Tour de France - cancelled!

Travel and Leisure

Ok, not THE Tour de France. However, it is currently postponed - but I think it will ultimately be cancelled. What I'm referring to, is our own tour that we had planned for France this September. Back when we had booked at the start of February, the coronavirus had not spread very far, and we didn't even give it a second thought. What was motivating us, was the excellent price we were getting for non-stop service with Air Canada from YVR to CDG.

I was getting pretty excited - I ordered the Rick Steves guidebooks, and started mapping out an itinerary that would take us on a circle route, leaving Paris after 5 days, heading East through the Champagne region, then on to the Alsace wine route, continuing to Burgundy, and then back to Paris to fly home. We had picked great boutique hotels in Paris, and carefully selected AirBnB suites for the rest of our journey. I was even starting to plan our days, so that we wouldn't run into issues where we went to Versailles on the same day that the Louvre was closed, for example.

Sept. 2020 itinerary through Eastern France

Then the news from Italy started to come in. Oh oh. It was still pretty early days - probably not even called a pandemic yet. But the rate of COVID-19 spread was going crazy, and pretty soon, we were heading into our own lockdown. I stayed glued to the news - like watching a slow-motion train wreck - not wanting to hear more bad news, but yet could not stay away from finding out where the virus was hitting next. With France and the rest of the EU limiting travel to only European nationals, it was starting to look like European summer vacations would be in jeopardy; Macron made a statement that France could stay closed until at least the end of Summer. But maybe September would work out still?

The first big hint of things to come for us, was when Air Canada cancelled our mid-September non-stop flights to Paris (mid-April). We were placed on one-stop flights via Montreal and through Toronto on the return; not a huge deal-breaker, but the non-stop flights were definitely bonus factors for booking into Paris. That's when I started seriously looking into AC's flight cancellation policy. At first, they were talking about giving credits that could be used only until March 31, 2021. 2021? We may not even have a widely-available vaccine by then, I thought. Where would we be able to go in early 2021 that would not have crowds and social distancing measures prohibiting tourism? But with a recent change to the cancellation policy, and a confirmation message from AC, they are now going to allow flight credits to be used up to 24-months after the flight cancellation date.

Looking like we won't be seeing the inside of a plane anytime soon

Now I'm really starting to think about our options. What if we got infected, recovered, and then presumably would have the antibodies to prevent further viral spread? Surely there will be immunity passports or something by then, and that might enable us to see France, with limited crowds due to social distancing measures still being in place? But even if that were the case, would major attractions like the Louvre and Versailles even be open to tourists? What would be the point of going to Paris, if you can only walk through the streets and see sights from the outside? And just as our small towns are asking visitors to stay away during the pandemic, would that be the case for the towns and villages that we would want to take in on our French countryside tours?

And then the other day, the WHO came out with a statement essentially saying that post-infection antibodies are not a proven thing yet, so don't count on herd-immunity to stop the spread of COVID-19. So that was the death blow - not just for our French vacation, but for life in general, to return to some sense of normalcy in the next several months. Maybe there will be travel in Europe at the end of the summer, but it certainly won't look anything like what we had planned for. While technically we haven't cancelled our flights yet - we want to extend the 24-month window into the end of Spring 2022 - we've ruled it out in our minds.

We will see Europe again in the future, just not for a long while. In the meantime, in the words of our Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, "Be kind, be calm and stay safe".

Quarantine cookies

Ever have a craving for a good, chocolate chip cookie? There's something about a fresh-baked, still warm from the oven, chocolate chip cookie that makes it the ultimate treat.

I remember an episode of "Friends", where Phoebe had to try and get a copy of her grandmother's secret chocolate chip cookie recipe, which turned out to be the exact recipe from the back of the Nestle chocolate chip bag. This is exactly what I thought about Ma Chin's super family secret recipe, and so after calling her one day to get it, I found that it too, was the same Nestle recipe! But for some reason, these cookies, while very tasty, always ended up being thinner, crunchy cookies, which she dislikes.

