The Middle of Nowhere

I posted earlier that I am picking up my sister at around noon Monday, April 29th from the Pacific Crest Trail. Well, earlier this evening, she called and basically said to come get us now. Luckily, I was already charging my car, but had only about 78% battery charge when I left. After driving almost two hours and about 100 miles, I found them in the middle of nowhere, with 42% battery charge left.

What happened? The weather on Sunday was hotter than planned and the group had run low on water. Deciding that they did not have enough water for the final half-day hike, they went to a “hostel” next to the trail. This was really just some guy and his wife’s house, and he lets people camp on his property. He also lets people use his shower and has a stocked pantry. Since the way back to the path was steep, my sister’s group ended the trip there, and asked me to pick them up. The house was down a long dirt road, so the hostel guy graciously dropped them off at the nearest paved intersection when I got near.

For most of the trip, I used the full-self-drive (FSD) feature in my Tesla. It performed well, even when it was super dark outside, and the road was narrow and twisty. The car did tend to speed, and I was not able to control the set speed. It regularly drove over 60 mph when the speed limit was only 55 mph. However, even at those speeds, FSD was much smoother than me driving.

After picking them up, we stopped at Denny’s in Temecula and had dinner/breakfast. I ordered a 55+ omelet and was disappointed when the waiter did not card me. Since portions of highways 74 and 241 were closed, the way back was longer. When I dropped off the hiking team at their cars, I only had 10% batter charge left. I found a mostly empty Supercharger site and was able to charge at 210 kW. That is the fastest I have ever charged my EVs.

Overall, the entire trip took about six hours. With about four hours of driving, over an hour at Denny’s, and maybe 40 minutes charging my car. Along the way, FSD got mad at me for looking at the map too much and shut itself down. This is rather stupid since using FSD and autopilot were touted as better drivers than people. I also had to use my injured ankle to drive since no FSD also meant no basic cruise control.

Also, the really stupid passenger wing door is somehow even more broken after Tesla Service. How is that possible if they replaced the ultrasonic sensor and supposedly tested the repair?

Short Term Plans

Assuming I can walk again by the time I officially quit my job, probably mid-May, I need to plan ahead with some activities. Otherwise, I feel I will just sit at home every day and do nothing.

Several options:

Travel: Since the future is unclear, I do not want to plan any big trips, i.e., international, until I know I will be able to walk. This includes my cousin’s wedding in Bali in early July. I have not visited many national parks in the Western USA, so I feel like a road trip is necessary. Not sure if I want to take my parents along. Maybe I can plan an overseas trip in mid-autumn, probably to Asia.

School: I have thought about taking cooking or language lessons in the past. There is a semi-professional cooking school nearby, and they offer twelve-week cooking and pastry courses. I can also try and learn Korean in person.

Hobbies: I do not have too many hobbies. I do realize I probably spent too much time playing computer games, especially solo. I want to do more music production so I may need singing classes or something. I also need to put together my e-bike kit that has been sitting in my garage so I can go out riding sometimes.

Financial Planning: I will need to spend more time on budgets and maybe on investing as I will not have a regular income. I should be more interested in investments, but I just want to set up some investment accounts and let other professionals deal with it.

Work: An ex-coworker showed me a job listing at her company. It describes my current role. I believe I can do well in the position, but it will be a lot of work and I am unsure if I will be ready for work so soon after “retirement.”

Church: I told my small group that I want to serve more at church. My main task at previous churches were either sound engineer, or bass player on the worship team. I can also lead singing and play guitar, but since my current church has a lot of people, there are many more talented people serving in those roles already.

Volunteer: I have not really researched this too much. It would be outside of stuff I do at church. I will probably keep talking to my “student” in Kyiv and find other ways to volunteer.

Christmas Eve Dinner in Paris

No, I am not going to Paris for Christmas. During our last trip to Europe, we stayed in the Hotel Regina Louvre. It was a very nice and expensive hotel, very neat to the Louvre Museum. I would have preferred something more modern, but the rooms were comfortable, and the breakfast was excellent.

Since I am now on their emailing list, I received this a few days ago:

It is their Christmas Eve Dinner menu. I counted only four courses and it cost €190 without wine. I know the dinner is at a luxury hotel in Paris, but that is expensive. I need to see what comparable dinners in Los Angeles cost.

Wedding in Bali

I just received an invite to a wedding via a WhatsApp message. This is the brother of my other cousin that is getting married in Taipei in a few weeks. They both live in Shanghai, so it makes sense that the weddings are over there as well. I am not going to the Taipei wedding on December 23td but may go to the one in Bali on July 1st. However, they want an RSVP by December 31st. I guess they expect everyone to plan international trips that far in advance.

