Saschas World

Made it to Thailand.

I flew from frankfurt to Bangkok (BKK) with Thai Airways.
I left at 20:45 GMT+1 (German Local Time) after 40 mins delay and arrived at 12:45 lunch time (BKK local time) which makes it about 5:30 GMT.

Flight was quite easy going as I slept most of the time so I only had to kill about 1 hours right after takeoff before and maybe 2-3 hours before landing.

I managed to change seat on the plane and snatch up a seat next to an emergency exit which meant plenty of legroom as there are no seats due to the door. This was just as well because the seat I got when I checked in seemed quite good (isle seat, which I prefer since it’s easier to get out and more importantly stretch out legs..). However when I boarded the plane I realised the seat was in front of a divider wall so no seat in front and less legroom than ususal . In addition there were family next to me with a little girl (about 4) and a baby of a few months. *Bother* I thought.. that could be a struggle.. My earplugs are good but they can’t block out screaming babys! So I was very happy when I managed to get that seat next to the emergency door..

Flew with Thai Airways, food was quite good and plenty, staff friendly, no surcharge for alcohol (didn’t have any though) but no personal tv screens so if you want to watch a film you have to watch whatever is on the big screen.

After arrival got a Taxi to my Hotel, Ariston Hotel Bangkok. Booked a Hotel before I left rather than Hostel for the first few days.. easier when just arriving in a new place.. Hotel is quite ok. Very good bed, clean seemingly new bathroom, fridge and even safety box in rom. American Breakfast included. Walls could do with some paint though. Location is a bit off the center of BKK but the SkyTrain stops a few minute away from hotel so getting anywhere is easy enough.

My little niece Dana gave me those paper animals today.

She said I should take care of myself during my travels and watch out for those dangerous animals because the countries that I travel to have so many dangerous ones.
Dana told me to watch out for any animals and compare them to the paper animals to see if they were dangerous ones (and if so run away.. 🙂

There is a Spider, two snakes and a little Mosquito.. see for yourself:

Bless her.. 😀

So I thought getting my International Driving License would be a piece of cake! German Consulate in Edinburgh told me I cannot get my Int. Driving License in Edinburgh but that I would have to go to Germany to get this done. So I did but not without checking by
phone with the German Driving License Office first and they confirmed I can get it the same day…
They also told me I needed a new “regular” Driving License since Ihave an old style license at the moment. Again same day apparently so I though no problem..

Of course when I went to the Driving License Office today they told me they could not issue me with a new Driving License Document because I was registered in Edinburgh so I would have to apply for it there.
Arghhhhhh!

To apply for it in Germany I need to register for residency. No problem.. went to the appropriate office, registered as living at my parents place and then back to the Driving License Office. They were happy now but of course the EU Driving License cannot be
issued within a day, rather it takes about 4-6 weeks! *bl**dy ….*

Ok my mom is going to collect it for me and send it out to me. Luckily I don’t intend to drive a car until I get to NZ so there is
plenty of time for it. Just as well because I need to leave my current Driving License Document here in Germany so it can be handed over when the new one gets collected…

Still, that much for trusting information given by Government Officials. One Day turnover has turned into a 4-6 weeks waiting time!

In the end I spent pretty much all day walking around the town to complete the application for the international driving license.

Oh and by the way.. it was raining all day! 😉

Would you believe it.. I fly over to Germany for a week and half my family is struck down by a flu!

Tatjana and Horst are in the middle of a flu, Dana has just recovered from pneumonia, Alexandra is still recovering from flu though not infectious anymore and luckily my Mom and Alexandras kids Lea and Luca seem ok.

So looks like I will only get to see half of them before I properly head off since it’s too risky for me to catch a flu..
I did ahave a flu jab the other week but to be honest I rather not push my luck too much. Don’t fancy fighting a flu on the flight to Thailand or even when I get there…

Ho Hum..