Image courtesy of Hilton Hotel

Long ago, on my first ever, out-of-the-country business trip, I had to go to Santa Clara for a training class with IBM. Our company travel agency booked me into the Doubletree, which I had never heard of, as they did not have any properties in Canada back then. I didn't know it at the time, but the Doubletree chain (now owned by Hilton), was famous for their warm, chocolate chip cookies that they handed out to guests when they checked in. Needless to say, when I tried their cookie, I was immediately sold on them! When I checked out, I bought a small tin of them to give to my brother's high-school chum who lived in San Francisco at the time. Copycat recipes have been available online for a while now, but due to the pandemic, Doubletree actually revealed their secret recipe! So, with nothing but time on my hands, I thought I should give this recipe a try.

As you can see, they turned out pretty well, and tasted very good - I'd rate them about 8.5 vs. the original Doubletree version. I didn't have any walnuts on hand, and I remember the hotel ones having a slightly more oat-y texture. But the flavour was excellent, and of course, they are best served warm! Aside from adding the walnuts next time, I would chill the dough for a couple of hours before baking them - it keeps them from spreading out too much and becoming too thin. Regardless, they make excellent treats during the coronavirus quarantine!

March 2020 - a month of change

COVID-19 Pandemic

A little humour for these dark days

For those of us here in Vancouver, March has been the biggest month of change. Sometime in the future, I'm sure I'll be looking back on this time as THE month that shaped the future for us, so I thought I jot down some personal perspective, for posterity's sake.

4 weeks ago: I had a busy week working as an Extra - four days in a row, which is uncommon for me. On this day, 4 weeks ago, I was playing a doctor for an upcoming Marvel comics TV show, ironically. I remember being cognizant of touching things like door knobs and other common surfaces, but was not yet distancing myself from others much. Of course, we were glued to the news, watching the situation unfolding in China, wondering if/when it would turn bad here. Total BC COVID-19 confirmed cases: 12.

3 weeks ago: I'm up visiting my elderly parents in Kamloops, and we've taken steps to sanitize surfaces around their house, while we were watching how bad things were getting in Italy with how quickly their cases grew, and then moved to lockdown. I accepted a booking for Batwoman for March 16th, not thinking much of it at the time. I was washing my hands more frequently, and hyper-sensitive to touching anything in the hospital when I was visiting my mother. Back down to Vancouver on Thursday, when the WHO declares a pandemic; I started to get ourselves prepared at home for what I predict to be a coming lockdown. Friday, Riverdale shut down due to a potential positive case, so I told my agent that I wanted to back out of Batwoman, which got cancelled anyways, along with all of the rest of TV & film in BC. On the weekend, Whistler Blackcomb closed for the season. Total BC COVID-19 confirmed cases: 39.

2 weeks ago: Officials had started talking about "getting ready", and told people to not leave their homes. Having experienced the worst Costco shopping outing in my life, it was obvious that Vancouver had woken up to the reality of this pandemic, and what they might need to do for the coming weeks and months. I went back to Kamloops, and purchased groceries for my parents, and prepped them as best I could so that they don't have to venture out. Health officers and politicians talked about how we must social distance ourselves to slow down the spread. Later, back in Vancouver, friends and neighbours were out enjoying the warm weather, but staying safely apart. Total BC COVID-19 confirmed cases: 186.

Cocktails with friends via FaceTime

1 week ago: The official word came out - stay at home unless you are in an essential job or need to get groceries or drugs. After a particularly sunny weekend, officials chastised the "COVIDIOTS" for not following social distancing protocols. We heard that two of our good friends likely had contracted it, as had the next-door neighbour. With a downturn in the weather, sidewalks and front yards were almost devoid of life. Yet, when walking the dog, people would cross the street to avoid coming face-to-face with each other. Video calls with our friends became the new normal, and around a week or so ago, my wife started working from home, full-time. The house has never been so clean, and yet the "honey-do list" still grows. Total BC COVID-19 confirmed cases: 617.

Today: Had to go grocery shopping for the first time in almost two weeks; while the local Save-On Foods had put in social distancing protocols, it seemed very busy in the fresh produce section. Some people were wearing masks, and I instantly felt naked for not wearing one. No reusable shopping bags, as they can transmit the virus to store workers. Once I got the groceries home, we wiped down or washed our goods, but it still felt like a futile effort. We found out this week that another friend has it, as does her sister and brother-in-law. Aside from the schoolchildren, no one is enjoying this. Total BC COVID-19 confirmed cases: 1013.

