More YouTube Travel/Food Videos

At work today, a coworker asked me what I did all day when I was basically bedridden. I told her I watched a lot of YouTube Travel and Food Videos. Then she asked, “Did you see videos by Mark Wiens?” I guess he’s pretty famous as someone else from my church small group asked me the exact same question. They also made fun of his “I love this” facial reaction.

The other channel I watched a lot is from Mike Chen. I think his claim to fame is how much he eats at AYCE (All You Can Eat) places, especially Chinese Hot Pot and Korean BBQ. I like Mark’s videos a bit more but they’re both pretty good. I guess it’s a pretty good life if your job is traveling and eating. Here is a video that features both of them together eating noodles in Thailand:

I visited Thailand on a “vision” trip back in 2005. It was basically a trip with my church at the time, and the goal was to see if I wanted to move there for one-year as a missionary. We visited major tourist areas like Bangkok and Phuket, but also less well known places like Udon Thani and Koi Yao Yai. I enjoyed the trip but Thailand was too hot and humid, and the food was too spicy for me.

*Beach next to Loh Yak Pier on Koi Yao Yai*

I also visited Taiwan for a few days after Thailand. I remember calling my ex-wife at home from right outside of Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei. It was raining a little bit at the time. This was when she dropped the bomb over the phone, and asked for a divorce from about 7,000 miles away. That’s a story for another time/post.

New Career: Tour Guide

After I had my emergency heart bypass surgery, I was discussing the future with someone from my church small group. His comment was that my previous life was over and I need to think about how to live my second life. For now, I’m going to go back to work but really think about what to do with the rest of my life. 25 years in finance is a long time.

One idea is to find a job closer to home, but several levels below my current position. I’ve been in a director level position for the past 8+ years, which means managing staff that manages other employees. A lot of my time is spent mentoring instead of getting tasks done. Maybe I can take an analyst position nearby and take it easy, but for a lot less pay.

Another idea is to find another career in an entirely different field. I really enjoy putting trips together. On our 2015 family trip to Japan and Taiwan, I spent about three months researching and organizing a detailed itinerary that even included train schedules and restaurant listings. I managed to get it down to two pages and we carried it with us all trip. However, usually when you start a new career at the bottom, you have to work really hard. I don’t mind working hard but I don’t really have a career goal at this point. Also, how do you start with no experience? Do I need to take classes in school again?

I looked at tour operator sites like Abercrombie & Kent and it seems like there are pretty healthy profit margins. Closer to home, I found this tour at Kensington Tours that charges ~$5k/person for six days in Southern California. Assuming they will operate the tour with just two guests, that’s a budget of ~$10k. Let’s break down the itinerary:

Accommodations at Chamberlain West Hollywood: about $400/night for Deluxe suite
Accommodations at Hotel Indigo: about $265/night for King Skyline View room
Day 1: pick up guests at airport
Day 2: 4 hour tour of Los Angeles: the only place that looks like it needs tickets is La Brea Tar Pits ($22/person); not sure if lunch at The Ivy is included; parking at Griffith Observatory is ~$10/hour
Day 3: 9.5 hour trip to Santa Barbara: visits to a bunch of public places so if there are tickets and parking, it’s probably not too expensive; again, not sure if lunch is included; winery tours are probably free; private wine tasting seems to be $35/person
Day 4: 6 hour drive down to San Diego: all the stops in LA are public locations and free
Day 5: 4 hour tour of San Diego: only place that costs money is visiting the USS Midway Museum ($26/person)
Day 6: drop off at airport

If we pay the tour guide $30/hour and we include 10 hours/day, then it’s ~$2k for labor. Accommodations for five nights is ~$2k, and everything else is probably <$1k (transportation, parking, admissions, maybe food). That leaves ~$5k of profit for only two guests (50% margins!). If you have two more guests, just rent a minivan and get another hotel room. The profit margin is even higher with more guests. Of course there are risks, such as sitting around having no customers, but it sure beats working fast food. Maybe even better than working as a finance director.

San Francisco Trip (updated)

After almost three years of dialysis, I think I’m ready to take my first trip. I wrote several blog posts about it and spent all yesterday morning researching hotels. I’m going to ask my parents to see if they want to go, then book the trip for February 29th to March 2nd. I can still get $139 first class tickets on Alaska/SkyWest so $834 for plane tickets.

