The Wanderings of busman7

“I wake up but can’t seem to move in the bed, strange wonder what’s wrong? On further inspection it appears that I’m tied to the bed. How can this be & where am I?

Last thing I remember is being arrested in my school classroom & taken to the hospital by the police. Guess I must still be in the hospital but why am I tied to the bed?”

The reason this person is tied to the bed is because after waiting, what seemed like an eternity for a nurse to come & help them out of bed, into a chair they decided to do it on their own but unfortunately the aging body doesn’t work so well anymore & they ended up on the floor. When an overworked nurse discovered the situation, the person was promptly returned to the bed & tied in “for their safety”!

Now why was this person in a hospital anyway? Well it happened this way; their “dementia” had progressed to a point where they were becoming violent, at times, so the retirement home sent them to the local quackville hospital, never bothered to do any tests so the proper medication could be administered, thus when a relative demanded they be released back to the home it was inevitable the problem would reoccur.

Now having been in quackcity hospital, for a mere 10 days, the test results are still unavailable & the person is still tied to the bed, more often than not, give the powers that be an inch where necessary & they will take a mile out of convience.

OMG!! You exclaim, what terrible third world, communist country is this occurring in?  Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos?

NO, in those countries or anywhere else in Asia where Buddhism, Islam or other Eastern religions are prevalent such inhumane treatment of the elderly would never be tolerated!

The place is in the supposedly civilized, Christian, western “democracy” called Canada, in the province of Ontario, where if you treated your cat or dog this way you would face major fines & they would be taken away from you. Should you restrain your child in this way, you would be facing major prison time!

However in this throwaway society, whenever something has outlived it’s usefulness, it’s simply thrown out. However with people, the old, who have the nerve to be an   inconvience  to society are merely instutionalised  & treated with contempt!

So tomorrow a meeting with this weeks government appointed doctor to see if she is medicated enough to return to the retirement/nursing home. You see the holier than though administrators of the home, who only charge $85/day, dislike it when faced with any inconvience at all.

First they call a relative to come in to do the job, they are supposedly trained & paid to do, then then get really upset when you refuse & point this out to them. The next step is to send the client to the hospital where they know that restraint will be used, while claiming sanctimoniously that they never use restraints. I really have a hard time with hypocrisy!

With any luck at all the El Salvador option will still be viable & it’s Hasta la vista Canada!!

Everything is in a holding pattern at the moment!!

And life would be boring if it wasn’t for the occasional skirmish with the quacks, licensed as doctors to practise in Ontario. It seems they only learned 3 words during their schooling:

1) Dementia; a condition suffered by anyone over 55

2) Restrain; what they advocate done to anyone who resists their orders

3) Safety; the reason to restrain

Actually trying to ascertain the reason for the problems is out of the question, it’s merely dementia, which necessitates restraint, for their safety. When questioned they get a major hissy fit on & claim to be omnipotent professionals, which shows they are anything but!

So have finally gotten mother into a hospital, where the appropriate testing will be done to find out exactly what is what. So it’s wait & see.

The owners of the El Salvadorian casa I am interested in are out of the country & my real estate lady is having a hard time tracking them down. More waiting.

The English teacher, who has the job leads in El Salvador, is also out of the country until September. The waiting game continues!

Ontario bureaucracy continues  pretty much par for the course with the provincial game plan of forcing small business people too pack it in so the major conglomerates have no competition. The Restaurant Gestapo forced the last decent place that opened at 6:00 for good $5.00 breakfast to close because of some stupid, inane regulation!

However Bowmanville has a new Wal-Mart Super Store, so the downtown merchants, who still have parking meters, monitored by overzealous meter maids, in front of their stores, can be driven out of business with all the profits being split by Sam Walton’s heirs & their Chinese suppliers.

A couple acquaintances have passed on, one prematurely, the local tire shop is going to have a sale  & pack it in this fall. There used to be 1/2 a dozen local bus companies in the area, now there is only one plus First Student owned by England’s First Choice Group & Scots owned, Wells Fargo’s, Coach Canada. More profits going overseas!

Economic conditions brought on by STUPID politicians forced me out of Quebec 40 odd years ago, now the same has happened in Ontario.

Come on September so I can get to hell out of Canada!!(:

Absolutely amazing how far down the road to ruin Ontario has slipped in the past 11 months!

The people are more vocal in their discontent, taxes have increased thanks to the HST, other costs have risen, jobs have disappeared, not a happy place.