While the total confirmed cases here is low relative to other countries and provinces, and supposedly the rate at which it is spreading is decreasing, I keep reminding people that these are just the confirmed cases - i.e. the ones that have been tested and come back positive. I've read studies that say that these confirmed cases are only the tip of the iceberg, and the ones that went untested, or where the individuals are asymptomatic, could be 10x, 20x or 100x the confirmed number. That puts today's potential number of infected in BC at between 20,000 and 100,000 people! Worse still, is the messaging that is going out from our officials that make no mention of this potential, unseen, "bottom of the iceberg", which is really what concerns me. I fear that the small relative number of confirmed cases will not make the general public wary enough, and that they will go back to their ways and start increasing the spread again. I hope that I look back at this post months, or years from now, and see that these predictions were way off the mark.

Surviving the pandemic

Organisation

How prepared have you been for this COVID-19 pandemic? Were you caught flat-footed, with bare pantry shelves? Or were you ready with your N95 masks, gallons of hand sanitizer, and a year's worth of MREs? In most respects, this global crisis is much less severe than other bad things like an ELE (Extinction Level Event) meteor strike, or nuclear war with the accompanying nuclear winter that would follow. As such, "preparedness" really has a different reality in this situation - you probably don't need to be able to mill your own flour, or start growing your own veggies to survive this. Getting through this is going to require minimizing contact with others and practicing extremely good hygiene - which is why we're in this Social Distancing mode. In retrospect, I did not have this on my list of things that I would need to be prepared for in a crisis situation - i.e. do we have enough supplies to quarantine for two weeks?

We're about two weeks into our own government-requested, self-imposed isolation. Neither of us are sick, nor have we been in contact with any confirmed cases, but we are doing our best to minimize the spread within our circle of family and friends, and in our community. I don't think we are "preppers", but we have some level of emergency preparedness that probably exceeds the average person. For example, we had created our own emergency kits for use in case of other disasters, such as earthquake, tsunami, etc. And because we have a separate, unused basement suite, we typically have a fair bit of non-perishables and frozen food stored down there, as well as supplies of paper towels, Kleenex, toilet paper, etc. Admittedly, some of these things are really required for disasters worse than this pandemic, where things like vacating our home, and/or leaving the area are required. e.g. "shelter in place" is certainly a lot different than the folks that had to vacate quickly due to flood, or worse, in a matter of minutes because of an approaching wildfire.

Costco lineup!

So when I saw this coming, I think we were somewhat prepared for the "stay home" order that I knew was imminent, but had yet to come. However, due to an unplanned trip to see my elderly parents, I was unable to take the last few steps to stock up on the few items that we had not recently replenished (no, not toilet paper). As such, when I got back and needed to get some dog food at Costco, I was faced with the horde of people frantically trying to get their hands on toilet paper and hand sanitizer. This was my first real experience with what happens when the media whips people into a frenzy, and rational thinking quickly gets pushed aside. Grocery stores too, were getting cleaned out, and in less than a week, they were imposing limits on most products, and enforcing social distancing measures.

Ketchup supply dwindling

We are doing well from a supply perspective; there are a few things that we are running low on now (milk, ketchup, fruit, etc.), but they'll get added to the grocery list, and we'll be able to get them next week. But while I was out cleaning the garage (what else does one do while staying home?), I noticed that one of my emergency bags was growing mould on the bottom! Upon closer inspection, it turns out that a can of peaches failed, causing the mess on one side of the bag - yuck! A quick Google informed me that while canned goods normally can last years, certain products can cause the cans to swell and fail before you end up using them. As such, I'm going to start eating up these canned items, and will eventually replace them with new ones once this pandemic passes.

Reasonable success at Walmart

How have we done so far then? If this were the zombie apocalypse, I'd say we'd have scored 6/10. We didn't have adequate supply of key items that would have augmented our 'grab-n-go' bags, one kit was a mess, and drinking water had not been refreshed recently. But with this stay at home order, it's much different - there's no issue with water, electricity, gas and the all-important internet. So rating our preparedness is a bit different, as the things that I feel are important revolve more around how many times you need to go out to get items that are running low/critical. We could have done better at keeping our non-perishables stocked, and when the infected cases started to rise, I should have gone out to re-supply earlier. We have N95 masks in our emergency kits, but we haven't used them (yet). We had disinfecting wipes on hand, but our bottles of sanitizer were almost empty, and required re-filling. You can't do much with respect to perishables like fruit and veggies, but we could have had some more canned or frozen ones on hand. My assessment? Based on our current supply situation, I'd say we're at a 9/10, but two weeks ago, we would have only been 7/10. I think 10/10 would have been a lofty goal, and really, not a practical one, as you'd have to have things like jugs of milk in your freezer, and a fully-stocked root cellar.

