CHAPTER 35

2025-3-28

Serving as the Chan family’s tourism ambassador is more than enough for my wife. My younger brother describes my mother as a planner and organizer.

Lun moved into the care home and quickly adapted to the new life, which made us feel relieved. Since we no longer had to take care of Lun, the three of us had free time to travel during the long holidays or go abroad. My wife, Victoria, decided that while I am still healthy and able-bodied, the three of us will go see the world outside of Canada and enjoy family happiness together.

Serving as the Chan family's tourism ambassador is more than enough for Victoria. After years of operation, she has become a professional among amateurs. My younger son describes my mother as a planner and organizer. In the 19 years from the time Lun moved into the care home until Victoria’s leave, most of the overseas trips were proposed, planned, prepared and executed by her. She led the team, and my younger son and I became loyal group members.

In the beginning, because we had little experience in traveling abroad, we joined several group tours. After we got used to it and had some understanding of how to arrange itineraries and programs, she tried to arrange her own independent travel because traveling with a group was too hectic.

My participation is mainly to express my willingness, that is, do I want to travel abroad? Where to go? Which place is an important tourist attraction? Apart from packing, carrying luggage and driving, she took care of all matters of the entire trip.

She is very suitable for organizing tour groups because she likes to keep an eye on market trends and often compare the cost-effectiveness of various tourism products, such as promotional activities of different travel agencies, airlines, cruise ships, hotels, and attractions, which offer discounts, gifts, one-stop services, refund policies, etc. And she immediately asked for my opinion. After we made our choice, she took immediate action to change the date, air tickets, hotel, program, and so on.

In addition, she would read some travel books and watch a large number of free walking videos online, including airports, sea and land transportation arteries, hotels, pedestrian streets and shopping malls, etc. She will show it to me so that I can get familiar with it and not get lost.

To purchase travel insurance, after my liver transplant, I had to purchase it from an insurance company that specializes in organ transplants, and look for the addresses and contact information of medical institutions that receive foreign tourists.

In fact, the whole preparation process was very stressful, but when she thought about traveling, her mood regained the carefree and happy feeling when she was in junior high school, and the tiredness was worth it. Later we figured out a way to add to the joy, which was to prepare two overseas trips at the same time, focusing on the one closest in time, and planning the second trip in less detail. With this arrangement, regardless of whether the trip takes place or not, we would have two anticipations at the same time; while one unfinished, the other yet to be happy. Every time you complete a trip and with enough rest, while waiting for the excitement of the next trip, you can start to plan the following program. How happy it is.