routes through Iran and NW Iraq, both visa impossibilities. I Googled Turkey/Kurdistan border crossings and got two: Zete supposedly just opened in 2018 in the corner next to the Iran border, a 275kms, 3½ hour drive, or the Ibrahim Khalil border crossing, the main tourist and truck crossing (and the only one before 2018). Even though Google Maps did not show Zete as even existing, I was closest to here.
The drive to the mythical Zete took me over 3 mountain passes – 2730m with slush and -4°C temperatures, 2110m elevation and clear roads, and 1900m just before Şemdinli and the border. The highways are superb in Turkey and these were no exception – fast 4-lane or good 2-lane. After the first pass, an odd reinforced concrete box canal had been constructed to carry the stream. Often it was above the level of the highway in the extremely narrow canyon.
The trip was through snow-covered mountains dropping down into valley floors with no snow. As I neared Iraq, there was a large military presence with many checkpoints. But they were all pleasant.
In fact, Zete didn’t exist. There never was a border crossing into Iraq here. I turned around and drove back to Yüksekova. It was almost dark so I parked on the side of the highway outside town for the night. I ate and played bridge until late then all of a sudden was surrounded by several military vehicles with an angry officer who spoke no English. After a thorough search and many questions translated on Google Translate, I was told this was a dangerous place and I had to go into town. It had started snowing. I drove into Yüksekova and parked at a gas station. The forecast was for heavy snow. I thought I was screwed – in the middle of the mountains surrounded by high passes and only 4-season tires. But I had faith in the great Turkish road system and its winter maintenance.
In the morning, there was 4cm of snow on the ground and it was still snowing. I decided to head west through the mountains of southern Turkey towards the Iraq border. After some slush, the road became clear. I followed a river, the Çataksuyu Stream, downhill. The roads became better and the snow, even on the mountains, disappeared.
Besides missing a turn and having to deal with difficult soldiers, everything turned out great. The canyon turned into a magnificent rugged gorge – big steep sloping plates of rock covered in green moss and then green grass mixed with the ragged mountains.
The next problem arose. Google Maps lost its navigation ability. This has happened before (in Kosovo) and you have to use Google Maps Preview to navigate manually. It gives a route but no turns or instructions. It needed to be refreshed every 90 seconds and moved along the route manually.
I reached a turn where the road left the river. I could go south through the Turkey/Iraq border at Üzümlü or the long way around through Ibrahim Khalil border crossing, the normal and main entry into Kurdistan.
The Turkish military pointed me to Üzümlü. There were no road signs and the road switch backed high up to the top of the mountain where the border was. After the usual bureaucratic mess of Turkish immigration (but eased by the help of one nice guy who spoke English), I finally got to Iraq immigration for another big disappointment. I could cross here but my vehicle couldn’t!!!! Turkey closed their border for an hour at 1:30 and a nice Kurd who spoke good English invited me for a Kurdish lunch of rice, dark noodles, fried chicken and bean soup. In the 3 years, he had worked at this crossing, I was the first native English speaker and the first Westerner. I had to endure Turkish immigration again. I told the nice guy that he was the best Turkish immigration officer I had ever seen. He wasn’t Turkish but a Kurd!
So I returned down the mountain to the river and turned west up through more mountains, over a couple of low passes and finally turned southwest as directed by Google Maps. In a village, the entrance for the road to the border was so insignificant that I missed it twice. It started as narrow rough pavement that climbed up to one of the more unusual roads I have travelled – new, wide, cement, no painted lines, a sharp 15 cm shoulder, and a slight corrugated feel due to pouring lines every ⅔m. It seemed to climb forever and then went along the top of the mountains for several kilometres.
The road eventually continued off the indicated route on Google Maps and ended at a heavily guarded military checkpoint, which was also the “end of the road”. The road shown on Google Maps was washed out and had been undrivable for a few years.
After many questions and phone calls, I was given two soldiers in full combat gear and guns to take me to the town 60 km away that would give me access to the Iraq border – apparently for my safety as there were “terrorists in the area”.
We took a different very steep road down to the original town and stopped at a military base where I was taken in for questioning. They wanted to know why I was in a special military zone, why I had travelled to so many dangerous countries like Syria and Iran, and why I wanted to go to Iraq. They eventually became friendly and let me go. The soldiers didn’t continue with me (I was still 45 km from the town) and it was obvious they were there to make sure I got to the interrogation. This was one of my more unusual travel experiences.
This was my fourth attempt to get from Turkey to Kurdistan (how dumb is that?), and now a long drive to the Iraq border at Ibrahim Khalil border crossing. It ended up taking three whole days to get there. But I saw some nice mountains and canyons in parts of southern Turkey that most people never get to – and I wonder why??