Avoiding travel mistakes - Part 2

Travel and Leisure

On safari in Zimbabwe

As I had mentioned in the last post, I've travelled to quite a few states in the US, Central America, the Caribbean, many European countries, and even down to West Africa and Zimbabwe. For the most part, my trips have been relatively issue-free, but I have had some bumps along the way, and learned a few lessons from them. So continuing on with my list, again with in no particular order of importance.

Download apps and files at home

Unless you have a great international roaming plan for your smart phone or device, you don't want to rely on the Wi-Fi at your international hotel to get that critical travel app. And you certainly don't want to try streaming Netflix over that connection either, so you'll want to download movies and shows before you leave home. Of course you can get a SIM card when you arrive at your destination, often for only €10 or so, and use the LTE data. But one time in Rome, I managed to use up my allotted data entitlement in a matter of minutes, by downloading an audio touring app for my iPhone, and a bunch of free walking tours. Luckily, the Wi-Fi at the bed and breakfast we were staying at was very good, so we weren't too inconvenienced by it.

Check for local/regional affairs and issues

While it's not always obvious to travellers what could be happening at your destination, it is a good idea to ask a local or check the news as to anything that might be pose a challenge. Things like local holidays or celebrations might want you to re-think your itinerary so that you don't end up in a small town with all of the shops and restaurants closed up. Or like the time in Rome, when we left a visit to Ostia Antica to our last day, only to arrive at the Metro station and find that a rotating transit strike was affecting that one route! It would have been a very inexpensive day trip by Metro, but with an expensive taxi ride as pretty much our only option left to get there, we ended up staying in Rome instead (which is never really a bad thing). Had we known that they publish the rotating strike and which routes were closed, we could have avoided this issue entirely however.

Do some pre-navigation before you arrive

Unless you are taking a taxi from the airport to your hotel, this one might help save some anguish for you. Next time you step out of a train or Metro station, have a look around at some of the other travellers. There will be at least a few that are standing there, luggage in hand, with no idea which direction to go. Often, there is a choice as to which side of the tube station to exit from, so there's a 50/50 chance you'll get it right. Trust me, we've walked a couple of blocks in the wrong direction numerous times, before the blue dot showed us moving the wrong way. But with the advent of Google Maps' street view, it's brilliantly simple to "virtually navigate" to your destination. A long time ago, prior to the advent of smart phones and GPS, we stepped off the bus in Toledo (Spain, not Ohio), and we both looked at each other, "which way now?". We spent the next hour or so, in the mid-day heat, wandering the maze of streets, searching for our little boutique hotel. She laughs about it now, but it was not a fun experience for me.

So on a recent visit to Brussels, I had a look on Google Maps as to where our hotel was w.r.t. the Brussels-Centraal Station. The walking directions showed a semi-circular building that we should see when we exited the station, so I clicked on the Street View to see a preview of what we should look for. When we got there, and walked out of the station, and she said, "Which way?" - I knew exactly where to go.

Use the bathroom when you can

Or as my friend likes to say, "Never pass up the opportunity to pee". You'd think this one would be obvious, right? Especially when you are not sure where and when the opportunity for a bathroom break will occur. But sometimes, you body doesn't seem to have the urge, and you pass on using the WC. Like the time when I was working at the Canadian Embassy in Mexico City. On Friday afternoons, there is a social hour at the end of the day, where they serve tamales and cervezas. But after having a few beers, it was time to head to the airport. Well you can guess what happens next. Rush hour in Mexico City is like nothing you've ever seen before. By the time we got to the airport, I was as close to peeing my pants as I have ever been! Anyhow, if you do end up getting caught with a full bladder while out touring in the city, a good place to find relief is a major chain-style hotel - there will always be a restroom in the lobby, typically near the bar or restaurant. It also won't cost you anything to use the loo there, as it will if you go to one of the public restroom facilities.

