I was travelling in Asia at the beginning of 2024. After spending a few days in Malaysia, I flew to Dhaka, Bangladesh from Kuala Lumpur on January 8th. There were civil unrests in Bangladesh prior to my arrival. Their long-time Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina was re-elected for her fourth term. In anticipation of large scale protests in the capital city, I opted for an unusual route; I visited the places of interest in descending order of preference. I worried that I might have to leave the country earlier than planned. Well, the government was not overthrown during my visit. It did not happen until August.
The next country that I visited was the Maldives. I stay there for the month of February. I based myself on the island of Maafushi and took short trips to visit several other islands using public ferries. There are a lot of foreign workers in the Maldives. I stayed in a building where the workers live. My A/C ensuite room was $30 USD per night. The cost of food is relatively low by Canadian standards. Inter-island public transportation cost is flat rate for all stops on any route. If I had chosen to stay in a resort for 5-7 days on a private island, I would spend the same amount of money for my 1-month stay in the Maldives. Other than saving money, I needed time to recoup and organize my return to Canada in early March. What better place to accomplish that than the Maldives!
Before returning to Canada, I visited Qatar. I had originally planned to visit this country in 2019. However, because of the embargo imposed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar was omitted from my itinerary at that time. When I learned that the embargo was lifted, I booked the homebound flight via Doha. Thanks to World Cup 2022, I witnessed an improved version of Qatar with ultra modern buildings and infrastructure. I based myself in the capital city of Doha. I took public transportation to visit various places of interest. Qatar is similar to the U.A.E. with a higher cost of living. Since the embargo, Qatar became more self sufficient. It had built many more temperature-controlled farms in the middle of the desert.
From March to December, I stayed in Vancouver. Finding a place to live in Vancouver was exceedingly difficult this time around. It took me three weeks of staying in hostels before finding my current place. The standard of living is not as high as before. Landlords are only concerned with collecting rents. They let the rented spaces run down by not repairing or doing regular maintenance because high turnovers translate to frequent abrupt rent increases. To counter this issue, I have learned to do various types of DIY repairs and maintenance. I even managed to eradicate ants and mice from my place.
Vancouver is in an economically depressed state even though it was more crowded than ever. Prices were higher than in August 2023 when I left for my 7-month Asian journey. Minimum wage in British Columbia was raised to $17.40 per hour on June 1st, the highest of all Canadian provinces. However, the living wage in Metro Vancouver was calculated to be $27.05 per hour for a family of four. No wonder Vancouver residents looked so stressed and businesses became more unethical. There were public boycotts for the supermarket chains. I supported the movement by shopping in smaller independent shops.
Years ago when I turned into a part-time global nomad, I developed a habit of being a tourist in my hometown whenever I stay in Vancouver. This year I visited Fort Langley and South Tsawwassen near the USA/Canada border. I enjoyed both places though each way would take over two hour by public transport.
When I was not exploring, I spent a lot of time praying for world peace. Now that I have visited 121 countries and territories, news about far away places seem more relevant. I don't regret that I deleted my social media accounts last year. I would not know how to offer any words of wisdom to all the people that I met in my travels. I believe that only divine intervention could end conflicts all over the world. I sometimes think that we are already in WW III. As always. I am hopeful that the best is yet to come.
