Another Year has Passed and another trip is on the Horizon. (Oct 2019). MYANMAR and THAILAND

Good day all,

I'm sitting here surrounded by female volleyball memorabilia, pictures and trophies - tactical gear and challenge coins. Can anyone guess where I am? First person to guess correctly will win themselves a post card from my first destination but you must reply to this blog post on the blog site.

The owner of this stupendous condominium has allowed me to stay here for the final three weeks before my departure back to South East Asia. I'll tell you, the accommodation here is top notch. I wake up from my naps with dinner plated and awaiting my appetite. Cold cream soda chilling in the refrigerator and a guard dog to protect me from intruders and shower me with unconditional love. Why would I ever want to leave?

I will be departing from Vancouver in the last week of October to Chiang Mai Thailand ! Aww yes.. thats why! I will visit with my wonderful and amazing girlfriend in Chiang Mai for approximately a week before venturing off into the unknown. The unknown is one of my favourite things this world has to offer. I have been to Chiang Mai before so I already have an idea of what I'll be doing there - Muay Thai fight, lots of billiards, visit Zoe in Yellow (not sure if anyone remembers that place) and of course like mentioned this will all be with Banana, I call her Amphawan (which is her real Thai name). These things alone make it a worthy trip. Chiang Mai is one of my favourite cities in the world, the food, the culture, the people, the person ;).

After the week I'm sure my sleep schedule will be recovered from the jet lag and then Ka-Bloom! Amphawan and I will be getting on a plane and headed to Myanmar for two weeks. We'll be flying into Mandalay and begin another adventure into a foreign underdeveloped country which has immense culture to offer.

To be honest I hadn't really thought much about travel to Myanmar until a good friend of mine, Chia, travelled there a few years ago and poured with enthusiasm as he described his trip. After seeing some pictures and hearing about the highlights I was sold. This past March I found an incredibly priced roundtrip plane ticket from Vancouver to Chiang Mai ($720 CAD). I started booking everything and here we are 18 days away from a month of travel to white sandy beaches, a hot air ballon ride and a culture of which I have no idea. I'm expecting the country to have the infrastructure relative to Cambodia, everything you need but certainly not the amenities of Thailand or Malaysia. Second world-ish.

Its been a long wait with much anticipation since booking but Chans wedding took my mind off of it for a week so that was good. An exceptional wedding, from the decor to the bridal party, then the venue and the open bar.. the food too.. but the best part was being apart of it as a groomsman. So much fun and so many great memories. Congratulations Channer! Jackie Chan, the Chan Man, Chancellor, or my personal favourite Chan-olitos. The bride and groom looked phenomenal. The limo ride from the hotel.. It was a fantastic day. And then.. the day after an authentic Chinese 12 course meal, with pigeon heads and saliva bird nest soup Mmmmmm haha. Ribs and noodles and jellyfish. It was an experience where Kola and I had honestly an unreal time. Thank you Chan for it all. Love ya buddy.

Alright back to the trip and specifically how this blog will operate. Were gonna kick it a little old school back to 2011. Everyone who really enjoys this blog and wants to win prizes like Myanmar beer, Thai rum, post cards and anything else eclectic that I find along my travels should make sure they make a profile to comment on blog posts. I think you can also make anonymous posts but you have to sign your name at the end of the comment so I know who wrote it. For those of you, mom and, Josh, Zach, Deno, Vandamme, Traydese that I know for sure have already done that are in good shape. Everyone else I suggest you do sooo. One piece of feed back I get from regular readers is they love reading the comments from other readers. DO IT you garn bag holes. It'll take a few minutes and you might win some stuff. I'm going to ask questions for prizes a lot and if you whats app me the answer I will ignore you :).

For those of you that I send this blog link to: please, do not send the link to anyone one else from work, I sent it to you because I trust you won't be telling everyone at work what I'm doing on my travels, as most of you know I'm a very private person. You can always message me and ask if its okay to send it to someone else.  This is very important otherwise I will be forced to make the blog have a password in order to see it. Can ya.. can ya nooot.. don't wad me.

There will be a lot of pictures and I hope to write more posts then usual because I will be bringing my personal lap top. First time for this, which means it will be much easier than before when I had to search for an Internet cafe that charged me up the colon.

Thank you all for your love and support, I love writing this and from the feedback Im starting to feel there is somewhat of a cult following, especially from my earliest readers when I started writing in 2011 for my 6 month trip to Australia.  Josh, Leana (my sister) Traydese, mom and dad, Ronola, and then theres the new age followers that are awesome too. Deno and Vandamme don't read it much which is a sham move so I thought I'd single you both out. Eat Sham you wads. To anyone else that reads it a lot, I love you and thank you. Chan, Woods, Scurrah and Chia  and all the rest Bekah and anyone else.

Again if I send you this link, obviously I don't care if you and your wife or gf read it but please don't send it to other people at work. Always have your pets spade or neutered.

Shaner