Flights Booked, Gadgets & Packing Decisions

With the flights booked and back packers insurance and visa's all sorted, I am dying to get going now. I'm flying out on Sunday and Adam is catching me up once he has jacked up on every vaccination known to man.

Like Adam I have also been on the spending spree, but I prefer to see what I'm getting before I buy so I've been trailing Blacks and Go Outdoors for sleeping bags new walking boots, and etc. I have a couple of favourite items that I have purchased. the first is my wind up torch, one minute of winding give twenty minutes of life, I'm easily pleased aren't I.

My number one boys toy is my new IPod Touch. Its definitely the best gadget I have treated my self to in years. Apart from playing music, you can also down load games applications. I'm quite enjoying my virtual pint of beer and my light saver and the low grav racer is the best game I've found so far. I can also as long as I'm in a WiFi area pick up my email and catch up on face book. In words of Ned from Gavin & Stacey " Its amaaaazing it is."

With all the the kit bought and piled twice as high as the bag I'm taking, and looking like I'm ready to spend a few months in Iraq, minus the guns naturally. I thought I should have a dry run at packing, just to make sure I can get everything in, and Bugger, I've tried all the tricks, sitting on it etc but i cant get the dam bag closed.

Now I've been told to lay every thing out that you want to take and half it so I'm going to do that I think, and sorry Adam but that travel hair dryer you were hoping I was going to take just isn't going fit. I have asked lots of friends for there advice on what to take and I have one friend who advised me to take as much undies as you can. I was going to take two weeks worth on that advice but with lack of room I'm wondering whether to go with another good friends advice, I think she might be a bit more of a hard core traveler than me, but she recommends only taking two pares of undies with me, wear one and wash them when you have a shower and then put the other pair on while they are drying. I must say she does have a point. So if we push this theory a bit further I will only need to take two pair's of socks, shorts, and tee-shirts / shirts. I might look a bit odd coming back from the shower block in the hostel carrying all my previous days clothes soaking wet though, but I will give it some thought before I leave on Sunday.

The tour is BOOKED!

This afternoon at approx 3.30pm, Matt and I booked our World Tour!

Because of my dubious jabs, I will be arriving in Bangkok slightly later than he, however to get an idea, here's the gist of things...

10th April Lon to Dubai - 14th April Dubai to Bangkok
Over the next 3 months, an overland tour of South East Asia taking in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam

13th July Singapore to Melbourne - 20th July Melbourne to Sydney - 10th august Sydney to Christchurch
Travelling up from the South Island to the North Island

31st August Auckland to Perth - 11th Sep Perth to Dubai - 14th Sep Dubai to Lon

You get the general feel of things!

Now to get the VISAs...

Reunions rock and roll

On a happier note than my previous post, I must write about the love.

Since I've been back from Dubai, I've been overwhelmed by the friends I've been able to return to. I moan about not being able to leave the UK quick enough, but the truth is that the people I know in London really are special (they have to be to put up with me!) and I will miss them to death when I'm away.

This evening was a reunion of sorts with old work mates - some I'd seen 6 months ago, others not for a year. Yes there's the occasional facebook convo with them, but nothing beats having a drink and chatting utter bollocks in a London pub or bar. And while it may have only been a year, it's absolutely and completely reassuring that we can all go back to chatting the same shit we always did without missing a beat.

So to those I've already seen, and those I hope to see before I depart once more, here's to you!

Delays!!

Prize pillock, right here!

Took a trip to the doc yesterday for my long awaited appointment to get my jabs, and after shooting me up in both arms, the nurse informed me that I was only in week 0 of 3. I.e. for the nasty Hep A, I have to go back twice more over the next 3 weeks to be administered with more fun stuff in my bicep. Probably not using as many needles as my pic below depicts (hmm, nice phrase that) but you get the gist.

In the grand scheme of things, it's not the end of the world, but I feel a right numpty not knowing that I couldn't get all the vaccinations within a week. As it is, my right arm practically died for the hour following the injection (dead arm doesn't compare to the useless lump that was swinging at my side) so I can see why they stagger these things. My final visit to the surgery is now on the 8th of April, so all things being equal, flights will now be booked for the 9th. What a palaver!

The woes of internet shopping and speedy doctors

So this morning I decided to buy everything I could think of that I may need.

What a bloody stupid idea.

Nearly £300 later, and I'm about to take delivery in the next few days of cubes, folders, travel towels, ponchos, torches, hand sanitizers, insect repellent, water bladders, neck pillows, and everything else I thought would be good to have. 'Oooh that looks useful...' *Click*.

Yup, I bought it all online. What's more, I knew I'd pay using my Dubai credit card, which I will be paying off when I stop off in Dubz on the way to Thailand. Silly me. Can I just say, to anybody who needs to buy everything new when travelling, get off your ass and go to a shop. I, like the pillock I am, didn't even stop to think what Matt may have already got or not got. Nup. Simply 'Shiny, me want!' and *Click*.

While a lot of it's necessary really, I must admit I splurged in some comfort shopping. What's got to me is sitting on my ass for most of the day. I'm not a member of a gym, so I'm going for runs. Except I'm well and truly out of shape, and I'm lucky to last 15 mins right now, let alone an hour or 90 mins. 10 press-ups and 10 sit-ups and I'm pooped. Most of my mates work, so to fend off boredom I find myself not getting up till around midday. Which makes me think I should really have gone to a shop for my stuff, but the internet is so damn easy!

I'm sitting at home bored, because everything (practically) is now sorted apart from one thing - vaccinations. The doc has been slow as you like in setting up an appointment, which yesterday I find out is to 'discuss' what I need, not actually give it to me. Grrrr!