For hotels, it appears that Hilton does not charge a resort fee at their hotels near Union Square. I can get a room with two double beds for ~$180/night including tax at Parc 55. Last time the three of us were in San Francisco, we drove up from LA and it rained the entire time. My main goal this trip is eating dim sum so maybe the weather won’t matter that much.

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Ugh, there are only two first class tickets available for $139 on the flight from SNA to SFO. I probably need to get both seats for my parents and I’ll sit in economy. It’s only 1.5 hour flight.

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I just read this on Reddit. I didn’t know it was even a concern to fly with a chest tunneled catheter. There is a clamp over each tube so it shouldn’t leak blood out of the actual catheter. Maybe the OP is talking about the opening in the chest. Mine was bleeding until about 2-3 weeks ago so I think it’s good. There’s also a BIOPATCH disc on the opening and a large clear bandage covering the entire area.

I’ll probably need to check with my nephrologist before making any reservations. I don’t want any TSA employees thinking that I’m carrying a SIIED or something.

Can I fly with tunneled cath?
byu/skrattadude indialysis

Abercrombie and Kent (updated)

While we’re fantasizing about travel, this seems to be the ultimate in fantasy travel. It’s only $160k per person, double-occupancy. You basically fly on a private Boeing 757 with only 50 seats, and all the attractions and accommodations are amazing.

$160k is a lot of money for 26 days. That comes out to ~$6k per day per person. Since the trip can take 48 guests, the total budget is $7.68 million. I could probably plan a great trip with that much money, though some things, like dinner at Kanazawa Castle may be hard to book for a nobody like me. I wonder how much profit margin they make on each trip.

There are also shorter trips on smaller private jets. It’s still not cheap; you’re looking at ~$35k for 14 days. This makes a lot of sense though. When I planned our Japan/Taiwan trip back in 2015, there was a lot of time allocated to traveling between destinations. It took us most of an entire day to get from Osaka to Taipei on Japan Airlines, and many hours to get from Tokyo Station to Shin-Osaka via the Tokaido Shinkasen. If we had chartered a private jet, then it would have been only a few hours.

This looks like an interesting itinerary. Five countries and only 5.5 hours of flight time between the different cities. You would spend four out of the 14 days transiting on a normal trip. I took a Trafalgar tour many years ago from London to Paris to Rome and we spent almost two days traveling between the cities by ferry and overnight train.

Of course none of this is possible without a kidney transplant. I don’t see a Dialysis in the Air option, though they probably could set up a hemodialysis machine inside a wide-body jet. The patient would have to do dialysis on the jet, probably while parked at an airport, but it will cost a lot for a dedicated nurse and space on the plane for the dialysis machine. Maybe it’s more feasible for peritoneal dialysis patients since all you need is someone to coordinate moving cyclers and supplies to hotel rooms from the private jet. It will be up to the patient to run their nightly dialysis program.

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OK, they are ridiculously expensive. I looked at one of their Tailor Made custom tours of Nice and Monaco. For four days, it’s ~$5k double occupancy, so about ~$10k for two people. The hotel listed in the itinerary, Hôtel La Pérouse, is only $210/night in May for an Economy room; even if you book a Deluxe room, it’s ~$750/night, breakfast included. If you go to all the places listed in the trip itinerary, the total cost of admissions is <€60. Other than the hotel breakfasts, there are no other meals included. Add local transportation, airport transfers, and the cost for a private guide for a few days, it’s still way less than $10k. I guess there’s some value in coming up with the itinerary. A friend planned her Europe trip by copying itineraries from Rick Steve’s website, or you can just use a travel agent.

More Travel

Now I’m seriously thinking of traveling during the two-day dialysis gap between Saturday and Tuesday. The only trip I’ve taken outside of LA during the past three years is to Del Mar Racetrack so getting on an airplane will be a big deal. I think the first trip will be somewhere close like San Francisco or Las Vegas instead of Toronto.

I checked our flights to San Francisco from both SNA and LAX. Even though LAX flights are cheaper, I’ll save lots of time and stress flying out of SNA. This itinerary looks good:

Flight	Date	From	Departure	To	Arrival
Alaska 3453	Feb 22	SNA	3:00 pm	SFO	4:35 pm
Alaska 3320	Feb 24	SFO	8:30 pm	SNA	10:06 pm

Interestingly, neither flight is operating by Alaska Airlines but by rather SkyWest Airlines. Both flights are on an Embraer 175 which only seats 76 passengers. One-way first class seats are only $139 compared to >$400 from LAX on a larger jet.

