N1: Visa Requirements
October 29th, 2005No guarantee that any of the above is correct but this is what I will go by..
V I S A R E Q U I R E M E N T S
Thailand:
===========================
Visa needed pre arrival for stays > 30 days
Tourist Visa
Single Entry valid 3 month from ISSUE DATE for 1 stay of max 60 days
Double Entry valid 6 months from ISSUE DATE for 2 stays of max 60 days
Triple … 6 months …. 3 …
1000 Baht, Passport, 1 Photo,
Departure Ticket & Funds
Extension beyond 60 days possible in country
Cambodia:
=============================
Visa on Arrival
1 Passport Photocopy!!
2 Passport Photos
US $20
Length – 30 days from date of ISSUE (not entry!!)
By Air – At Airpot (Pochentong/Phnom Penh; Siem Reap/Angkor Wat)
By Land – Travelers can travel to/from Cambodia by land through
Aranyapathet-Poipet Border and Trat-Koh Kong Border of
Thailand and Moc Bai – Bavet Border of Vietnam
Vietnam:
============================
Visa needed pre arrival
Laos:
=============================
Visa on Arrival
1 Photo
US $30
Hong Kong
=============================
Not needed within 90 days
Japan
=============================
Not needed within 90 days
New Zealand
============================
Not needed within 90 days
Australia
============================
Visa needed pre arrival
E-Visa (ETA) available online for stay < 3 Months
Fiji
============================
Not needed for < 4 Months
MUST HAVE prebooked Accomodation
Cook Island
============================
Visa on arrival
US $30
MUST HAVE prebooked Accomodation
Tahiti
=============================
Visa on arrival
US $30
MUST HAVE prebooked Accomodation
USA
==============================
Visa not needed for 90 days
Visa Waver Program
MUST HAVE prebooked Accomodation
15: Ouch! & Double Ouch!
October 26th, 2005Picked up my Travel Vaccines from the Chemist today.
I paid a staggering £300 (Outch!). On top of that I had to pay the Nurse £50 for advising and issuing the private prescriptions and there will be an extra £50 for a Yellow Fever Vaccination that has to happen at a special Yellow Fever Clinic. Total £400 – katschinggg… %-O
Well never mind, can’t put a price tag on my Health now can I ?!
Of course there is still the matter of administering those darn vaccines *sigh*
Meaning: 12 injections nicely distributed over the next 4-5 weeks.
Now that’s what I call Double Ouch (or rather Twelvefold I guess)!!
Cover:
Tetanus,Diphtheria,Typhoid,Polio,Hep A,Hep B,Japanese Encephelitis,Rabies and of course Malaria.
14: Trip Map
October 25th, 2005Here is a map of my flight destinations and arrivale dates.
It only includes the flights of my RTW ticket, additional flights and overland routes details are not included.
If there is no date next to a City then this means I depart from this City by plane but arrive there by means of overland transport (rain/bus/boat/…).
Click on image for larger version..
13: Detailed Trip Itinery
October 23rd, 2005Right, I grabbed the Itinerary from my Trailfinders account and padded it up with a few overland route details.
It has a lot in there and no doubt I will be adjusting the route considerable while I’m travelling. This route is a guideline, a suggestion of things to do and places to be (in particular the overland route details which I added). Generally I will just go with the flow and decide on the spot whether or not I want to do some of the things mentioned but at least I have some details to go by..
I reckon I will stick with the flight destinations though (I can change those too if I want) but more likely it will just be changes to flight times depending on what convenience suggests ;-))
So here you go this is roughly what I might be doing from mid December onwards for a few months…
FLIGHT DATE DESTINATION
More Details
LH4941 MON 12 DEC
GERMANY (FRANKFURT)
First Stop back home to see my Family 🙂
TG923 SUN 18 DEC
THAILAND (BANGKOK) (may change to
TUE 27 DEC)
Arrives 1 day later.
OWN ARRANGEMENTS
After exploring central Thailand overland to Chiang Mai in the North. Week of Trekking the North-West Province (Mae Hong Son Loop), Week of Thai Cookery Course in Chiang Mai. Trek to North West Thailand (Chiang Rai) and onwards to Luang Prabang/Laos or alternatively Flight from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang. Explore Nam Ou River & Pak Ou Caves. Flight back to Bangkok then to Koh Chang Island. Relax and week of PADI Open Water Dive Course. Overland to North Cambodia (Siam Reep, Temples of Ankor Wat). Bus/Boat Trip down Mekong Delta to Phnom Penn. Optional Side trip to Bokor National Park if time permits. Boat Trip
across Border to Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh). Optional Side trip to Halong Bay if time permits.