I am contemplating on going because I will be 100% retired by then. It may be a change to bring my parents to Malaysia so my mom can visit where she was born one last time. I also have a friend that lives in Bali. She worked for me right out of school for several years as a financial analyst. The wedding is being held at the Raffles Bali, which is one of the most expensive hotels I have seen. All the rooms are villas and start at over $1,000/night. They also have a wedding package. I saw elsewhere online that it costs $15,000 for twenty guests.

That will be a long and expensive flight from Los Angeles.

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I found out about their engagement from an Instagram post. I think that was a few months ago so from engagement to wedding in about eight to nine months.

Post-Retirement Travel Plans

I feel like I need to plan something as soon as possible or I will never start my post-retirement travels. Two coworkers just returned from Japan and Korea, and another coworker is in Hong Kong right now. I mentioned several times before that I was invited to a wedding in Taipei near Christmas but decided not to go. For short trips, I think going solo is okay. For international trips, however, it does feel better to have a travel partner or three. For Taipei, it can count as local travel since I was born there and speak the language, but there is still culture shock when I go.

A couple from my old church recommended Supera Tours. They have been on a few trips with them. It looks like a Chinese travel agency, but they book relatively luxurious hotels and have decent itineraries. Pricing looks like around $500 per day without airfare. Given that I spent $15,000 on a two-week trip to Europe, that is a good price. Most of their tours seem to be focused on Japan however.

I need to find more travel agency sites that target solo travelers. Many tours have a single supplement since they expect to put two people in one room. The one I have been looking at for a while is Abercrombie and Kent. Their prices are very high but everything seems super luxurious. They have stuff like:

• Cruise to the North Pole for $48k
• Tours with private jet travel between locations: $40k-$50k
• Around the world trip on a private Boeing 757: $185k

Looking at the prices, who is taking these trips? Rich, white people? How much net worth do you need to have to feel comfortable in dropping $400k for two people on a trip?

China Tourist Visa

About fifteen years ago, I travelled to China often to help my friend with his company. I got many tourist visas since I was only there a week each time, and China did not offer tourist visas that were over twelve months. On my first trip, I only applied for a single-entry visa so I had to get another one on my next quarterly trip.

A lot has changed since that time. Due to the rise of Xi Jinping and the recent zero-COVID theater, it is a lot harder to visit China. Also due to the trade war, it has become inconvenient for work to visit China because of politics and the threat of electronic data theft. However, my friend in Beijing keeps asking me to visit, and now a coworker mentioned he may travel to Beijing for a wedding, so I am looking into getting a tourist visa again.

In the past, I would fill out a paper form, then take it to a travel agency. They would charge $35 to drop off the application at the Chinese consulate in Los Angeles, then pick it up for you. This was totally worth it as long as you had time. Nowadays, you have to fill out a webform, plus provide additional documentation.

Round-trip air tickets and hotel orders (name and personal information of the applicant must be included); 

Or invitation letters issued by a relevant entity (e.g. Travel agency) or individual inside China (Photocopies of Chinese ID (front and back) of the inviting individual must be included)

This requirement is new (for me anyway). It feels like you have to commit to your trip before knowing if you will receive a visa. Why not vet the applicant first, then let them plan. It is as if China does not really want visitors. Since I will not reserve flights and hotels without a visa, my friend will need to write a letter of invitation, and use her address as my “where you stay” form info.

Google Timeline +3 Years

Almost three years ago, I posted about my entire Google Timeline (GT) history. I read that Google Timeline went live during the summer of 2015 (although my first record was on May 24, 2014), you would expect a lot more dots going from five years of data to eight years of data. I also received my kidney transplant in January of 2021, so I was more able to travel. However, COVID-19 was still raging, and travel worldwide would not rebound for another eighteen months.

Here is the total timeline as of today (November 20, 2023) versus the data from November 29, 2020.

The primary difference is the summer 2022 trip to Europe. There are dots in England, Italy, and France. I also made the map wider since I saw a random dot out in the middle of the Pacific. Zooming in…

From the above, GT says on February 8, 2018, I came home from four hours, then drove 3,600 miles to the International Date Line, and drove home. Both the recorded time and GPS location are completely messed up. If. you look up Hot Tub Under the Stars, the search results show a rental cabin in Big Bear. Strange.

