Life Update

Changing Tides, Shifting Gears, Next!, Plan….G?

I know it’s been a minute, but despite some big changes we really don’t have a lot to share.  We spent six weeks hanging out in Calgary before briefly returning to the ship in Manila.  While we were home a few things happened that led to our current situation.

First off, Villa Vie changed the itinerary to ‘homeport’ out of Singapore.  The global fuel shortage finally caught up with us and Singapore is one of the few places that can guarantee a fuel supply for our ship.  So, the plan is to fill up in Singapore, sail around Southeast Asia, and then return to Singapore for more fuel…rinse and repeat.  Many of the ports on the new itinerary are also anchorages which you know how much I love those. Now, don’t get me wrong…we really enjoyed Southeast Asia, but it’s very hot and very humid.  The original itinerary had us returning to South Korea and Japan which we were excited for, but alas.

The second thing was that Villa Vie decided to implement a fuel surcharge of $1500 USD/month.  This meant that our monthly fees would be going up by almost $2200 Canadian each month.  While we could technically afford it, this pushed us well over our planned monthly budget for retirement.  We were barely enjoying life on board at the current rate; we definitely weren’t enjoying it enough to blow our budget.

The final and frankly most important straw was that Mike had some testing done at the Calgary Heart Fit Clinic and they have some concerns that he may be developing a blockage in one of the coronary arteries on the right side of his heart.  This means that we need to be in Calgary for additional testing and possible treatment.  At the very least we need to start Mike on a statin which requires regular follow up bloodwork to make sure it’s working.

With all of this in mind, we made the decision to leave the ship and request a buyback of our cabin.  We flew from Calgary to Vancouver, Vancouver to Taipei, and finally Taipei to Manila in order to pack up our belongings.  We took a quick trip to the Mall of Asia before the ship left Manila.  It is the sixth largest mall in the world and you could spend an entire week in the mall area and not see it all. We also snuck in some amazing dumplings.

The ship was originally supposed to stop in Puerto Princesa along the way, but the port was dropped due to fuel and we slowly sailed six days from Manila to Singapore.  This gave us plenty of time to pack our cabin into 4 suitcases, sell/give away all the things we didn't need and say our goodbyes.  Seeing our cabin empty and depersonalized really brought it home that we weren't coming back, but we feel good about our decision.

When we docked in Singapore, we wandered around the mall attached to the port and went for one last lunch with our good friends. Afterwards, we headed to the airport. We decided to spend the night at hotel in the airport in preparation for our early flight the next morning.  We met up with some of our friends for a drink and wandered all five levels of the airport.  Changi Airport is absolutely massive and has a 40 meter (seven story) waterfall in the center of it. Singapore is a beautiful city that we will have to come back to; unfortunately, our flight home was cheapest on the day after we arrived, so we didn't get to spend any time exploring this time around.

We had a direct flight back to Vancouver and then a quick hop over to Calgary.  Luckily, all of our luggage arrived and soon enough we were in an Uber on our way to Budget Rental Car in the northeast.  They offer a subscription service for longer stays and we were able to get a much better rate on a car for a 3–6-month window.  After picking up our tiny Hyundai Venue, we headed to the south end of Calgary where we have secured a short-term rental.  We were lucky enough to find a fully furnished apartment with a flexible timeframe, but our plan is to stay put until at least October.  We didn’t want to commit to anything long-term (housing or vehicle) because we really have no idea where we're going from here.  The first order of business is to get Mike’s heart health sorted out and then we can make a plan for what we want to do next.  We have no desire to stop travelling, but we do want to slow down and spend more time in places.  The ship was a great way to see several places and particularly places we would have never gone on our own, but it was also really fast paced.  We will likely go back to pet sitting and spending longer stretches in one place.

While our cruise experience wasn’t quite what we were hoping for, it was as expected and we have no regrets.  It was an amazing experience, and we saw a lot of the world.  We were also fortunate enough to meet some amazing people who we will continue to keep in touch with for years to come.  The residential style of cruising is a promising model, but they still have some kinks to work out.  At the end of the day the communal living aspect wasn’t for us, and we are ready to have our own space.

We appreciate you following along on our adventures and we will be sure to share any upcoming travels.  It will likely be a little quiet around here for at least the summer, but Mike does post on Instagram occasionally when we find something interesting to do.  We would like to spend time catching up with friends this summer, so reach out if you’re up for a visit!

So, now you’re all caught up!  We still have more of the world to explore, but it is going to look a little different going forward.  Catch you next time.