Tag: Toronto

International Destination Flights from Edmonton

My plan to start off my worldwide travel in the Dominican Republic was falling apart. It seemed too risky to start myself off in a country I’ve never visited before but trying to score a reasonably priced ticket for the Caribbean in summer with departure from Edmonton got impossible. Edmonton is not a very good gateway for international travel in general. There are often great deals to various places from Toronto, Calgary which is only 3 hours from Edmonton is half decent oftentimes as well and Vancouver is the best when aiming for Asia. And Asia it was I started to speculate about more and more with each new day. Trickier or not, even though I’ve never been to any Asian country before and wanted to start off in a place I was familiar with, something was attracting me to Asia and taking my focus away from the Dominican Republic. The fact that the Dominican Republic was a familiar place suddenly seemed unattractive – I’ve already been there before.

I started to expand my horizons and instead of looking for cheap tickets to the Caribbean, I started focusing more on flights to Asia. There was a part of me that really wanted to go to Cambodia. If I were to pull a list of top 10 places I would definitely love to visit before I die out of my head, Angkor Wat would be right there on top of it. And while I did enjoy my last trip to the Dominican Republic, there was nothing in it that would make the top 10 list in any way. Based on this fact alone, I knew that going to Cambodia was inevitable for me. It was simply a “must visit place before I die” and a big dream I needed to make come true. So I kept snooping around to see what options I had to go to Cambodia instead of the Caribbean at the end of August.

Trouble is – islands in the Caribbean Sea count as the most popular sun getaways for many people in Canada so trips scheduled down south are frequent and when compared to other parts of the world, attractively priced. Asia on the other hand – being on the opposite side of the Pacific Ocean and being so vastly different from North American counts as one of more expensive destinations for us in the Great White North. And my initial research confirmed all that. Then again, it’s a 6 hours long direct flight that can take me to the Dominican Republic, but it takes three planes and a total of 16 hours plane time to get me from Edmonton to Bangkok, which is the nearest big hub to Cambodia. Pacific Ocean is huge and I would have to go via Vancouver and Seoul to get to South East Asia where I was considering to end up.

Just as with most other international destinations, Edmonton was a bad starting point. Flights to Asia from Canada can be had for much cheaper if originating from Vancouver. So I started looking around for cheap ways to get me to Vancouver from Edmonton and then continue to Asia from there. Since Vancouver is much closer than Toronto and can be done in 1 day from Edmonton, I got back to looking for car sharing arrangements similar to those I have previously ditched when I wanted to fly to the Dominican Republic from the cities on the East Coast of Canada.

Car Sharing to Drive Across Canada

As my chances of scoring a reasonably priced plane ticket from Edmonton to the Dominican Republic were slimming by the day, I’ve realized that it was only going to get worse and started to look at alternative arrangements. Combining my flight to the Caribbean with car sharing drive across Canada seemed like an amazing option as it offered two hits with one blow. I’ve never done a cross Canada car trip so why not do it now? Besides, flying south from Edmonton in the middle of Summer was way too expensive, but some of the cities in the east still had reasonably priced tickets. So if I could car pool with someone to Toronto, Montreal or Ottawa, it would allow me to see Canada from the Cross Canadian highway and avoid outrageous fees for plane tickets originating from Edmonton (Calgary, the nearby city in the same province of Alberta wasn’t a big win either).

Sunwing.ca had amazingly cheap plane tickets available to the Dominican Republic from Toronto and Montreal so if I could get to any of these two cities, I’d be able to fly for less than $200 + fees and taxes. Compared to $800+ prices from Edmonton or Calgary, this was definitely a steal. Unfortunately, domestic flights are oftentimes more expensive than significantly longer, international flights so flying to Toronto or Montreal from Edmonton would bring the total cost of an entire flight to the level comparable to direct flight from Edmonton. This was definitely not an option. I’d be better off buying that overpriced, but direct ticket rather than flying via Toronto, paying the same amount but spending twice as much time getting there.

So instead I started searching through Kijiji.ca and Craigslist.org to see if anyone is looking to share a ride from Edmonton to the east coast of Canada. Surprisingly, There were many classified ads posted in Car Sharing category and since both Edmonton and Toronto are on a major cross Canada highway, vast majority of requests involved the two cities. Excited, I have responded to a bunch and started keeping a closer look at plane tickets to synchronize my arrival in either Toronto or Montreal with departure to the Dominican Republic.

Things were looking pretty good. With so many people driving across Canada and looking for someone to share their ride with so we could split the cost of gas and swap behind the wheel as well as keeping each other company so the ride doesn’t end up being a boring, 6 day long journey of torture, I was sure there would be a positive reply. And to be honest, I did get many – but ended up going with none. While the premise of car sharing and taking a drive across Canada is fantastic, you would be stuck in a confined space of a car with a person you don’t know – for 6 or more days. It’s a long trip and I was getting wrong buzz from the responses I have received. None of the people seemed like anyone I would be comfortable having a drink with, nevermind sharing a ride with for almost a week. Those were also the people I’d be entrusting my life in the hands of believing that they are responsible and safe drivers, but had no idea of verifying that it truly is so.

The premise definitely seemed exciting, but the risks involved seemed to be too high. What if a person I was sharing a car with decided that he didn’t want me in the car half way across Canada? I’d have a plane ticket booked in line with my anticipated arrival, but would be stuck somewhere in Saskatchewan. There are all kinds of weirdoes out there and unless you have a lot of time on your hands, or it is you who owns the car and makes the rules, you are looking at a rather risky bit of business. None of the people I exchanged emails and phone calls with sounded trustworthy. The benefits were definitely not worth the risks so I have concluded that I will not do a cross Canada drive in a shared car this time. I knew I was gonna do it one day, but it will be with someone I know and can rely on, someone who is fun to be around, someone who is not unstable and will act maturely and responsibly throughout whole drive. At this time, car sharing to drive across Canada was not a good option. So I was back at being stuck.