If you just compare 2023 versus 2020, there is a significant difference too. This is all of 2020:

Compared to 2023:

Plus, our family trip to Canada in September/October 2023:

I was also invited to two other trips this year. One was a Thanksgiving trip (now) to Korea with several coworkers, and my cousin’s wedding in Taipei over Christmas. Unfortunately, those trips did not pan out. If I do retire next year, I hope to see more dots in other US cities and other countries.

Find My People

I only have eight contacts on Find My People: six family members, one friend from high school, and a coworker friend. Right now, there are dots in four countries: USA, China, Korea, and Peru. The last person on the list above is in Korea, but their location is either not working or turned off.

Unfortunately, everyone outside the US now is on a trip; everyone actually lives in the LA area.

Retirement

Photo by Eda Yurtkuran on Pexels.com

I just turned fifty-five about a month ago. When I was young, I thought fifty-five was the retirement age and when you started getting senior discounts. However, it seems that age has been pushed to sixty-five or even sixty-seven. Anyway, due to mostly luck, the equity I was given at my current job is more than enough for me to retire.

At work, I have been dropping hints for the past year about retirement. By now, I feel most of the coworkers I am close to know that I plan to walk away at the beginning of 2024. This includes my manager; we have worked together for about twenty years. Of course, the most obvious question is “What are you going to do after you retire?” The answer right now is “I don’t know.”

I do feel like I need to find a part-time job, pick up a hobby, or volunteer for stuff. Otherwise, I will just lie in bed or sit at home in front of a computer. I usually say that I will travel, but being old and single, I do not know how many trips I can take before the lonliness becomes unbearable. I have already balked at the first travel opportunity. My cousin is getting married in Taipei over Christmas. For many months, I thought I was going to attend, even by myself if no one else from my family was going. Over time, I felt this dread of going to Taiwan by myself until I finally RSVPed that I cannot attend. What if I feel this way before every trip? That will take away a large portion of my post-retirement plans. Sigh…

ICN to LAX

11 hours and 10 minutes. A friend from Beijing is visiting Los Angeles. She is flying on Asiana Airlines, and they transit through Inchon/Seoul. This second leg of the trip takes about eleven hours, and the plane is about to land in a few minutes.

I used to travel to Asia often about twelve years ago. The flights were long but did not seem onerous. I do not know if I can survive that long in an airplane anymore.

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I received a WeChat text that my friend has arrived at LAX but nothing for the past three hours. Hopefully she is not stuck in immigration or customs.

Rainy Commute

Yesterday, on the way to work.

Google Timeline – January 2023 MTD

Google Timeline asked me to fix the travel log for last Thursday since it was completely messed up. I do not know how often they sample your location but if you make several short stops, the data is sometimes very incorrect.

Anyway, since the map was up on the screen, I looked at the red dots in January. Pretty lame:

• Home
• Work
• Sister’s house
• Albertsons
• Nephrologist office
• Lab for blood draw
• Raising Canes

Seven locations for the past twenty-two days, and most are single visits. Basically, I just stay home and go to work occasionally. Is this typical for old single people?

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Compared to January 2022, this year is starting out much like last year.

The Wander Club

I saw an ad on Instagram about a keychain with tags for places you have travelled to. I guess you carry that around instead of… hmm, I am not really sure. This is what I saw:

As you can see from the cart symbol, I tried adding all the countries I have been to plus the cheapest holder/strap. The total cart came out to $88, even with discounts. The holder was $25, and each tag, basically small washers, were ~$4 each. My countries are:

• Taiwan
• Canada
• USA
• Mexico
• China
• England
• France
• Italy
• Vatican City
• Singapore
• Hong Kong
• Thailand
• Tunisia
• Japan

I almost bought everything in my cart. Then I decided to wait a few days to see if I still wanted it. I did not. There is no good reason to get this other than to show off my travel history. Also, fourteen tiny washers on a keychain does not look very impressive. Maybe if I travel to more places in the future I can reconsider.

Travel Bucket List #2

I discovered a book online titled Timeless Journeys published by National Geographic. The subtitle is Travels to the World’s Legendary Places. I could not find the book listed on NatGeo’s website, so I had to use a picture from Amazon. I have an EPUB file of the book.

https://www.amazon.com/Timeless-Journeys-Travels-Worlds-Legendary/dp/1426218435

The book lists many locations grouped by continent. Each location has a brief description, gorgeous photos, a few travel tips, and a random historical anecdote. For example, here is the passage for Carthage (Tunis). I did see many Roman ruins when I visited in 2014.

Recovering a Lost Civilization

The powerful Phoenicians sailed the Mediterranean and traded with the Greeks, Romans, Persians, and Egyptians for a thousand years. In the 1970s, the National Geographic Society funded grants to explore their ancient world.