• Buying gas in Kurdistan. Dec 2019. I drove my VW California into Kurdistan from Eastern Anatolia Turkey. In Erbil, Kurdistan, I filled up with the very cheap diesel at 600 IQD/litre ($US .50/L or € .46/l.), the second cheapest in the Middle East and cheaper than gasoline. It was dispensed at pumps removed from the normal gas pumps and used a large diameter filling tube made for large trucks which made it difficult for my van.
When leaving Kurdistan, an engine check light came on indicating a problem with the exhaust/catalytic converter system. Thankfully it was not urgent as I couldn’t find a VW dealer until Diyarbakir. They found a leak in one of the hoses which was covered by warranty. I had dinner and slept in the lot. They even had a shower!
The job seemed to take forever – 3½ whole days to figure out, but I parked in the front of the dealership for 2 nights and slept in the garage for one. I played a lot of bridge, did a lot of work on the website and organized business in my life.
The garage has a cafeteria and everyone ate together. I was asked to join and had three excellent lunches with the 45 employees. I showered twice. Everyone was nice but the almost total lack of English was frustrating. Even though I had done so many things wrong (gas, oil, Ad Blue), it was difficult to find out what I should be doing. There were many very pretty young women working at the garage, none of them married. It was against the rules to wear a hijab at work.
The problem was the DPF (diesel particulate filter), the “soot filter” in the exhaust pipe. It can become plugged if using cheap high sulphur diesel (Iraq), semi-synthetic oil, overfilling the oil, driving at low speeds (in the city so few taxis are diesel) without driving at high speeds at least once a month or even bad Ad Blue. The whole thing cost TL 4,193 or €609.50 to fix but included “regenerating” the DPF, a car wash, changing the oil and air filter, doing all the checkups, and changing the gas and the Ad Blue. A new DPF costs in the range of €3500-4000!!!
I learned that the best products for the modern diesel engine with its many pollution controls are Gas: Shell V-Power, Oil: Castrol Edge Professional and Ad Blue: only from Shell. I should have asked if the diesel was high sulphur at the gas station.
• Finding Mt Kilamanjaro. May 2022. I did one of my dumbest things. I looked up the gates and instead of putting them into Google Maps. Marangu Gate was 41 km from Moshi Town but was back where I had just been. Once in Moshi, the closest gate was Mweka, a 25 km drive. Google Maps took me on the wrong route over a rough washed-out road through a coffee plantation until I finally hit the good paved road that led directly up from Moshi! When I got to Mweke, the gate was closed, I slept at a great eco-hotel parking lot and entered the next morning.
• Crack Computer Screen. During my September 2022 to January 2024 trip, I cracked the screen on my Mac Air three times. In Zimbabwe, I was reading in bed on my computer, dozed and the computer fell onto the hard floor, cracking the screen. Surprisingly, I had it fixed – he scavenged a new screen from an old computer and my computer changed from bronze to silver, cost US$800.
In Australia, I was working on my computer on a bench and when leaving, I set it on the hood of my car, forgot about it, drove away and cracked the screen. It was repaired with a new cover, the correct way to do it, cost A$550.
In a hostel in Fiji, I was charging my computer on a top bunk. When leaving, I unplugged it from the wall socket and forgot the end connected to the computer. It fell from the top bunk height to a hard floor. I had it repaired with a new generic cover with no Apple symbol, which cost $500. It is a very valuable computer.
• Kashgar China. June 21, 2024. This happened a few hours before I wrote this addition to the Stupid post. I had come from Pakistan to Kashgar on the 20th overnighting in a hostel in Kashgar. I had booked a flight from Kashgar to Xining for the 21st at 13:55. The owner of the hostel asked me when my flight was. I had 10:05 on my watch but it was 13:05 in China. I had missed my flight as I had not changed my watch to local China time which was 3 hours ahead. I had been up at 05:30 and wondered why so many people were up. Pakistan and Kashgar are on the same longitude and I had forgotten that time in China is the same over the entire country. I cancelled the flight and bought a new one for $125, half price. This was a real rookie mistake.
• Crossing the International Dateline. On July 3, 2024, I boarded the 9-hour flight from Tokyo to Vancouver arriving at 11:50 on July 2 (gaining a day which I forgot about). I needed to catch a ferry and then a bus home on Vancouver Island.
From the flight, I dealt with immigration, Canada Line metro, and bus 257 from West Georgia St in downtown Vancouver to Horseshoe Bay Ferry Terminal. I arrived just after boarding closed for the 2 pm ferry. I booked the Island LInk bus that met the 4 pm ferry using the date on my watch Dec 3. Island Link doesn’t allow same-day booking so I would have saved $38 if I had the correct date.
When the ferry arrived, Island Link was completely booked, My only option was to hitchhike the 100 km home. It took 5 rides, one bus, a sleep in a park and 15 hours.