MONA

Our first stop on Australian land was Hobart, in Tasmania. Our timing was quite good it seems, as the city came alive this weekend for the MOFO festival of the Museum of Old and new Art (known as MONA). My day started with two meditation sessions to the sound of live experimental music, followed by a visit to the actual museum.

Do you see the word "Flat"?

While the meditations were enchanting, I was just plain impressed with the actual museum. I can say without a doubt that it is among the best museums I had a chance to visit. This museum is privately owned and it really showed. Some of the themes are tackled in a very novel way I have yet to see anywhere else. And I’m really not sure some of the displays could ever make it to a state funded museum, as they were very provoking.

Among the pieces that really made an impression on me was a statue made of discarded fabric representing a woman in labor. Somehow the creator has managed to really make the pain and the effort come alive. There was also the tiny carpet made out of a kitty fur. I’m used to seeing bears made into rugs, but there was just something boggling about a kitty made into a carpet, complete with head.

Then there was the fat car. A nice red sporty Ferrari, redone with many love handles. While it was strange to see a Ferrari this way, the car was quite cute and reminded me of cartoons.

There was also two handles you could hold on to in order to light a bulb to the rhythm of your heartbeat. You then walked in another room with countless light bulbs that pulsated to previous visitor’s heartbeat.

There was another exhibit that illustrated war, slavery and invasion in a fairytale sort of way. An army of wasps stood suspended in the action of launching an attack on a possum at the command of a fairy contingent. The piece was enchanting in a way.

Another piece that really spoke to me was a room full of lazy boy facing individual television sets which replayed over and over the same message. This particular piece evoked two idea in my mind : the brainwashing and manipulation of populations through different medias and how people are somehow linked to each other on their side of the monitor. 

Then there was the room fulled of blank book. This speaks for itself.

The last exhibit that made an impression on me was the Ash Buddha. A statue of Buddha entirely made out of incense ash. The statue degrades with time, when I saw it the head was gone and the shoulders had started to crumble.

In the end though, I think that what I liked the most about this museum is the fact that explanations were very rare. As I walked along the labyrinth that is the museum, I actually had to think about what the concept behind each exhibit might be.

Message of General Interest from Anthony Vandewater, Triabunna

Anthony Vandewater is more than likely the best bloke i have meet in tasmania so far and probably ever. Was at the Spirng Bay Hotel when we meet and think him and his mates are the best people i`ve meet ever...

Travel Must - Diva Cup

First off, as a warning, the target audience for this article is women, as men will have little use for it and will probably grow uncomfortable as they read on. I'm all for making information available to all, but let's face it, most men will probably never have conversations about periods with their significant other, their friends, their sister or their mother. This being said, there are some case where you might want to read on, let's say if you foresee having to brave the subject of periods with your daughter.

Well there you go, I'm done with my disclaimer.

Air Canada's Red Tape Nightmare

On Wednesday, 3 pm Ottawa time, our plane was taking off toward Toronto, for our connection to Sydney, Australia. The flight to Sydney connected in Vancouver, before taking off again. Our last consecutive destination was Melbourne, where we would stop for the night after being 30 hours in transit. The next day we were heading to Hobart in Tasmania.

This was quite a long way to go even with all transfers going smoothly. However, my travel companion fainted during the descent to Vancouver and that is when the full weight of Air Canada’s red tape fell on us.

Even though the paramedics on site gave her the ok the fly again, Air Canada imposed a no fly. There was no boarding another plane until she was seen by a physician at the hospital. We were talking about a regular spell, like anyone I know has faced at one point or another. You are tired and excited.  You forget to eat and drink. Mix this with the remnants of a cold and a change of altitude, and you find yourself fainting.

So on we were, despite the paramedic’s opinion, to the hospital. In at midnight and out at 8 am, with the paper clearing her to fly, but no flight available until another 36 hours. Not only did we have to pay for accommodations in Vancouver, but we’d lose the money we put on reserving a room in Melbourne and we’d get no refund for the flight to Hobart, Tasmania, that was scheduled the next day.

While the representative of the StarAlliance emergency accommodation line was quite helpful in finding us a discounted room in the middle of the night, I can’t say the same for the woman on the MEDA line. The woman kindly reminded my travel companion that it was her fault she fainted and that we would have to pay to be on the next plane, to which we argued that the paramedics had cleared us to fly. It didn’t matter though.

She also stated that the certificate we got for flying out from emergency room doctor was not right. With the doctor now off duty, you can imagine our predicament in providing the required form. By this point, we felt tired and irritated, but mostly tangled up to the point of asphyxia by all this red tape. To say the man who pulled us out of the plane had reassured us the process would be easy, that we would be on our way in no time, even if it meant they had to make a deal with a StarAlliance partner or with New Zealand Air.

Now there was no such deal to be made. It was like we were being held hostage in Vancouver by Air Canada. Tired of trying to negotiate and cajole on the phone, we headed straight to the airport to meet face to face with an Air Canada Representative.

She reiterated that there was no available flight until the next day at midnight and that no deal could be made with their partners. After a bit of pressuring, she agreed to put us on a stand-by list. Here we were wandering the airport with a single thought: please, make it so that some poor chaps miss their flights. One’s misfortune is another one’s blessing afterall. By this point there was a good eight hours to wait before we could know if we would be on that night’s flight or not.

