Homeless and Unemployed (12/3/2005)
Well, reality is finally sinking in!! Becca ended her very successful tenure with Alpha Phi on Thursday and Jeff said “Goodbye” at Harris on Friday. We are so thankful to have met so many great friends and colleagues during our adventures in Chicago. It is very, very hard to say goodbye yes as Robert Frost poetically waxed…….we have miles to go before we sleep……
Ok…..so now onto the RTW adventure. Last week we received our final immunizations. Whew!! my arms are sore….. We also received our prescriptions for Larium which we will use to protect us from malaria. A few quick notes on this malarial decision. Due to our expected travel in many of the warmer world regions where malaria exists we were posed a key question. Do we want to take daily pills when we expect to enter malaria-affected regions or take a weekly pill (Larium) for the whole time?? Although Larium is a bit more intense of a drug (can cause certain hallucinations) we decided on it so we wouldn’t have to worry about when and where to take the daily pill.
As an additional side note an African child dies every 30 seconds from malaria. The Gates Foundation is doing great work in developing new vaccines and distribution networks in sub-Saharan Africa. While we travel and educate ourselves I expect to share and broaden all your horizons as well. Don’t worry I’m (Jeff) not going to turn into some tree-hugging, stereotypical Pac Northwesterner.
Well last Friday we finally secured our RTW tickets. When we left you last we had narrowed down the countries and met Deborah at Airtreks. After three weeks of consistently changing cities, countries, and flight patterns we found a perfect fit. We decided to go with different legs on different airlines instead of a One World Alliance type ticket. This is a very personal decision and we welcome all long-term travellers to get comfortable with all their options. Our ticket uses 7 different airlines and, most importantly, controls change fees since we had to set specific departure dates for each leg.
We realize none of you know where we are going yet so how bout a little framework. We’ve listed the cities and departure dates on our ticket and later we will post a map with our expected overland routes so you can see what we are doing in between flights. (Dad, we listed the type of plane because we know you love that stuff)
Jan 18: Seattle-Vancouver-Hong Kong (Cathay Pacific Airbus A340-300)
Jan 30: Hong Kong – Bangkok, Thailand (Cathay Pacific Boeing 777-300)
May 10: Delhi, India – Istanbul, Turkey (Emirates Airbus A330-200)
May 15: Istanbul, Turkey – Amman, Jordan (Turkish Boeing 737-800)
Jun 03: Cairo, Egypt – (via Khartoum) Nairobi, Kenya (Kenya Air Boeing 737-700)
Jun 13: Nairobi, Kenya – Jo’burg, South Africa (Kenya Air Boeing 737-800)
Jun 23: Jo’burg – (via Dubai) Casablanca, Morocco (Emirates Boeing 777-300ER)
Jul 16: Lisbon, Portugal – Caracas, Venezuela (TAP Portugal Airbus A310-300)
Aug 29: Quito, Ecuador – Panama City, Panama (COPA Air Boeing 737-300)
Sep 17: Mexico City, Mexico – Seattle, Washington (Alaska Air Boeing 777-300)
Tags: Immunizations, Malaria, Planning, Pre-Trip
Jeff and Becca
Your trip sounds like it’s going to be amazing ! We hope that you post a lot of pictures so we can live vicariously through them. Stay a way from Columbia. That place is hell on earth, at least that’s my opinion from what I’ve read on the Internet. And everything is true on the internet. Have fun and be safe !
Only 12 days in Hong Kong? Coming to mainland China? I will actually be here then – returning to Chicago around 2/1/2006.
It is wicked cold here in Beijing but I’d be happy to try to arrange to take you to a few places if you bring warm clothes (Great Wall, Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, etc). Chinese New Year is on the 29th of January this year, so if you can be in Shanghai or Beijing on the night of the 28th, I can guarantee a night to remember. I have an extra bedroom – you are welcome to stay at my place in Beijing as long as you would like. Round-trip air Beijing – Hong Kong is probably around US$300 – about 3 1/2 hours.
Looks fun – curious about Kenya. Southern Africa might be our next big adventure.
Do you know where you are going in India yet? If you are going to Madras (aka Chennai) I can give you some good info about the city. I’ll actually be there in two weeks. Also, have you looked into going to Goa? It’s supposed to be great.