Well looks like Sascha has left the shores of good old Scotland and (kind of) started his trip.. 🙂

Arrived in Germany on Monday to visit my Family and will stay here til Sunday.
Then on to Thailand for xmas in the sun 🙂

Bother the islands (Koh Samui, Koh Tao) where I planned to stay have been flooded a few days ago due to storms and apparently quite a few beaches and hotels have been damaged plus 1000 or so people got stuck on the island not being able to leave due to bad weather..
Not a good start *doh* 😉

Also I was actually planning to move the flight from Germany to Thailand to after xmas a few weeks ago but due to a cockup by my travel agency it turned out that I cannot change the flight from Europe to Asia. *bother* I was told I could change any but the first flight which would have been fine ‘cos the first flight was Edinburgh to Frankfurt. Yet it turns out Star Alliance have changed their Terms & Conditions in September and the Trailfinders Agent was not aware of that when I asked about these details. She assured me I could change to flight from Germany to Thailand later on.. I booked the earlier flight on the 19th of Dec with thoughts of maybe changing it to the 27th later so to stay in Germany for Xmas. When I called up a few weeks ago to change the flight I was told I could not do this as only the flights after the first intercontinental flight could be changed.
This was news to me and I pointed out that I was told I could change this flight. Trailfinders then told me the T&C’s of the Star Alliance RTW ticket were changed in September, a few weeks before I booked my ticket, and the agent did not know about this at the time she advised me and sold me the ticket… So bottom line is I have to stick with my flight out on the 18th.

Well never mind it’s not a big disaster.. at least I will stick with my initial plan and get out there as early as possible 🙂

Uh Oh – That’s it! I had my last day at work today..

Strangely enough it has not yet sunk in that I will not be working anymore for the next few months.
(No doubt I will sink in with a big BANG though once there is no salary coming into my account anymore ;-))

Still, no more getting up in the morning to drive to work, no more struggles to pick edible food in the canteen 😉 and no more traffic jams to worry about to get to work or hokme from work (no doubt on my travel I will be sitting in much worse t-jams though).

Talking of driving to work I will (call me crazy) actually miss driving the last bit to work i.e the B924 (exiting A90 towards Dalmeny) and in particular the little stretch of Main Street West which leads towards Dalmeny and down to Station Road. Simply beautiful that stretch especially in the morning with the sun coming up. Hardly a day I drove up there where I did not admire the scenery 🙂

Colleagues will be missed no doubt and it was quite good fun working with the lot 🙂 I am pretty sure I will not find such a good mix of people to work with anywhere else that easily!

Work.. what can I say… No more defect fixing (is this good or bad? after all finding that darn sorce of a defect is quite satisfying in the end.. of course one easily looses ones mind every now and then to get to that point of having fixed a defect..), NO MORE PVT (woohey! Dare I say this IS …… GOOD NEWS? (Actually the best news is: No More M……. Specials, right? The right people know what I mean ;-)). Actually no more daily computing for that matter.. gee I will be on cold turkey for quite a while and I bet Internet Cafes will be desperately seeked out to get a fix of computing and internet browsing once in a while 😉

On that note I shall try to cut down my computer usage so to lessen the withdrawl symptoms when I’m actually travelling 😉

Still need to work on my backpack content.. managed to reduce the gear by a bit but it still seems too much.
Since the backpack is a lightweight pack the design is rather slim (little depth) which makes is a little
difficult to pack. Right now it looks like a skyscraper when I put everything in.. way too tall 😉

I wonder if I should reconsider the pack and get a different design, though ultimately – going by weight – it is more likely I should reduce my gear than get a bigger pack.

The pack is 60+10 liters which isn’t small judging by the numbers but the full capacity I only get when I do extent the pack to the full length. It is designed for this but I don’t think its very stable when it extends that high up let alone it looks really silly 😉

In reality the backpack is more like a 50L pack when in its normal size i reckon so it seems to make sense that I struggle to squeeze in my stuff.. Hence the thought of getting a different pack.

Can’t believe it’s two weeks since I last updated my blog space.
I’ve been so incredibly busy preparing my trip and getting ready to move out of my place.. madness!!

Well by now only my backpack gear is left in the flat plus a few bits and pieces.
Tomorrow and maybe Tuesday after work is flat cleaning but that should be it.
Everything is ready to move out..

Backpack Packing….

Where to start? Andy suggested I take little and aim to have my pack half empty since no doubt I will add to my possessions while travelling. Ha Ha Ha 😀 No doubt he’s right but how on earth am I oing to manage to have my pack only half full?

I test-packed my gear today and .. well… it didn’t all fit!
So funny! So I must seriously downsize my stuff but how I simply don’t know.
Seriously, I don’t have that much stuff (I thought anyway) and since I will travel several countries with different climates I need _some_ flexibility with my clothes to work in warm & cold. Layering is what I opted for when cold so overall my clothes should be quite a good choice .. 2 Convertible Trousers, 4 T-Shirts (yes maybe I take fewer), 1 Shirt, 2 Fleece (1 thin, 1 medium), Rain Jacket, Walking Sandals, Hiking Shoes,Underwear, a few pair of socks.