Carry a water bottle and a snack

I've learned this one from my wife, who has notoriously high metabolism, and needs to snack in-between meals. But the reason why this one shows up on my mistakes list, is that you tend to make bad restaurant decisions when you are hungry. Like the time we were day-touring in Porto, we were all hot and tired, but rather than take our time finding a TripAdvisor-recommended restaurant, we settled on the first place we could find that served food and cold drinks. Needless to say, the meal was definitely not a highlight, which Portuguese meals should be. Being able to reach into your day bag and grabbing some nuts or a piece of fruit can give you that little boost of energy to get you out of the tourist zone, and allow you to find a memorable place to eat. As a general rule, you typically will get a better meal, at a lower price, if you walk about 5-10 mins. away from the busy tourist zone.

Lookup the local restaurant hours and mealtimes

Further to the above tip, the typical dining hours vary significantly by country and locale. Living in large, North American cities, most people expect that you can pretty much get a decent meal, any time of day or night. But trust me, you can't get a worthwhile dinner before 8 pm in Spain, and don't even try during siesta time. This becomes especially important when your body is still operating on Pacific time, but you're looking for something to eat in Budapest. While she would prefer to avoid eating in pubs or bars, sometimes that can be the only option available when you need to eat at 6 pm in Europe. Or the time that we arrived at Kahului airport around 8 pm - by the time we picked up our rental car and drove around to the other side of Maui, all of the restaurants over there were closed! Had we known, we would have had dinner in Kahului, before setting out for Napili.

Know your limits

When I was younger, I thought I was invincible; I didn't bother with things like travel insurance, and didn't think twice about doing virtually any activity that was part of my itinerary. But I had a wake-up call when I blew my achilles tendon while playing tennis in my 30s. All of a sudden, I had a heightened awareness that maybe, just maybe, bad things could happen to me. And I'm not referring to "accidents" that may occur - anyone can get hit by a car crossing the street. No, what I mean by knowing your limits, is figuring out what might just be a little too much for you.

Day 2 Saas-Fee - smiling because I'm not suffering from the altitude

My example was the ski trip with my college mates to Saas-Fee, in the Swiss Alps. The town itself sits at 1,800 metres (5,900 ft), and the Metro Alpin funicular will drop you off a chest-wheezing 3,550 metres (11,647 ft). We flew on the red-eye arriving in Zurich at 6:30 am, immediately took the train to Visp, and the bus to the town dropped us off around 9:30 am. We were on the first lift by 10:30 am, and enjoying our first pint by noon. A few more runs at high altitude, and my head was pounding and spinning as we sat down for lunch at Spielboden. Now I'm not sure if I wouldn't have suffered if I'd done things differently, but I certainly would have taken more steps to stay hydrated while travelling, and perhaps gone a bit easier on the alcohol consumption on Day 1. But I learned a lesson on that trip - I am not (and never was) Superman.

Avoiding travel mistakes - Part 1

Travel and Leisure

Looking back on things, I guess I have done a fair amount of travel - both for business as well as vacation. I have one passport with so many stamps, that I consider it a kind of a badge of honour. But with all of the trips I've been on, there were some mishaps, and other calamities avoided. So here, in no particular order, are some of the things I have learned over 30+ years of international travel.

If you have spare time, spare it at the airport

Heathrow airport on a normal day

I'm not talking about an 8-hour layover between flights here. More like, what are you going to do with that extra hour between breakfast and the time you "think" you should be at the airport? There was this one time where we were staying on the outskirts of London, and my travel partner thought we should take the extra time to wander around the local High Street. It wasn't a particularly picturesque suburb, so I nixed that, and we headed to the airport, arriving over 3 hours early. However, when we entered Heathrow's International Terminal, we were immersed in chaos immediately. Turns out that all of the computers were down, and all airlines were having to check in passengers manually. Had we not have arrived early, we would surely have missed our flight home that day.