Early Retirement Planning

It was early Summer of 2009. Weather in Alberta has vastly improved which was great. Winter was long and tough this year – temperatures did not go above -30 Degrees Celsius for two months. Having summer with lots of sunshine and steaming temperatures felt uplifting. Meantimely, my mind was on a rollercoaster. Resumption of travel after many years of having been nowhere brought breath of fresh air to my thinking. My body was back in Canada from Iceland, but my mind was still on the road. Within a span of last few months I travelled to Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Iceland, Toronto and the Rocky Mountains. I loved it to bits and continued travelling in my mind. My time off work was spent on the computer, discovering places I would like to visit next.

I wanted to travel more. I needed to travel more. And now that the value of time and the idea of early retirement became well defined in my mind, I started to plan my exit from work and entrance into the world of travel. The way I saw it was that I needed to come with a strategy to quit work as soon as possible while causing as little uproar and talk as achievable. At the same time, I was gonna dedicate maximum of my off work time to the growth of my websites that bring the most revenue while entertaining offers for sale of websites that were more popular, but brought little revenue. I needed more positive cash flow which could be done by focusing on 20% of my revenue generators that generate 80% of my revenue and eliminating the costs associated with ownership of low income generators. And among all the essentials, I needed to find time to figure out where to go to start my tour around the world while keeping the cost of travel as low as possible.

Traveling frugally is not difficult at all. Average person could spend thousands of dollars for a vacation, but smart traveller will find a way to spend one quarter of that but will get four times as much. I laugh at people who pay retail prices for plane tickets, hotel reservations or car rentals. They are voluntarily ripping themselves off. It doesn’t take much. Scoring awesome travel deals is really easy, but I will elaborate on it in more detail later.

Planning my early retirement was fun. I had a lot to take care of, but it was fun. It was as if I had a giant catalogue of the universe before me and my job was to pick what adventure I’m going to have next. This was the feeling of freedom. I was in charge of my life giving everybody else no chance at controlling it. No one had any say at what I should do tomorrow. It was me who decided what I was going to do and I did strictly what was in accord with my plans. The world of adventure lied right before me. I just needed to polish up a few tiny matters and then… the journey itself.

Traveling as Means of Spiritual Awakening

The path to my early retirement and the spiritual awakening were waiting to happen. It started with my trip to Cuba in December of 2008. Visiting Cuba was my dream for as long as I can remember. Most of all, I really wanted to visit Cuba before it changes. I knew that US presidential elections that were about to conclude in fall of 2008 would bring the imminent change way too close. For many years I have suppressed my deep desire to travel but when US elections were around the corner, I realized it was a now or never situation. Time was against me, Cuba could change any day and if I were to experience it before big change, I had to act. The goal was to go before elections take place, which I never accomplished, however I still had at least a few extra months as even after winning elections in November, new US president would not be taking over the Oval Office until 2009. And even then, there were way too many seriously pressing issues which needed attention of new president so likelihood of a ban lift on travel to Cuba taking place this early was small. I still didn’t want to put the trip off any more than necessary and flew to Cuba at the beginning of December. It was amazing.

I only spent one week in Cuba, but it was my first trip after 7 years. I felt happy and uplifted like I haven’t in years upon years. I have forgotten how it feels to have an exciting day, to make whole day an adventure, to explore, to experience, to live. This had such powerful impact on me that come mid January 2009, I left for a weeklong trip to the Dominican Republic. This was even more extraordinary as I was in the traveling mood already so I made each day of my stay there richer with adventure.

These two trips within less than 2 months got me hooked on travel again. I still lived my corporate lifestyle, but took every opportunity I had to go to new places. Living in Alberta, Canada, I went for a brief two day trip to Jasper in the Canadian Rocky Mountains and started making arrangements for a big trip to a country I wished to visit my whole life – Iceland.

I left for Iceland at the beginning of June of 2009 and combined my trip with a one day stay in Toronto, Ontario where I have never been before. It was an amazing day as Kensington Market opened for the season that day so the area lived with many people, street performers, dancers, musicians, free hugs and everything else that makes you feel… awesome.

I spent amazing 10 days in Iceland and was blown away by sheer beauty of that country. It was 10 days of nonstop adventure and major spiritual uplift. The people I’ve met, the places I’ve seen, the things I’ve done – these were the best days of my life since… university. That’s right. It started coming to me that within last year I have done a lot of traveling and I haven’t felt that great for years. While I was traveling, I felt alive and happy.

I traveled to the Rocky Mountains two more times, this time making each trip last at least 3 days. I drove down the scenic highways across the mountains from Jasper to Banff the first time, making stops along the way and doing a lot of hiking to spend two awesome days in Banff afterwards. On my last trip to the Rockies I went all the way to Roger’s Pass in Canadian British Columbia where scenery is so eye popping I had my breath taken away nonstop. Again – I’ve done a lot of hiking and enjoyed every minute of it.

While trips to the Rocky Mountains were not trips abroad for me – being a Canadian – those were still trips during which I explored and had an adventure and it made me feel alive. So within less than a year – from December 2008 till July 2009 I have traveled to three foreign countries (Cuba, Dominican Republic and Iceland) and took three more local trips within my own country of Canada (Jasper National Park, Banff National Park and Roger’s Pass in Canadian Rocky Mountains). On top of that I have also visited Toronto which I truly loved and met some amazing people even though my stay was only brief. This travel reignited my dying Spark of Happiness which was nearly out due to corporate lifestyle I have succumbed to, but not entirely. Complete spiritual awakening after so much travel that re-ignited the spark was just a question of time and come July 2009, I was all there.