Day V11: Marathon Travel Day

July 11, 2024

An early start was sure needed for this one. It would be time to leave the second Airbnb, and the place was nothing short of amazing. Unfortunately it felt like time was against me the entire segment of this Vancouver part, and this continued until the last day (today). There was just a ton of stuff that needed to be done and people to visit. Almost all got done, and I could sure feel the exhaustion on the bus ride.

The very first thing was to start packing in the morning. It was a mess to be honest, but the bags were somewhat more organized after the job. Another roommate must have come in last night with his daughter, I said hello and goodbye at the same time. Then the Taiwanese guy made a final appearance. Unfortunately there wasn't enough time to chat with him more this trip -- I sure would have wanted to. He welcomed me to visit Taiwan and damnit, this is something that must be done. It's been on my travel list for nearly 20 fucking years and I still haven't got around to visiting Taiwan. But that better happen soon while there's still a chance.

This was home for the last week. A top notch Airbnb and I gave them a review as such

The only downside was nowhere to store my stuff in the room. Talk about the necessity of minimalism. This would be rectified at the next Airbnb

After the goodbyes I threw the bags onto the bike handlebars and I was off. It was an easy and pleasant ride downtown and enough time for a quick coffee stop at Tim Horton's. While there I got a phone call from my bank guy. He apologized for the delay in sorting out the insurance, and in his words, "We needed to figure out a loophole for you since non-residents aren't really allowed to purchase insurance. We pretty much got it sorted, but it means you'll need to sign all the paperwork on the next trip."

If all goes well then I'll sign a 20-year term policy with a much higher face value, cash out the universal life policy, then use that to cover the premiums.

The bike ride continued and I came up with what I thought was a smart idea: I would book a fitness class downtown at 11am, drop all my bags off there at the studio, return the bike rental, then walk back and do a class. That way I wouldn't be stuck hauling bags and shit after dropping off the bike rental. They asked me how the ride was. I replied "Awesome!!" If only they knew exactly what I did with the bike and where I took it. That bike rental saved me over $500 in what would otherwise be peak season car rental expenses and gas, not to mention it kept me fitter than you can imagine.

The people at the studio also thought this last minute class booking and bag drop was a good idea, and it all went exactly according to plan. The only problem was the class was extremely hard and I was soaking in sweat. This would come to haunt me later.

After the class, I hauled bags for a short distance to the skytrain then the long distance bus station. Unfortunately the zipper broke on the backpack and this would only be the start of 20+ people telling me my bag was open. This was in both Canada and the US. Every time I would say, "Yeah I know, thanks, there's nothing valuable in there" and they would just laugh. It really amazed me that people were this honest.

The bus ride was quite smooth and the driver made it clear that taking drugs across the border was a really bad idea, and they would certainly be checking. Sure enough, they had the sniffer dogs out at the border. The dogs took a keen interest in my workout bag with all the smelly clothes. Right away the CBP officers told me to drop the bags then asked a bunch of questions. They wanted to know why I was coming to America, for how long, what I did for work, etc.. Of course they asked if I was carrying drugs. What do you say in response to that? I think "No drugs" would be a good answer. They asked what was in the bag that the dogs sniffed. I told them workout clothes. They said, "Stinky huh?" I said, "Yeah I did a workout at orange theory before all this and went all out" and they just laughed.

Unfortunately the guy behind me gave the CBP guys attitude and said, "I don't to put my bag on the ground because it's dirty." The officer then said, "Well it's a ground, what do you expect. He said to his colleauge, "Search him, but don't put his bags on the ground since it's dirty." He went off and we never saw him again.

The actual passport guy was cool and at some point he asked where I worked and he got really interested when I said China, but thankfully nothing more came of it. With all my travels, one thing is for sure you never talk politics at the border, regardless of the fact I'm sure we would both agree that President Xi is dirtier than the ground of this border office.

After that it was a pretty uneventful bus ride to downtown Seattle and I fell asleep. The sheer exhaustion of this trip was catching up to me. Having finally left my hometown and accomplished over 90% of the business I could finally put it behind and let the trip start for real.

When the bus arrived, there was an extremely fit Asian woman standing outside with a sign saying "Welcome to Seattle" but alas the greeting was not for me, it was for her friend. The only female attention I got was people pointing out my bag was open and I took the hint that it was time to buy a new one.

Not really sure where to go next because there was no wifi and I couldn't get a data connection to work, I just went in a random direction. This appeared to be the Chinatown area of Seattle and it was looking almost identical to the Vancouver counterpart. The direction I picked was a good one as a Ramen Japanese spot appeared and I enjoyed a nice meal since was famished. I asked the server how to get to Sea Tac airport and apparently a light rail train was right next door. Problem solved then. It was an easy ride and beautiful views along the way.

Nice little feed before hitting the airport train, but man was it expensive. Over $20 and now this is in US dollars. It would get even worse in the Silicon Valley

Approaching Sea Tac airport and the famous view of Mt Rainier

It seems Alaska Air has their own terminal, holy moly

The airport was a bit chaotic at the beginning. Thanks to not having a bike (yet) I could just carry my bags on but TSA was a nightmare. They wanted to scan and rescan everything and in the end they took my sunscreen. So there's a new name for TSA: Take Sunscreen Away.

Just before the flight took off, I sent a whatsapp message to that ex-friend of mine and basically make the "break up" official. I told him I was at the Sea Tac airport and about to fly out.

I basically said before the plane left, "There is a lot to say about our conversation we had this trip. Going forward, I would really hope that you watch your mouth when you talk to people because your words hurt big time. The stuff you said to me was way out of line and uncalled for. What's more I talked to many others about this and they all agreed. As a consequence to all this, I really have no choice but to cut you off." Predictably he said he was confused and had no idea, wanted to know what he said etc.. then I transcribed the whole thing since I have a memory that remembers exactly what people say. Regarding his comment about how I deserved to be disowned by my Dad, he said, "I can see how that would be perceived as hurtful." I said, "Well no shit" and then there was no time to say anything more because the plane took off. Let's see who sucks at confrontation now, you little twat. Now good riddance.

As the plane left Sea Tac, I felt like a massive load off my mind. There comes a point when you have to cut toxic people out of your life and make these hard calls. It is not exactly fun to do this, but the alternative is to remain in a relationship where they will continue to gaslight and project their own insecurities onto you.

Up up and away, and what a beautiful take off!

The plane ride was then nothing short of divine. It took off and circled over Mercer Island and Puget Sound, then flew into the sunset. It was the most memorable and enjoyable flight I have had. There was time to sleep a little more and enjoy some snacks, then an equally beautiful descent into San Jose. Once leaving the plane, again people said my bag was open and yes it's time for a new one. I get the hint.

Managed to pull out $200, was hoping to get more but despite the Canadian banks saying it would work in US ATMs after I called them ahead of time, that turned out not to be true.

It's almost like God can read minds or something. Especially the book on toxic people, not to mention setting good boundaries and saying goodbye which I literally just did

This Airbnb had space to store my stuff in the room, amazing! I would use this time to surely clean house

There was a case of massive sticker shock on arrival as this is essentially Silicon Valley. I had no idea how expensive this was going to be. After some very light snacks I got my Uber to the Airbnb. The driver was really nice and she said, "So what brings you to San Jose? Business?" I said, "There'll be some of that, but mostly I'm going to have some FUN!!"

Today's ride: 16 km (10 miles)
Total: 390 km (242 miles)

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