Ready to go ...

Overall we’ve been to lots of places. Since it is my second blog, I thought that I would talk about some of the experiences I have had planning our trips. On our past trips my mom and dad haven’t asked us to help plan any of our activities before hand. For this trip, they encouraged my brother and I to research the area where we are going. I think that is a good idea because we get to know stuff about where we are going before we even get there. If we know some information about where we are going, we can find everything easier.

   In the beginning, I wasn’t ready to miss all that school. That was a big concern for me and my brother. Our parents sort of pushed us until I realized there was nothing that I could do. I was angry and a little frustrated at first. The reason why I was so angry and frustrated was number one, that I would miss all my friends, number two, that everything would be a little different, like not sleeping in my own bed. 

   Traveling in general is great. In general I don’t mind sleeping in somebody else’s bed. I don’t enjoy the hustle and bustle of the everyday moving. Like packing up wet when it is raining and we are camping. I like going to hostels and hotels. I like the people that we meet. I like trying different foods. That is a definite bonus. 

   Our overall plan is to follow the Mekong river. We might not get a chance to travel all around China but Beijing is where we are planning to fly into. We are also planning on staying in Beijing for a couple days or even a week. I have been searching in Vietnam for caves and little holes in the wall. I also came across the cheapest hotel in Vietnam. The cheapest hotel didn’t look nice so I searched via the internet for another hotel. The second hotel that I searched was on a beach and it did look nice. It was a bit more expensive but I thought it looked decent. The second hotel had a pool, the pool didn’t look like it was on the ocean, I may be wrong about that though. My brother suggested to me some more ideas about where to stay, but I didn’t think that my mom and dad would agree with his places because they were all super fancy.

Some other things that will be important in our trip:
Number one:  the backpack. The backpack will be a fun thing to have in my travels.  There was an article in the MEC magazine that was about a women and her brother.  She has MS and her brother carried her on a three day hike in Costa Rica.  We had the idea from that article to make a backpack that I could ride in and somebody could carry me.  My dad is making the backpack.  The pieces of the backpack came from 2 places.  The first part was given to us from MEC and the actual backpack came from a garage sale for zero dollars!

Number two: Storing insulin. Storing insulin can be a bit of a challenge, especially when we are traveling.  We have never gone that long on a trip, so we have to be careful to keep the insulin cool.  We have a medi-fridge, it’s a little tiny fridge that we can store my insulin in.  If we didn’t have that fridge we wouldn’t be able to carry insulin and my insulin is critical to my health.  The diabetes clinic always says “Carry half of your supplies in one bag, and the other half in another bag”  that way if it goes missing you will always have half of what you need.

Number three: What I think it will be like. It’s going to be a cultural experience.  We’re going to eat lots of different food and that will be interesting enough.  We are going to have to guess on my insulin because we don’t know how much carbohydrate is in some foods.  That will be interesting to see if we are right. We are going to see and experience some interesting things: the Bird’s Nest and other interesting buildings, unusual wildlife, beautiful scenery, temples, restaurants, hotels, shops, caves, boat travel. I think there will be some English speaking people there and that will make the trip easier.  Also, it’s going to be very hot there and we have to be prepared for rain or sun.

Number four: Lacey. Lacey has been my caregiver for a number of years.  You are probably wondering why I’m writing about her, now here’s the time to tell you why. She is going on the trip with us. Lacey adapts very well to a lot of different situations. One particular situation that I remember well is when she heard a sound. As it was early one morning in Newfoundland and it was very cold, Lacey got into my sleeping bag and cuddled with me.