Researchers uncovered and lifted a complete Phoenician warship near Sicily, likely sunk during the First Punic War in 250 B.C. Archaeologists speculated that it was likely almost new and went down on its maiden voyage, in a storm or in battle. The shipwright’s Punic characters were still visible on the wood.

In Lebanon, Dr. James B. Pritchard’s excavations of the lost city of Sarepta unveiled a matchless record of the Phoenicians’ daily life, from the stone basins where they crushed olives for oil to the small temple where they worshipped Baal. “We have uncovered at least nine different cities, representing more than a thousand years of Phoenician history,” Pritchard said. “Every inch, every bit—600,000 fragments of pottery—has been measured and charted and recorded.

Compared to Travel Bucket List #1 from Forbes, locations in this book feel more exotic. I have also visited a lot less places in this book compared to the Forbes list. Here is my score by continent, and where I have been:

Asia: 2/12
Great Wall of China, China
Kyoto, Japan

Europe: 3/13
Île de la Cité, Paris, France
Rome and the Colosseum, Italy
Pompeii, Italy

Africa: 1/9
Carthage, Tunesia

North America: 3/13 (I am embarrassed)
Route 66, Western U.S.A.
Niagara Falls, Ontario/New York
Chichén Itzá, Mexico

South America: 0/10

Australia and the South Pacific: 0/7

Total score: 9/64 🙁

That is pretty dismal. In my defense, a lot of my Asian destinations did not make the list, nor did the places I visited in North America. I have been to New York City, but never visited the harbor. This analysis also says that I must visit South America and the South Pacific.

Travel Bucket List #1

Speaking of retirement, if I were to retire and travel more, where would I go? I just picked a website randomly for this post.

1. Bali, Indonesia
2. New Orleans
3. Kerry, Ireland
4. Marrakesh, Morocco
5. Sydney
6. The Maldives
7. Paris, France: been to Paris twice; likely go somewhere else if I visit France again
8. Cape Town, South Africa
9. Dubai, U.A.E.
10. Bora Bora, French Polynesia
11. New York
12. Dubrovnik, Croatia
13. Edinburgh, Scotland
14. Rome, Italy: also been to Rome twice; still need to visit Venice
15. Paro valley, Bhutan
16. Jaipur, India
17. Waikato, New Zealand: Middle Earth!
18. Havana, Cuba
19. Tokyo, Japan: visited once, need to go back plus visit rest of Japan
20. Antarctica: ha ha ha, no
21. Vancouver, Canada
22. Los Angeles: live here
23. Kruger National Park, South Africa
24. Santorini, Greece
25. Moscow, Russia: not safe for Americans
26. Singapore: meh, reminds me of Hawaii
27. London, England
28. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
29. Petra, Jordan
30. Hong Kong: Hong Kong was awesome, but now dead due to CCP crackdown and subsequent National Security Law
31. Barbados
32. Amsterdam
33. Santiago, Chile
34. Cairo, Egypt
35. Copenhagen, Denmark
36. Seoul, Korea
37. Laucala Island Resort, Fiji
38. Providencia, Colombia
39. Machu Picchu, Peru: is this still open to visitors?
40. Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo
41. Lisbon, Portugal
42. Hanoi, Vietnam
43. Hawaii: see Singapore
44. Ibiza, Spain
45. Beijing, China: been to Beijing about six times; not going again while CCP is still in power
46. Budapest, Hungary
47. Cinque Terre, Italy
48. Buenos Aires, Argentina
49. Las Vegas: not that interesting anymore
50. Matterhorn, Switzerland

I bolded locations that I have visited, and it only came out to twelve. I also italicized places I would like to go, since i have no interest in some of the destinations shown. I also added some comments where appropriate.

I may go to Korea with a friend and her family next year. Looking at the items I marked, it looks like three trips: long Europe trip that can be broken up into two parts, East Asia (Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam), and Australia/New Zealand.

Google Timeline – September 2022

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

Boring.

It was a dull September 2022 on my Google Timeline. The furthest red dots were my office and my parents’ house. In between, there were a few medical office visits, some restaurants, my sister’s house, and my local Albertson’s. Unfortunately, other than the month of June, when we were in Europe, this entire year has been boring.

For some reason, I thought my life would be more interesting. If you asked me right when I graduated college to describe my life at fifty-five, I would have said married with two kids, and about to retire after a successful career. More importantly, there would be a sense of contentment that the life lived had meaning. Instead, I am single, living alone, and have not done anything memorable other than not die. I do not even know how i feel about that.