Mother was recently transferred from the retirement home to the local hospital & put on a list for an intensive care home. First thing you notice when driving towards the parking lot is the sign with the rates, was $2.00, now $8.00 Whoa a four fold increase in rates in a year. Throw Mr Checker in reverse & go park at the nearby strip mall.

Needless to say that after the walk back to the hospital & seeing the information wicket closed & a sign saying use phone for patient information, my mood hadn’t improved so that when the room number was given & I asked how to get to the room & the moron on the other end says “how should I know? I,m in Oshawa (hospital is in Bowmanville). I was really impressed!! NOT, however in a good way!

Finally make my way through the maze to the room at the inmates feeding time where the most disgusting looking mess was being handed out, closely resembled something the dog had for breakfast but couldn’t keep down. Little wonder that 2 of the 3 patients in the room refused to eat it.

So now I know what must be done & have emailed El Salvador to get the ball rolling on the casa purchase, obtain more info on the teaching position. If all goes well should be in El Salvador in a couple months with mother out of the HELL HOLE called Bowmanville Hospital!!

So a couple month interlude here in Onturkeyo dealing with red tape and

That’s it, that’s all she wrote for Sianora Crapanada!!

The difference in attitude between the provincial civil servants of the BC government & those (simple serpents) in the rest of Crapanada (& especially the feds) is truly amazing!

In my travels I have noticed that an inordinate amount of the travelers I have met have been from the Pacific North-West, specifically Oregon, Washington states & Southern BC, including Port Alberni. Also that these travelers were more knowledgeable + all around nicer people than the average.

Not sure the reason why but it kind of makes me wonder why this area puts up with the BS that the Feds (both US & Canadian) impose on them? Think the sensible thing for them to do would be to succeed from their oppressive regimes & form their own country, which except from the fact that it unfortunately, north of the tropic of Cancer would be next paradise!

Food for thought guys & gals, the ball is in your court! I would go to bat for twinning with El Salvador!

Hmm, a Mediterranean climate twinned with a tropical one, now that’s Paradise!!!

pero the next adventure is looming just around the corner!

Alaska Air flight to SEATAC went well with just normal (or this day & age) security check, none of the DFW Gestapo tactics, Alaska seems to work things in it’s own way, with a bit of intelligence!!

Transfer to Horizon Air for the 40 min Portland leg was smooth (except for the 4000 mile walk at the terminal between gates), not even another security check (Shhh don’t tell Homeland Stupidity).

Reasonably priced motel in the Hollywood district was fine as was the reasonably priced lunch & cervaza at a restaurant/bar a couple blocks away + the walk, the long way around, through the older streets back, took me past some fine older houses, all with brightly colored flower borders & or gardens. A really pleasant neighborhood.

Next morning a mighty fine Amtrak train (have they ever improved since my last ride many moons ago), which was totally sold out, whisked me up to Seattle. An hour wait in the station there, where there was only a couple vending machines, & it was lunch time. NOT impressed Seattle!!

Then the bus arrived for the hour trip to the Canadian border where I was hassled by our “fabulous” (touch of sarcasm there) border personnel over the “HEAVY” tag some woos had put on my normal weight bag in Portland. However nothing new there!

Got dropped off 5 min north of the border where I was met by a forum member from Dos Centavos who took me to their place for an enjoyable evening of conversation that continued on most of the next day, until it was time to leave to spent a couple days at a cousin’s place to catch up on family news & see a bit of Vancouver.

As it was about an hour between the 2 residences, it was decided that they meet 1/2 way, which turned out to be the former residence of one of BC’s more colorful PM’s, Bill Zanderdamn, a combination of a fantasy land castle & a Dutch windmill (the designer must have been on a bad trip).

A couple days catching up on what was going on with that branch of the family ensued, a picnic in one of Vancouver’s fabulous parks, which included a younger sister, whom I hadn’t seen in many snows that turns out to be a kindred spirit. A firm believer in the views of Alex Jones & others, who have seen past the smoke & mirrors show put on by our puppet politicians, to the real agenda of their handlers. One World Government! Guess being a bit of a rebel & cynic runs in the family!

Took the ferry from Vancouver to Swartz Bay (Victoria) & discovered that once you get over the hills separating the prairies from the southern west coast, you are no longer in Crapanada (at least as far as the BC ferries civil servants are concerned. These workers actually possess people skills + do the job they are paid to do (what an original concept), should they be in OnturkeyO certainly they would set a precedent as the first ever gov’t employees to actually be fired, the reason, doing their job!!

Now can see the attraction of this area to Canadians who are fortunate enough to have the means to retire here & are able to ignore the high cost of living, taxes etc + all the political BS that has become a part of life in this country which is fastly returning to it’s roots as a nation of hewers of wood & gathers of water. Personally can’t do dat!!

