Getting Organized

Spoiler alert. In 2010-11 after completing a year long world trip I wrote a summary of how I organized it. This time as I am finishing preparations for the another year long trip, I decided to write down a few things to help me remember the thought processes and the problems I encountered.

In May and June I started planning the upcoming leave year and trying to decide which countries to visit and which route to take. I started with a list of countries I was interested in and had not yet been to, (Iceland, Ethiopia, Iran, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Bhutan), and countries I wanted to revisit to explore further, (Morocco, India, Thailand). Then I checked the websites of the two companies I had travelled with previously, Gadventures (formerly known as GAP) and Intrepid and began to look at the trips they offered in those countries. I had decided from previous experience that small group tours appeal to me for a number of reasons: they provide a guide, instant travelling friends, safety in numbers, and support if one runs into trouble or get sick, and while you are with them you don't have to carry your luggage around. In addition they provide an itinerary that hits the highlights of the area and on most of the trips they provide cultural experiences and homestays that would be difficult to achieve by yourself.

The first country I researched was Iceland. I had decided that Iceland would make a good starting destination and a perfect opportunity to travel to England to visit John. Both companies offered trips of various lengths and visiting and doing a variety of things. After some consideration I chose the longest trip, 10 days. Then I decided to take the trip with Intrepid because they offered a circle tour with a guide for the full 10 days, whereas with the GAdventures trip it only had a guide for 8 days after which it returned to Rekyjavik for two days of optional activities which were expensive and didn't really appeal to me. Then of course I had to pick a starting date. I decided to leave in mid August in order to provide me with time to enjoy some of the Canadian summer, the cottage, my motorcycle, my bicycle, visit friends and organize for the adventure. Therefore, I picked August 12^th.

At this point I contacted my friend Denise and asked if she was interested in being my travel agent and support as I travelled. Thankfully she was interested and she booked the tour I selected and found me a cheap priority class flight to get started. Good start, first country and trip selected and booked.

Next, I contacted John and asked if he would have sometime in late August for me to visit and travel around Wales or maybe Swindon to see the Uffington, or Chalkhills Horse. He said he would make time and we could do that or maybe the Cornish coast where I had seen a picture of a very scenic fishing village on the Internet. He told me that he and Dottie were heading to Spain for the first week of September and that maybe I could travel with them there. I could continue from there when they returned to England.

At this point I printed off a year long calendar with one month per page, in order to organize and plan dates and tours and mark them with post-it notes until they were cemented in, and then I could record them in pen on the calendar.

From there the next country that seemed to make sense was Morocco. Again I researched trips with both countries and chose a 15 day trip with Gadventures.

I decided that I was interested in returning to parts of Africa to take a couple more safari tours.When I was checking out the GAdventures website I came across a tour of Kenya run by National Geographic (one of their partner companies). It was for a week and visited three national parks, Masa Mara, Abiseili and Nkuru. I had been to Kenya before and visited two of the parks, but I when I looked at dates and I found one that would allow me to be in the Masa Mara park around about the time of the migration and the Mara River crossing. I had never been to  Abiseili National Park and this is the one that offers the spectacular views of Kilimanjaro that I had seen on the Internet. So I booked that and had Denise book it and try to find flights from Morocco to Kenya. She also sent along a e-link to apply for a Kenyan visa on-line. (This proved to be a problem in that for some reason the website would not let me upload the required photos. Frustrated and after being in contact with the Embassy in Ottawa, I went to my parent's house and for some reason their computer allowed me to upload, problem solved.)

Next I decided on a trip to Mozambique and after checking the visa requirements through the Canadian government advisory website, I booked it. Then I compared Gadventures and Intrepid trips to Madagascar and decided to book two seperate trips there with Intrepid. And lastly I chose a trip through South Africa again with Intrepid from Johannesburg to Cape Town. I wanted to return to Cape Town because it is a beautiful city and there were a couple of things there that I wanted to do including visiting Robbin Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. I tried to get there last trip but the seas were too rough.

So Denise did the bookings for the flight from Morocco to Nairobi, Kenya and then from there to Johannesburg.

However, then I was told by a visa website that Mozambique does not issue visas upon arrival and upon investigation discovered that I it would be very difficult to get one before I left and it would probably expire before I arrived. So after a few days thought I decided to forget it and began to research other trips. The problem was though, that I had trips booked before and after it which left a certain window and I had a flight already booked from Kenya to Joburg. First I found an Intrepid trip through Zimbabwe from Victoria Falls to Joburg that looked interesting, but that didn't solve the flight problem, but then I found another trip that went from Joburg to Victoria Falls through Zambia and arrived on the day where I could stay in the same hotel and join the other trip back south to Joburg. Problem solved, the dates worked perfectly and I didn't have to change the original flight.

I have been planning this trip for years, ever since the last trip. I wanted to be involved in Project Overseas, which I did three summers in a row and I wanted to do a teacher exchange to Australia, which I did. In order to do the latter, I delayed my final leave year of the 4 over 5 to the following year. I had been telling people of my plans for 5 or 6 years and said that I would delay my retirement until I had taken advantage of these opportunities that teaching provided and then return (or not) from the leave year and then retire. People told me that you cannot retire from the 4 over 5 and that you had to work a minimum of one year. I investigated and found out that the school board didn't care and the pension plan didn't care, so who? It turns out to be the CRS, our tax department does. Apparently it is considered a tax deferral program and if you retire from it they have the right to review your taxes for the last five years and reassess and potentially apply penalties and interest. Yikes. I had my aunt who is an accountant investigate it and she couldn't come to a definitive answer. So for now I will let it ride, I don't have to decide until next spring and if I have to come back and work another year, it wouldn't be the end of the world.

When planning a trip like this, you have to notify OHIP (the Ontario Health Insurance Plan) that you are leaving for a year. They allow you to leave the country for a maximum of two years at a time but you have to meet certain requirements. The lady at the desk told me I didn't qualify because I had only been back from Australia for six months. If I could not secure OHIP approval then my 60 day benefit travel insurance through the Toronto District School Board would be invalid and the other company that tops up for the remainder of the year wouldn't insure me. In addition, if I didn' thave OHIP I would have to wait for three months upon my return to be covered again. So, I took advantage of the fax number provided to appeal the decision. In my letter I told them I was leaving in six weeks and needed an answer before then so that I could either be approved or explore other travel insurance options. I gave them my phone number and e-mail hoping to get a speedy answer. I waited three weeks and started to research the other options, which turned out to be ex-pat insurance, which is twice as expensive. Then I got a letter from OHIP saying that they received my letter dated July 2015 and they would review my situation and provide a decision in 6 to 8 weeks! This time frame didn't work for me, so I used the phone number on the letter and contacted them directly. I managed to talk to a reviewer and explain my situation. He took my details and asked me for proof on residency for the last couple of years. I e-mailed him scans of bank statements, bills (with home address) and pay stubs. I waited for another couple of weeks before phoning him again. He told me that I had been approved the day before, that my OHIP was in place and that I would receive confirmation in the mail by Friday. Yahoo!