At the friendly advice of the woman at the information desk, we took a train downtown to go wander around Vancouver for a while. We ended up getting on a aquabus for a ride up the canal to the market in Yalestown. There were so many goodies there! If we had such a market in Ottawa, I would be there all the time.

 (Vancouver from the aquabus)

Then, it was back to the airport to wait for the verdict for tonight’s flight. Much to our relief we did make it on. In the end, other than the worry and the time lost in red tape land, all we lost was the money for the hotel room in Melbourne, Australia, and for the flight to Hobart, Tasmania, as well as the night’s rest we were hoping to get before the transfer to Tasmania.

Despite the ridiculous and unnecessary amount of red tape imposed by Air Canada, we did make it to Tasmania, which is where I am writing this from after an exceptional night of penguins watching. Safe to say, all is well for now.

Five Things I Most Likely Will Miss

Obviously I will miss my family, my friends and my pets, but I'm aware I will also miss other things that are part of my every day. As an exercise, here is my top 5 things that I think I will miss the most and I intend to reflect on this at some points in my journey to compare my perceived needs with my actual needs.

Esthetician - A moment to myself in the week

Car - The extension of my personal bubble

Long hot showers in the morning - Always full pressure

Bed - Soft sheets, fluffy bed cover and comfortable pillows : heaven at the end of the day

Washing machine - Clean fresh clothes made easy

I fully expect I will miss many other things, like freshly brewed morning coffee.

Travel Insurance

In this day of age, I can't really understand why anybody would go about traveling without contracting proper travel insurance. I remember this travel horror story of a poor girl who had an accident the day before heading home. She was at a party and the handrail of the second floor balcony gave out. She fell and broke her neck. Due to the critical nature of her injuries, she had to be evacuated by air ambulance to the nearest country that could offer her proper care. She didn't have insurance. She had to pay for all the fees attached to her evacuation and her treatment, which quickly raised up to tens of thousands of dollars.

When I was younger I did not always contract insurance. I didn't think the cost was justified. Now, my position has quite radically changed. I couldn't possibly think of going away without it. Insurance is not that expensive when you weigh it against costs that could result from an accident or a sickness oversea. Granted, it remains an added cost to traveling, which isn't cheap to start with. Yet, in my opinion, it's an essential protection.

For me, it came as a no brainer to get insurance for the coming trip. In fact, it's one of the first details I set in my preparations. I tried to research the subject on the internet, but there really wasn't much information for my specifics. I needed insurance for a multidestination year long trip, for which the destinations were not set in advance. No matter how hard I looked I didn't find anything. Actually, I did find one site which required you to enter all your destinations and dates. For obvious reasons, it wouldn't do for me. It could be that I didn't use the right keywords, but still.

At the advice of a fellow traveler, I ended up calling my credit card provider. They have an insurance branch, so they set me up with the medical insurance I wanted. Normally, I might have wanted to obtain and compare quotes, but without information readily available on the Internet, it wasn't very convenient. Furthermore, I was satisfied with the quote I got from my credit card company, which came to roughly $1200 for the full year. I didn't take baggage insurance, but I am now reconsidering it and might add it to the contract.

Here are the main considerations that were on my mind for insurance coverage :

• Not needing to have preset destinations and time, basically open insurance for up to a year
• Having a coverage of minimum a million dollar (the one I got in the end covers up to 5 millions)
• Having the option of med evac in case no proper care is available on site
• Life insurance
• Coverage for the repatriation of the body in case of death

My question to you, do you automatically contract insurance when you travel. If so, what do you need to have covered by your insurance to feel protected?

Edit : When I realized just how much money I spent on equipment before leaving, I decided to get covered for luggage after all. The first representative of Visa told me they couldn't add luggage covering for this long. I knew it was possible, so I pushed the issue and had them check again. Turns out it was possible when combined to the medical insurance. This is a good example of why it's important to know when to accept a no and when to push an issue. 

So adding the coverage for the luggage also tripled my coverage in other areas and in the end only about $200 was added to my original bill.

Pre-Departure Jitters

I'm in a strange place right now. I'm leaving in a few days and I now have so many doubts. I just pulled out all my assets to finance the trip and, as I was signing the papers, I felt very anxious. This was a big move for me and I was starting to doubt whether I was doing a wise thing and if it was financially sound.

You know the feeling you get when you are on a boat, away from any coast, with heavy scuba gear on your back, and you look down at the dark surface of the ocean before you jump in? That feeling of apprehension as you can't see what moves underneath. But then you take a deep breath and you jump, breaking the surface of the water. Finally, able to take your first breath underwater, everything becomes clear and your doubts dissipate magically. Well maybe you don't, maybe I'm the only scuba diver who feels this way...

Anyhow, right now, I feel like I'm on that boat, looking down. People assume I'm super excited and they are often surprised when I voice my apprehensions. Did I do the right thing. Should I really have taken a sabbatical? Was I stupid for pulling out all my money? How much will things have changed in my absence? What if I'm ready to come home after a mere month?

I'm trying to fight off those doubts by reminding myself why I'm doing this and by breaking down my plans in steps. If I think in terms of a whole year, I get overwhelmed. I find it helps if I look only to Australia and New Zealand, not what will follow.