My first trip to Vancouver in 40 hrs has turned out to be an enjoyable & fitting finale to stage one of an RTW which is destined to continue, with various interludes in different countries, until the Great Turtle deems fit to transfer me into my next incarnation.

OK to give the Yukon it’s due I must mention that Parks Canada is doing a good job of preserving the history of Dawson City. However viewing some sites is a pain trying to figure out when they are open due to typical simple serpent mismanagement & downright stupidity.

The exception was the guy at the Robert Service cabin who gave an excellent overview of his life & read some good but little known verses, he was one of the odd civil service people who was actually knowledgeable & enjoyed his job.

Also the trip down the White Pass & Yukon Route railway was good with a Canadian & American guide sharing the duties on the trip, Railway is operated out of Skagway so not surprising it was well run, right down to the separate car for independent travelers!

Skagway was pretty cool (both in sights & temperature) with everything in easy walking distance. Juneau on the other hand is on the coast & suffers cool damp weather like Anchorage. Managed to get on the ferry from Skagway to Juneau but the only way out of here without waiting until the first of the week is by air so on a flight in a couple hours to Seattle & Portland.

Then Amtrak back to Seattle (49 of the 50 states visited) & bus to Vancouver where will spend the night at a friends, a couple days visiting relatives on the island (if they don’t leave town when they hear I am coming).

Finally an El Cheapo Westjet red-eye YYJ-YYZ on the 21st, 11 months + 1 day since I left on my Odyssey!

After my positive Alaska experience Canada’s Yukon rates right down in the basement with OZ, an expensive disappointment!

Strange how a line drawn on a map through the same type of country can have such an effect on people who one would think sharing the same environment should think & act similarly but NO way Jose, ‘tis Not the case. On the Canadian side they act similar to another ex-Brit colony half a world away. Grumpy, lazy, bigoted & do everything to the lowest common denominator!!

Too much bureaucracy with way too many slurping at the trough & no one doing any productive work!

Dawson City is a tourist trap basically run by Parks Canada. A real simple serpent town which wouldn’t exist without a steady stream of fancy motor homes from the south filled with people who are easily parted from their money + a whole herd of Holland America/Princess sheeple tourists.

Took 1/2 hr to get a cab at the Whitehorse airport DUH!! Expensive tourist boat trip with NO public transportation to the dock!

BEWARE: Whitehorse’s “Marlin Travel” the Rip-off King of the Klondike, who wanted to charge $100.00 to book my ferry from Skagway to Bellingham!!

Makes one really proud to be Canadian Eh! NOT!!!

Can’t wait to get out of this territory which there really is NO reason to visit once you have been to Alaska!!

Have my bus/train ticket out of here for the morning on the White Pass & Yukon Railway (based out of Skagway so didn’t get ripped off), on line, can only get on the ferry as far as Juneau without waiting another 5 days, so will play it by ear when I reach Skagway. Worst case scenario will be ferry to Juneau then Air Alaska to Portland.

Alaska is a whole different kettle of fish from the lower 48 states, is varied itself, from the capitol of Anchorage to Fairbanks & the other communities at the top of the world.

The mountain scenery is fantastic, the people are great, the train ride, while it’s billing as the best in the world might be a tad optimistic (too short), it sure ranks up there near the top.

Anchorage is fine, pretty spread out but easy to get around in & touristy. However being on the coast is kind of damp & cooler than further inland. While there is a good highway through the mountains, past Denali to Fairbanks. An 8 hr drive, our driver to Dawson was saying when trying to persuade myself & another train buff in the van that was a better option than the train.

He was NOT successful! As how can being cooped up in a bus for 8 hrs begin to compare with meeting new people on the 12 hr train ride, sitting in the economy class dome car listening to stories told by a couple train crew & locals, after most got off at Denali & they had time to kill.

Fairbanks turned out to be a great place to spend a day between the displays at the visitor centre, museum, university & just wandering around town in the much nicer + warmer weather than down on the coast.

Leaving town on the Richardson Highway, one comes to Delta & start of the 1400+ mile Alaska Highway. Then an hour or so down the road comes the turnoff for the metropolis of Chicken Alaska (pop 69 if I remember correctly) & The Top of the World Highway which winds it’s way up above the tree line to the Yukon border.

All in all a great experience, & one that should be on every travelers bucket list IMHO!

That I only have 2 more flights out of US the, then I shall never, ever have to set foot in one of their Fascist Homeland Stupidity controlled airports again!!