Select your airline seat ahead of time

This is one that has come to light more these days, as advance seat selection is typically an additional charge now. I mean, we don't worry about it too much on a short, regional flight, but for long-haul ones, it is definitely worthwhile. I'll even go on seatguru.com, and check out which plane and seat layout is being used, before I book flights. Back when I didn't know better, I was unfortunate enough to get the worst seat possible on a 10-hour flight from Frankfurt to Harare, Zimbabwe. I was stuck in the middle seat, rear bulkhead - yes, the seats that don't recline - and to make matters worse, I was sandwiched between two large German men. Needless to say, I spend the extra money now to get decent seats; she likes the front bulkhead just before Premium Economy, as it gives you extra space since there is no seat back in front of you. Sure, the seat is slightly narrower, as the table tray comes out of your armrest, but we're both slim enough that there's no issue. As a bonus, when you pay for early seat selection, you usually get to board ahead of the masses, ensuring that you get some overhead bin space.

Check your passport expiry date

You've all seen them. The folks at the passport office, that are freaking out, as the clerk informs them that they will have to pay an expedite fee to get their passport renewed in time for their upcoming trip. Well imagine my surprise, while reciting our passport details to the travel agent, and discovering that hers had already expired. Which would not have been a big deal for the European trip coming up in 3 months, except we were leaving for a beach vacation in Mazatlan in a week! Suffice it to say, that counting on government bureaucracy to complete your vacation plans is a nerve-wracking experience that I don't recommend to anyone.

Understand your insurance coverage

When I was younger, I would never had thought about this. But after having to cancel an expensive European river cruise when she came down with the flu the night before our departure, I do now. Luckily, because I had paid for the entire trip on my VISA, we received partial compensation through them. The other half was covered by her employee insurance benefits - a fact we didn't know then, but are certainly aware of now. And it's not just trip cancellation and interruption insurance that you should consider. There's your medical coverage, as well as your home's insurance while you are gone. For example, did you know that most home insurance underwriters won't cover something like water damage from a burst water heater, if you don't have someone either house-sitting or popping by every few days to check in? This happened to my parents, and extensive damage was caused when their pipes froze; because they had a neighbour popping by to check on things, their insurance covered it.

Bring along some local currency

This is particularly important for us Canadians, as we don't have credit cards with low/no international transaction fees. i.e. a typical VISA transaction will charge you 3.5% in addition to a typically uncompetitive exchange rate (Update: I just got a Home Trust VISA which has no foreign transaction fees for European travel). But you can get cash at a bank ATM machine, right? Not necessarily. Recently, on a trip to Portugal, we ran out of Euros, but our Interac cards wouldn't work in every ATM we tried. Luckily, we were able to borrow some from our other travel companions, so not a huge issue, but it could have been. Bear in mind that while many merchants take credit cards, some countries are still more partial to using cash for transactions in restaurants and small market kiosks. Getting some at the airport foreign exchange is not always going to give you a good rate, and chasing down an ATM is usually the last thing you want to do after 12+ hours of travelling. BTW, I find that you can even negotiate a better rate with the teller when you pull up at your local bank branch. Pandemic update: most countries have gone contactless payment, so you need to make sure your credit card is equipped with the RFID payment chip.

Get to know the tipping etiquette for your destination

I often see Americans over-tipping in Europe, which sets the wrong standard for us Canadians. As such, I've seen many unscrupulous restaurants, taxicabs etc. trying to get more than the norm when it comes to gratuities. e.g. Most restaurants in Europe will pay their servers a decent wage, and as such, 10% is quite a generous tip. Most often, locals will simply round-up - if the bill was €28.70, you would simply leave €30. Being somewhat indistinguishable from Americans, I have had folks try to take advantage of me. Like the time in London when a cabbie pretended to be furious at the normal tip I had given him in order to get another £2 from me. There are differences from country to country, so it makes sense to check if the etiquette is different when moving to a new destination. i.e. in Mexico, tipping is always going to be appreciated, versus a Sandals resort, where tipping is strictly prohibited.

Check the weather for your destination

We've been tripped up by this more than once. Our first time was going to Italy in mid-May - we thought, "no problem, it will be warm, so all we will need is a rain jacket just in case". Wrong. They were having unseasonably cool weather in Florence, and we ended up having to buy sweaters there. The second time was in Holland - we should have figured out that a place with windmills was going to be windy. Really windy. While we did have insulated jackets this time, the windchill made it feel much colder than we were expecting, that's for sure. I know you can always buy something over there if necessary, but sometimes it feels like, "we should have known better". And now, you know.