Matt bless him has been able to sort out all our flights (at an absolute steal I must say) which have us doing a slightly different route than previously posted - Dubai, Bangkok, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysai, Oz (Melbourne Sydney) NZ, back to Oz (Perth) then back home again. He, like I, is keen as mustard to be on our way, and I'm just hoping that these jabs are done in time for our take off date!

Half done!

So this morning my brand shiny new iPod Nano turned up. Went for the 16gb version, and as we speak, iTunes (also newly downloaded) is converting my files into something readable. M4a or some such thingy.

Backpack has now been ordered, but more importantly, we know where we're travelling and how we're going to do it.

The plan is: fly to Bangkok, do the touristy temple thing. Without too much delay, head over to Cambodia, taking in the Temples of Angkor, on to Siem Reap and then Phnom Penh. Get drunk with locals, moped about and generally have fun. Then back to Thailand and Ko Pha Ngan for the Full Moon Festival on 9th May, then fly over Cambodia to land in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. Combination bus/train/moped riding will take us cross country, and maybe even doing a bit of the route the Top Gear lads did in that episode. End up in Ha Noi and Ha Long Bay, enjoy life a bit more!

From there we wanted to do some Indonesian/Philippines bashing, but apparently the weather will kill us, so from there over to Malaysia and KL for a short stop before hitting HK quickly to see an old friend, then do Australia and NZ in some fashion. I'm a bit skeptical of the cold we'll encounter in NZ, however I haven't been skiing properly in a few years and I hear it's meant to be pretty good there!

For the record, can I just say...Woooohooooooooooooooo!

Dates are looming!

So Matt and I have finally decided on a date of departure - or close enough to. 29th March. 29th March!

In that time, I have to have my jabs, have to get a rucksack, have to get an mp3 player of some sort, get some decent all-weather clothes which won't wear out and I don't care if they get ruined, and generally start jumping around in excitement. That last thing pretty much does look after itself though.

Backpacks - why oh why are there so many to choose from? Forget about size, I'm talking like top or side loading; fold away straps; 3 rain covers; with wheels?! And if that's not all, you've got different size dividers, folders, cubes, elipses, dodecahedrons, 4 dimensional hyper-barriers etc. to put in the rucksack to make for 'more systematical packing and vestment access'. No I didn't just make that up either, it was the sales blurb on a website.

MP3 gizmos - now I love my gadgets, so this is going to be unbelievably difficult to decide. Do I go for something rugged and shockproof (can it survive a trip down Niagara Falls?) or something expensive and pretty? iPod Touch springs to mind, but where am I gonna get a WiFi signal in Cambodia? No, I think I'll have to go for a lesser known but still well regarded brand, but how big? 20gb? 40? 100?! Naturally I don't want to get bored with any of the music on there, but what if I lose it or it breaks? I'll be damn peeved if 100gb of music goes up the spout.

The choices to make, and I'm not even halfway there!

Don't be distracted, Derelicte...

Ever seen the climax of Zoolander when he's on the runway and needs to kill the Prime Minister of Micronesia (Malaysia)?

Well this isn't really the same, except there's things here distracting me from my goal of going travelling! Namely, Dubai based companies offering potentially brilliant jobs. Now this does mean that I'd have to go back to Dubai, but I do still have a flat there (of sorts). I'd have to take all my clothes and stuff back there (I did leave an awful lot of crap there though as well so at least that would be fine).

But really, in the grand scheme of things, is Dubai really where I should be right now? There's no point trying to get business in Dubai, everything I'd do would be in Saudi Arabia, Qatar etc. Plus with an offer of commission only, yes I could make big bucks, but at the same time I could very easily waste another Dhs20k (GBP4k) and not get anywhere. Of course you could say I'm wasting around 8-9k on going travelling for 6 months, but it's a once in a lifetime kind of thing, and I will be able to get a job at the end of it.

Oh the choices! But no, I think it has to be simply, go for broke (literally!) take the plunge and do the travel. Nothing else will be anywhere near as satisfying.

Needles, powders and pills...how to stay healthy!

No I'm not talking about their use in recreational activities. Unfortunately South East Asia, as well as South America and Africa, have a plethora of unfriendly bacteria, parasites and viruses we as Westerners are not accustomed to.

We're not just talking malaria here either - dengue fever, Japanese encephalitis (basically brain infection) hep a&b, rabies, bird-flu and typhoid. Some you get from mosquitoes, some you get from badly prepared food or drink, and others even just from human contact.

The way to try and prevent these is found in a veritable cornucopia of injections, tablets, sprays, tonics, pills, etc etc. Now I'm not overly squeamish, but looking at just how much I'd have to take, this is seriously off-putting! I know that the other option would probably end up with me dying from some rather nasty and protracted illness, but come on. Still, there's no real option but to man-up and do it. I have no real wish to die from some infected Thai lady-boy.

A new scoring system...?

Vietnam Cambodia Laos Thailand Malaysia Hong Kong China Singapore New Zealand Australia Chile Venzuela Argentina Brazil Mexico South Africa Guam Bali Fiji India Kilimanjaro.

How the hell are we meant to be able to narrow that down?! Each place, with the exceptions of SA, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong are as expensive/cheap as the other, the only difference being the cost of getting there. Each of them requires pretty much the same jabs/medication, with Malaria being the prime difference in location.

A friend of ours suggested checking out the talent. I.e. which has the fittest girls. Well Australia definitely has a bevvy of tanned beauties, but then a quick google of 'Cambodian models' revealed that there is much to be said there as well. Brazil is known for it's lovely ladies, and really now, with the exception of Thailand when you don't necessarily know what you're getting, you'll be satisfied wherever you go.

Ssome more, erm, careful research will have to be done here!