Thought Heathrow held the record for the most Nazified, privacy invasive, useless so-called “security” systems in place until I encountered the full body scan at DFW, on a domestic flight yet. DUH!!!

The CIA nasty tricks department sure got what they were after when they arranged the Twin Towers incident & the Re-PUB-lican (as in they get their best ideas in the pub drinking cheap booze & doing bad dope) sold enough of the American sheeple on the scary terrorist scenario that they willingly gave up their privacy & freedom!!

Oh Crapanada my (EX)home & native land, why in the name of the Big Turtle do you insist on screwing me every time I turn around?? Can see my final 6 or so weeks of residing there are NOT going to be pleasant.

Booked a trip from Fairbanks to Dawson City on Alaska/Yukon Trails a bus service operating out of Fairbanks. They also provide service from Dawson City to Whitehorse however according to the rules they canNOT provide service for less than 2 people, even if I were willing to pay 2 fares they could NOT legally take me. Now if this rule  was protecting a Canadian competitor it might make sense BUT the fact is there is NO Canadian company providing this or a similar bus service.

So it’s just a STUPID rule made by an uninformed Crapanadian Simple Serpent which inconviencienses & costs people money for NO valid reason whatsoever! STUPID flucking STUPID!!!

Oh well guess if I want to see the land of “Sam McGee” will just have to fly (at higher cost of course) to Whitehorse.

Shame though that if it wasn’t for the Americans, the Crapanadian north wouldn’t have any bus service off the major routes where the Brits operate the Grey Dog. That’s the new Crapanadian way though, buy foreign & starve the locals out!

OK rant over, time for a new entry on great Alaska!

Cities of any size at all have city buses which are a cheap way to get around & Google Maps has routes & schedules for a lot of city transit systems, not sure how many as only used it for Bangkok, checked a couple other random cities & routes showed up. Make sure to check with the locals as some cities also have free bus service on selected routes, Bangkok being one with their red buses, Perth is another with 4 cat routes, differentiated by color & Adelaide has one tourist loop + a section of the tram line.

Most Asian & CA countries also have the tuk-tuk, 3 wheeled motorcycle with a cab, have to watch these & negotiate the price as in Bangkok they can be more expensive than a taxi, while in Antigua they are about 1/3 the taxi cost. Then in Asia you have the motorcycle taxi, about the cheapest way to travel away from city bus routes.

Cambodia has a unique (at least never saw it elsewhere) form of motorcycle transport, they mount a fifth wheel on the bike & pull a trailer.

At the bottom of the line you have the pedal powered rickshaw, trishaw etc, even saw a couple simply pulled by a person in a touristy area somewhere in SE Asia. By far the most environmental mode as they are propelled by pedal power! Also kind of interesting in Mandalay at night as they have no lights & only the main streets are lit(when the hydro is on).

Of course every country has taxi’s & the vast majority of drivers are good & helpful, however, along with London’s pricey black cabs, Mandalay has a unique form of taxi, the “Blue Taxi” a baby Mazda pickup, blue in color, powered by a 2 cylinder diesel, holds about 4 people in the back, is cheap & super cute!!! Don’t forget that most cities on a river have water taxis & ferries to get you around.

Major cities have subway systems or in the case of Bangkok the subway (MRT) + the Sky train (BTS).

Unlike North America, in most of the world, with all these public transport options there is really no need to own a car, which makes no economic sense!

The best bang for the tourist buck in cities that have them is the Hop on Hop off bus where you get to ride all day or 2 days in some cases for one low fare. Some cities like Brisbane combine them with the river boats or in the case of Perth, for an extra small fee you get a boat trip to Freemantle + Hop on Hop off use of it’s tram line. In Kuala Lumpur your day starts with your 1st ride & goes for 24 hrs, While in Havana the 5 CUC fare (by far the cheapest anywhere) is good for all 3 routes, including one that goes to the beach. These buses are the greatest invention since sticky rice!!!IMO

Other cool transports were the Hot Air Balloon ride over the outback at Alice Springs, The 4×4 bus ride on the beach highway on Fraser Island & the small plane tour of Fraser Island that used the beach highway as a landing strip. Floating down the river, looking for crocodiles in a dugout in Chitawin National Park was pretty cool as was the elephant ride looking for rhinos. Camel ride in Mongolia was a tad different as was the 5 day crossing of Tibet in a convoy of 12 Toyota Land Cruisers.

Mustn’t forget that any self-respecting city anywhere in the world has the ubiquitous  horse drawn carriage, actually is Santa Clara Cuba they were using horse drawn wagons as city buses!