I told my boss more firmly yesterday that I will likely quit and retire mid-next year. There is a release of vested stock (RSUs) every six months, so I want to receive those shares before I quit and forfeit the remainder. There are no goals or plans after retirement. I feel I should travel more, but I am ambivalent about traveling alone. I will likely end up sitting around the house watching YouTube videos. 😭

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

American Airlines Clusterfuck

Not me but my sister. She is travelling home from Toronto (YYZ) via Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW). I was supposed to pick her up at John Wayne Airport (SNA) around 10:00 pm. Well, it is now 10:30 pm and she just got off the plane at DFW, and there are no more flights to any of the four Los Angeles area airports.

Her flight took off on time from YYZ, but was diverted to Wichita (ICT) for refueling after circling twice over Missouri. There was adverse weather at DFW and I guess the pilots thought they could not land. This is their flight path:

I was looking at FAA advisories at the time and landing delays at DFW were about thirty minutes. Do modern passenger jets (her flight was a Boeing 737–800) have such narrow fuel margins? The diversion appears to be the same distance as continuing to DFW. On the ground in ICT, her flight was fourth in line for refueling. There was a shortage of open gates, so it took about 1:15 to refuel and take-off again. AA flight 1111 finally arrived at DFW at 10:00 pm. American Airlines cancelled so many flights tonight that the only option was a flight to Ontario (ONT) but it was departing from another terminal, and she would not make it. The flight was full anyway.

I just texted my sister. She is spending the night in DFW. Airport hotels are nine miles away and she is on standby for a 7:30 am flight to SNA. American Airlines gave her a $12 voucher for food, but of course, nothing is open at this time. She said the terminal is full of people. AA should have at least brought out some snacks and water. DFW is one of their major hubs and I know they have a huge stash of food for all their Admiralty Club lounges. A long time ago I was flying to Las Vegas from Long Beach on Jet Blue. The flight was delayed an hour and the staff brought out boxes of snacks and soft drinks. This is such a trivial thing to do but demonstrates why the large US carriers are always rated near the bottom in passenger surveys.

What a beautiful place to spend the night

Speaking of surveys, American Airlines ranked ninth in Travel + Leisure’s domestic airline rankings for 2022. They are the worst of the three large carriers. United Airlines is not much better at number eight. They also have a list of the top 10 international airlines. I have been on four out of the ten.

1. Singapore Airlines
2. Qatar Airways
3. Emirates
4. Turkish Airlines
5. Korean Air
6. La Compagnie
7. Air New Zealand
8. Japan Airlines
9. ANA
10. Cathay Pacific Airways

Other international airlines I have flown that are not in the top 10:

• Air Canada
• China Airlines
• EVA Air
• Thai Airways
• Air China
• Sichuan Airlines
• British Airways
• Air France
• Canadian Pacific Air Lines (eventually merged with Air Canada)

European BA.5 Cases

Several people have told me that the timing of our Italy & Paris trip was good. If we had gone earlier, there were still many COVID restrictions, and we would have needed to get a PCR test before coming back to the US. Any later, then we would have been caught in the July heat wave, and the recent spike in COVID cases due to the BA.5 variant. Here is the chart of new cases for Campania, where Sorrento and the Almafi Coast are located.

I picked Campania since that was our last destination in Italy, but the pattern for the entire country is similar. The large spike due to OG Omicron is about twice the BA.5 spike in July. Again, we thought we missed the BA.2 spike in cases but walked into the most virulent variant to date.

Above is the temperature in Europe a month after our trip. It was in the mid-to-high 80’s Fahrenheit most days. This maps shows mid-to-upper 90’s, which is a huge difference if you are walking around outside. I cannot imagine wearing a KN95/PPF2 mask in 100 °F weather.

Italy and France COVID Cases – Post-trip Review

The day before leaving for our Europe trip, I posted about COVID cases in Italy and France. At that time, it appeared that the case count in each country was trending downwards. I did not continue checking during our trip. After testing positive for COVID upon our return from Paris, I just updated the case data.

Italy

France

Coincidentally, the COVID case count started to increase just as we left for our trip on June 5th. I am unsure whether I would have changed anything if I had this data available, since I am unsure where I contracted the virus. Perhaps be more careful and wear a mask on the flights back from Paris?

For LA County, the case count was stable to slightly decreasing. It does seem that the US lags European trends by a few months so maybe the count will decrease then spike up again?

This is important because my work wants everyone to return to the office. I thought I had an exemption due to taking immunosuppressive medication, but HR said I now need a doctor’s note. This is after spending over a decade as part of company management.

35,000 Feet

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FlightAware log for this flight