Probably the other things are what causes most problems:
Non-Clothes are bulky or heavy or both:
Travel Pillow, Towel, Sleep Sheet are not too bad but toiletries, medical stuff are heavy and bulky and the few electrical thingies such as chargers for camera, mobile, mp3 not the best to pack away either.

I weight my pack with most things in and it came to about 16kg w/o camera so that’s good news I guess 😉
Still it wasn’t fully packed and overal the size is just too big for my liking.

So I will throw out a bunch of things and play more minimalist if possible at all ..

How much does someone need on a Round-The-World Trip?

Haven’t blogged for over a week cos I’m a little busy preparing to leave
the country…

Cheapskate as I am I even cut’n’pasting a this blog from an email I sent
to some friends earlier.. why write it twice… 😉

Less than 3 weeks now and I’m off!!! Eeek 😉

Moved most of my stuff into storage a week ago and slowly shutting
down all the stuff that’s going on .. you know the deal having left
the country yourself 🙂

Bills, Banks, Cars and god knows what to sort out *yikes* 🙂

Ebay’s best friend again to rid of those useless
otherwise-good-for-only-trash items, amazing what people buy 😀

Visas sorted (hey – cant work in NZ/Australia not even bar cos me
too old to get work visa *booooo!* 😉
Well just gotta enjoy the lazy life I guess 🙂

Staring in disbelief at my backpack and all the stuff that needs
to go in there 😀 Blimey.. that lot needs a bloody good squeeze!

Actually its not the volume, more the weight that concerns me to be
honest.. Right now I’m still below 20kg but.. Either way it looks
like I should reduce my gear by 50%..

Other than that I’m mostly looking for places to stay now for my first
stop… thinking a slight change of plan for the first 2 weeks or so.. wanted to
climatise in Bangkok for a week or two but kinda like the idea of a
beach stay instead.. probably do a week or two on Koh Samui or so before
doing the inland trip. That’s providing I find a descent yet cheap place
to stay. Terribly expensive around xmas as you can imagine.. well we’ll
see what I can come up with..

I moved most of my things into storage today.

What a week!

Spent all week packing more of my things (and throwing out an incredible amount of stuff that I have accumulated since I last moved a year ago). Unreal how difficult it is to part from things that I had kept for ages but which – to be honest – are utterly useless 😉 Anyway – I’m getting there I guess. After all the thinning out and throwing away I still had about 30 boxes plus my bed to move. No other furniture luckily since I sold them with my flat :-D.

Got the “Man with a Van” again to help me move. So much better than getting your own van! No need to pickup or return a rental van, no worries about parking tickets and on top of that I also get someone (actually two guys) to help me move my stuff. All that for less than what I would have paid for a rental van – excellent! 😀

What’s left in the flat now is not too much really. Only stuff that I will pretty much need until the end, take with me on my trip or things that I plan to sell on ebay (to top up those travel funds:-)).

Visas:
Got my Passport back yesterday with visas for Thailand and Vietnam and I already had the Australia visa so that’s all I need prior to my trip as far as Visas are concerned.

Vaccinations:
Think I’m thought more than half the shots now. Five or six more injections and that’s it.
Read the side effectes of Doxycycline (my Malaria Pills) and I’m not amused! Sounds like some rather nasty stuff to be honest. Photo Sensitivity amongst other things that I don’t want to mention here.. not good when going to sunny SE Asia *doh*.

Backpack:
How bl**dy difficult can it be??? Hardly any of the local shops have descent medium size backpacks in stock but buying online without trying out the pack is not really to my liking either. Looks like I may need to order a few online and hope I find at least one of the right size which also fits well..

Clothes:
Tried a whole bunch of Sandals and decided to stick with my Teva Wraptors. They are so! incredibly comfortable, I don’t even want to take them off when at home 🙂 They also give very good support and are very suitable for prolonged walking… Blister problems have been reported but I wore them at home for the last two weeks while doing all my packing etc and so far so good. Biggest worry apart from blisters: Apparently Teva Sandals are known to stink after a while but probably most Sandals have that problem since you don’t wear socks. The new Wraptors also claim to use antibacterial materials to avoid the stench ;-). We shall see how they perform..

Saw a nice Wind/Water proof eVENT jacket at akive8 and was going to buy it but some guy snatched it away right in front of me… And that whilst the shop had a 20% discount week *grrrrr*!

Other than that still trying to keep things to a minimum and as light as possible.. (50L pack and max 20kg please!)

Strange feeling knowing that soon I will have nothing but a backpack to live out of.