December Expenses and 2023 Expenses Review

Well, 2023 was our most expensive year yet since we started out in 2007. We knew that we were going to spend more in 2023 than we did in 2022, so it's not surprising. We just didn't plan on it being that much more!

For December, we had a planned budget of $2,400 CAD ($1,780 USD). However that was before we decided to come to Malaysia, and the flights and accommodation here added to that. Also, we did some things in Thailand that were unplanned, like flying from Ubon to Chiang Mai.

Another one of those big lizards!

We slept in a bit after our late night on New Year's Eve, and just coasted through the morning. Not the most logical choice though, since the morning tends to be a couple of degrees cooler than the afternoon and we had some exploring to do!

Kuala Lumpur has a fair bit of park space, and one in particular showed a lot of different trails.

Happy New Year 2024!

One of the reasons we paid the extra to have accommodation right in the center of Kuala Lumpur was because we were coincidentally going to be here for New Year's Eve. And Kuala Lumpur is one of the world's great New Years Eve destinations. 

There is normally a midnight fireworks show at the iconic Petronas Twin Towers to ring in the new year, however that was cancelled this year as they unfortunately politicized the event due to the war in the middle east. They said we should not be celebrating while others in the world are suffering. However, some private enterprises here in Kuala Lumpur stepped up to the plate and we got to ring in the new year with fireworks anyhow.

Highlights of 2023. The Year in Review...

At the end of 2022, I wrote "2023 is going to be just as good"... and boy, was it ever!

We started 2023 in Granada, Spain and ended it in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. With 18 other countries in between! We were in 20 countries in total in 2023, with 10 of them being new countries for us, bringing our total countries visited list up to 67!

Welcome to Malaysia, country #67 for us!

With a 9:10am flight departure time, we left the hotel at about 6:30am. We originally thought about taking a Grab taxi, but there was hardly any traffic so we decided to walk to the airport. From the hotel it was just under 2 kms so we were still there by 7:00am.

We were already checked in online, but we had to check our carry on bags. We found the check in counter for AirAsia, and we were surprised to find that there was a huge line. This is when we almost made a rookie mistake!

Back to Chiang Mai

We needed to get back to Chiang Mai, and had originally thought our host would be driving us back to the main highway, and we would take the local transportation back to the city.

But the young couple, Jorrit and Mei, we had said hello to the day before had a car, and so we asked if they were heading back that morning hoping we could hop in with them. It turned out that they were, but they were making a side trip to a waterfall. "But you are welcome to join us", they said!

It's all about the money

With sore bums from the ride the day before, we hopped back on the bicycles for the 8 kms (5 mile) ride to the Wat Ban Den Temple Complex. Yes, we've seen a lot of temples (there are 37,000 of them in Thailand), but this one was supposed to be something special.

And it was!

Well, everything was going smoothly...

We went down for breakfast at 8:30am. Not quite as special as the breakfasts we had at the last place, but still sufficient... scrambled eggs, toast, coffee, and fruit. Right after breakfast, our host Pohn told us that they had to make a trip to the Myanmar border, and that we were on our own and to make ourselves at home.

He had left three older bikes out for us to choose from, and said there was no charge.

Now this is more our style!

At 8:00am Tuesday, we set up the laptop for a Christmas Day video call with the family. Of course it was Monday evening back in Canada, and with participants spread out between Nova Scotia and Alberta, there are a few time zones involved.  But, we got everybody online at the same time and there were seven different video screens open. Certainly amazing technology that allows us to do this from anywhere in the world!

We had one last great breakfast at the Chedi Home Guesthouse in Chiang Mai, and then set out walking with all of our worldly belongings.

Moving to the countryside

Our original plan was to stay at this guesthouse in Chiang Mai until the 30th, but when I booked, they were sold out after the 26th. This has turned out to be a good thing, since we've had enough of Chiang Mai and are taking our last three nights here out in the countryside!

The guesthouse itself has been great. But our first impressions of Chiang Mai have stuck with us. It's not for us. Far too busy, too big, too touristy, too much traffic, not easily walkable... we're just not seeing the attraction.

Merry Christmas from Thailand!

It's Christmas morning as I write this here in Thailand. And Christmas Eve in all of North America where the majority of our readers are located. Millions of kiddies will wake up with excitement and big smiles on their faces in the morning!

From the weather reports, it's looking like a green Christmas in our hometown of Ottawa. Not that rare of an event, as there have been about 15 of them since the 1950's. And it's most certainly a green Christmas here in Thailand!

What's on the agenda for 2024...?

I noticed that our friends Linda and Steven over at The Chouters posted their upcoming plans for 2024, and yesterday was a quiet day for us so I thought we'd take this opportunity to do the same.

Our plans are always pretty flexible though, so don't take all of this as being written in stone! 

Temple tunnels, and met some other Canadian senior nomads

We had originally planned to go on a hike, but ended up going to a temple instead. Personally, I'm already "templed out". They begin to all look the same after a while, so unless there is something special, I've lost interest. However this one had some interesting tunnels built into the complex, so we made the 5.5 km trek through the city to get there.

So I suppose we did do a hike... but it certainly wasn't in nature!

Arrived in Chiang Mai, Thailand

We called a Grab taxi (about $3.00) to take us and our bags to the Big Ubon Breakfasts for one last great breakfast before we flew out. It's only about 2 kms, and we would normally walk that, but Ubon is definitely not pedestrian friendly, especially during morning rush hour. 

We had a great breakfast, and the owner Andy offered to drive us the short distance to the Ubon airport terminal.

Daytrip number two to the Mekong River

We didn't see everything we wanted to see the day before, so once again we hopped in the rental car. This time, we drove northeast to Kaeng Sam Phan Bok, or as it is known in English, the 3,000 holes.

This is a section on the Mekong River where there are a lot of rapids during the high waters of the rainy season, and the swirling waters have created an odd landscape of erosion in the rocks. This phenomenon can only be seen during the December to March dry season when the low water levels enable you to explore the shoreline.