Following on a comment made yesterday by Randal, I looked up the exchange rate for the Canadian dollar from Japanese yen today.
I have concluded that I cannot actually afford to come home.
When we left for Japan last year in July, the dollar and yen were almost at par: 100 yen for $1.01 CDN. It made for quick-and-easy conversions. But now, to my dismay, the Canadian dollar is far too strong - good for you cross-border shoppers but not so good for us country-hoppers - I need 115 yen to get $1.00 CDN.
For the numerically-challenged (such as, er, myself), this means were I to come home with, say, 300,000 yen, which used to be about $3,000, I will now only get $2,600. Yikes!
So I have two clear options:
(1) Spend most of my money in Thailand and Laos before coming home.
(2) Stay in Thailand and Laos forever.
While the idea of daily Thai massages for the rest of my life is quite appealing, I don't think Thailand nor Laos can offer me a reasonable culinary substitute for my mother's paté chinois (shepherd's pie) or tourtière. So I shall liberally invest in Thailand's and Laos' tourism and artisan industries, and come home, as planned, on August 30. Slightly broke and somewhat unemployed. What a great plan :)
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