From there, it’s a 25 minute BART ride to Union Square area for ~$10. There are many 4-star hotels for ~$150/night and Chinatown is within walking distance. I think I’m going to plan this out for a weekend in February or March, once I’ve recovered from my PD catheter/fistula surgery. I only need to take one day off work. Maybe I’ll bring my mom since she doesn’t get out much.

I also checked out traveling by Amtrak to San Francisco. The Coast Starlight runs from LA Union Station to Oakland, and a bus will take you to several final destinations in San Francisco. The only problem is the train departs Union Station daily at 10:10 am. Even if I switch my dialysis time to first shift, it will be hard to get to downtown LA by 10:10 am. Also it takes 12+ hours to get to San Francisco by train/bus, and business class seats are $84. Compared to flying first class from SNA for $139, the train is too slow and too expensive.

Air Travel

Now I’m obsessed with travel for some reason. Since a cruise in the South Pacific is doable, surely I can fly to Toronto and see some relatives over the weekend. I checked Google Flights and found this itinerary:

Flight	Date	From	Departure	To	Arrival
UA 2052	Feb 1	SNA	1:00 pm	DEN	4:21 pm
UA 2026	Feb 1	DEN	5:45 pm	YYZ	10:52 pm
UA 582	Feb 3	YYZ	5:41 pm	ORD	6:34 pm
UA 1290	Feb 3	ORD	7:53 pm	SNA	10:29 pm

I would have to ask my dialysis clinic to move my Saturday session to first shift which is from 5:30 am to 9:00 am; currently I’m scheduled for second shift, which gets out at 1:00 pm. Assume I get out by 10:00 am, that gives me three hours to go home, pack, and drive to John Wayne Airport for the 1:00 pm flight. Arrival in Toronto at 10:52 pm shouldn’t be a problem; there a lots of hotels right by the airport for <$100/night. This itinerary gives me a day and a half in Toronto, and still gets me home by Monday night. Airfare is $498. Both flights are connecting flights but there are no direct flights from John Wayne to Pearson International.

One issue is that I will be flying United Airlines, the worst airline in America but they have the shortest overall flight time from SNA to YYZ. For a bit less money ($433) and more travel time, I can fly Delta Airlines:

Flight	Date	From	Departure	To	Arrival
DL 689	Feb 1	SNA	1:50 pm	ATL	8:56 pm
DL 1976	Feb 1	ATL	9:45 pm	YYZ	12:01 am (+1)
DL 2320	Feb 3	YYZ	3:45 pm	ATL	6:07 pm
DL 895	Feb 3	ATL	7:50 pm	SNA	9:50 pm

I heard Delta is pretty good for a domestic airline. I’ve never flown Delta before; typically I’m on Alaska or American Airlines because I used to have Oneworld status through Cathay Pacific.

*US Airline rankings from Wall Street Journal*

Dialysis at Sea: South Pacific

For some reason, I can’t get Dialysis at Sea out of my mind. Initially I thought it was crazy to go on a cruise while on dialysis, but there is really no way to travel internationally otherwise. I’m going to plan out one of the more exotic trips to see if it will actually work for me, ignoring the fact I need to go back to work. There is a cruise on Celebrity Solstice from Auckland to Sydney departing on March 10, 2020.

Since Auckland is super far and 21 hours ahead, I would have to leave on March 8th to make it there by March 10th. The cheapest flight option is AA 83, which may be a Quantas flight, on a Boeing 787. It departs at 11:05 pm from LAX and arrives at 8:40 am two days later. The ship departs Auckland at 6:00 pm so plenty of time to get from the airport to the ship terminal. Since I had dialysis on Saturday, March 7th, if I can get a session onboard either Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, it should be fine. The cruise is 10-days long which means 4-5 dialysis sessions onboard.

The cruise arrives Sydney at 6:30 am on March 20th. AA 72 departs at 11:15 am and arrives in LAX at 7:05 am the same day due to the time difference. Total airfare in economy is only $916. Upgrading to premium economy will cost $2,928 total. Pretty expensive but may be worth it since the flights (direct) are so long.

Dialysis at Sea has the starting price for the cruise at $1,824 while Celebrity has $899. Assuming the dialysis premium is ~$1,000 and remains constant instead of scaling with Celebrity’s prices, to get a room with a balcony/veranda for either one or two people will cost ~$3,500 or ~$4,500 through Dialysis at Sea. So for two people flying premium economy and staying in a balcony room onboard, it will cost ~$11,000 total including tip and drinks. Very expensive but totally doable.