More tips and mistakes in Part 2

Day touring bag for men

Travel and Leisure

Credit: Paramount Pictures

Yes, it's a thing. The man purse, or "murse" for short, had been declared an actual men's fashion item by GQ back in 2017. But really, it has been around a lot longer than that, if you consider that it's essentially just a smaller version of the messenger bag, it debuted a long time ago, as an alternate way to tote around one's laptop. I've had at least three different variations of the messenger bag, dating back to the late 90s, alternating back and forth depending on what suit or accessories the day dictated. But over time, the laptop became less and less of a necessity, and personally, I found that even a slim messenger bag became too much for daily commuting requirements. Then along came the iPad, which all but abolished my messenger bags to the back of the closet.

The Keukenhof tulip gardens

What is it however, that a guy needs to carry around during the day, that requires a man purse? Well, my camera for starters. See, I have been a technology laggard, and still use a relatively old iPhone. So when it comes to taking photos, my compact Canon mirrorless camera takes pictures that are far superior to anything that could come from my iPhone. Sure, I could use a small, purpose-built camera bag, but once you have something slung over your shoulder, you might as well put it to good use. Besides, she was getting tired of me asking, "do you have room in your purse for my... ?". So at a minimum, it's got my camera, a bottle of water, a snack (that I've probably nabbed from the free hotel breakfast bar), and some hand sanitizer. On sunny days, I'll bring along some sunscreen, whereas on dodgy days, either a compact umbrella or my packable raincoat.

Comparing day bag to past messenger bag styles

As you can see, I've settled in on a go-to bag with this small canvas shoulder bag. It's only 10" x 7" x 5", yet holds all of the aforementioned kit easily. I found it on eBay for about $25, but there are an infinite number of options and sizes available. A word of caution however - get one that's too big, and you're likely to start toting around more stuff than you need, or forgo using it altogether. I bought a beautiful, smaller leather messenger bag (pictured above) at the Lorenzo Street Market in Florence; not big enough for a laptop, but perfect for an iPad and other essentials, yet at 13" x 10" x 3", it doesn't quite fit the bill for day touring in Europe.

Florence's Lorenzo Street Market is a great place to find your man purse

Sure, I sometimes carry a "personal item" sized backpack to maximize my carry-on luggage capacity, but it is also too big for daily use while on vacation. That's why I keep falling back on my cheapo eBay canvas one - just big enough for the stuff I need, but small enough to tuck into my suitcase and pull out when we arrive at our destination. And also, with a backpack, you pretty much have to take it off in order to get into it; accessing my camera with a shoulder bag is much easier. So make fun of me if you must, but I find the man purse an invaluable travel essential. Besides, as one member of a FB travel group said, "Indiana Jones had one. That's good enough for me."

2022 edit: Since I have been using my original man purse day bag for my camera gear 100% of the time, I picked up an MEC crossbody bag for travelling instead. It holds an ever-so-slightly bit more than the canvas one, and has a top handle, which is handy if my shoulder is already in use (i.e. when carrying my Osprey Porter 46 travel backpack). Post-trip edit: While this bag worked for our 2022 Eastern Europe trip, and it was more than enough from a capacity perspective, it lacked structure, consequently the bag sagged when loaded up. The bottom strap that keeps the flap closed got irritating too, so I always had to fasten the clip every time I went into the bag. When I got home, I got creative, and I glued in some padding in the bottom and back.

2023 edit: Then recently, a fellow Extra was telling me how bad the thieves and pickpockets are in Paris, which is part of our next trip itinerary later in 2023. So I started thinking about a better, more secure bag, and after much deliberation, decided upon the Travelon Courier Tour Bag. Selling features for me were the somewhat unisex design (according to my wife), canvas-like material (vs. shiny nylon), and general design of the bag (e.g. not too many pockets). Since I've decided that I will only be using my iPhone 12 Pro for travel photography going forward, I won't need space for my Canon camera. And while I'll probably put my water bottle in the main compartment, it will be nice to have the external pocket for instances when I've used up all the space (e.g. stuffed my jacket into it). In addition to the zippered, security pockets in my travel trousers and shorts, I think I'll be as well prepared for thieves as I can; as a bonus, it kinda looks a bit like Indiana Jones' bag.