UA862 THU 16 MAR
HO CHI MINH CITY (SAIGON) to HONG KONG
Timeout in Hong-Kong (Gadget Heaven;-))
UA852 TUE 21 MAR
HONG KONG to TOKYO (NARITA)
OWN ARRANGEMENTS
Japan
National Rail Pass:
Tokyo – Nikko – Hakone – Mt
Fuji – Nagoya – Kyoto – Kobe – Osaka
NZ098 TUE 11 APR
OSAKA (KANSAI) to AUCKLAND
Arrives 1 day later.
Pit-Stop at Charlies (Charlie: I know I didn’t listen to you and probably will regret it arriving that late in NZ. Still lets hope for the best :-)) then quickly on to South New Zealand (while the weather is still half bearable;-)
NZ517 FRI 14 APR
AUCKLAND to CHRISTCHURCH
OWN ARRANGEMENTS
Car/Campervan Hire. Tour South Island.
Chirstchurch – Timaru – Dunedin – Southland – Lake Te Anau – Milford
Sound – Queenstown – Mount Cook inc National Park – Skiing? –
Christchurch
Up to North Island.
Wellington – Napier – Lake Taupo – Auckland (more Charlie if he doesn’t
mind:-) – bit more North Island? – Auckland Pitstop – Rotorua
NZ2364 THU 25 MAY
ROTORUA to AUCKLAND
Yes silly I know but I had too many stops in
Auckland so had to fly from Rotorua via Auckland to Fiji rather
than from Auckland directly. This counts as transit not stop over.
NZ119 THU 25 MAY
AUCKLAND to SYDNEY
OWN ARRANGEMENTS
Sydney –
South to Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide for for "Autumn Feel" 🙂 (Cold, I know..)
See the Lowe Clan 😀
Bus up north through Coober Pedy – Ayers Rock (maybe Alice Springs – Darwin (Kakadu National Park)).
Flight to Brisbane, Outback Trekking?
Tour along East Coast: Brisbane – Gold Coast – Great Barrier Reef (Diving) – Cairns
Maybe include a week of Sailing along East Coast/G.B.Reef
NZ132 MON 31 JUL
BRISBANE to AUCKLAND
Right, enough Australia.. Let’s recover a bit on Fiji… (has to go via Auckland – again *sigh* ;-))
NZ020 MON 31 JUL
AUCKLAND to NADI (FIJI)
Turquoise Waters, White Beaches, Fab Marine
Life.. Relax!
Explore some of the nearby Islands
NZ044 SAT 19 AUG
NADI (FIJI) to RAROTONGA (Cook Island)
Arrives previous day.
Look at that! I arrive the previous day 😀
Gotta stop here really cos it’s on the way back home 😉
NZ022 SAT 26 AUG
RAROTONGA to PAPEETE (Tahiti)
Arrives 1 day later.
Tahiti is on the way to the US (Seriously. Had I not stopped here on the way to San Francisco then I would have had to fly back to Auckland and then Auckland – San Francisco. Silly! So I hop from Cook Island over to Tahiti an then Tahiti to San Fran. Tough Life 😉 )
NZ022 FRI 01 SEP
PAPEETE to LOS ANGELES
NZ9296 FRI 01 SEP
LOS ANGELES to SAN FRANCISCO
I don’t bother with LA – this is just a transfer stop to go to San Fran..
Quick look around San Francisco then maybe off to Yosemite National Park. Why not.
UA006 FRI 15 SEP
SAN FRANCISCO to NEW YORK (JFK)
The trip from San Francisco to London is a bit too long for my liking so I decided to stop in New York for a few days.. (It’s a free flight anyway)
UA956 FRI 22 SEP
NEW YORK (JFK) to LONDON (HEATHROW)
Arrives 1 day later.
BD054 FRI 22 SEP
LONDON (HEATHROW) to EDINBURGH
Back in Town. I bet it will rain when I
arrive 😉
12: That’s it.. I’m going!
October 22nd, 2005Right – no going back now, I’ve just paid for my RTW Ticket!
I will post more details about the route later but here is the rough Itinery (Interary?):
UK – Germany – Thailand – (Laos?) – (cambodia) – (Vietnam) – Hong Kong – Japan – New Zealand – Australia – Fiji – Cook Islands – Tahiti – USA – Home.
Leaving December 12th, 2005 to Germany and off to Thailand on the 18th December (no later flight available before xmas; still might change this to 27th December so to be in Germany for Xmas)
I have stretched out the flights to have a “relaxed” schedule which measn I am currently returning on the 22nd of September 2006 though this is likely to change by a few weeks or even months.
So I plan to return to Europe anytime between July and September.
Ta ta for now.. gotta go to Tisos…
11: Kiwi Feedback
October 19th, 2005Got a message from my mate Charlie yesterday who moved to New Zealand a few years ago.
He basically said come in Feb/Mar or not at all since it’s pissing down with rain after March 😉
Bother! Back to the drawing board…. Might need to drop Japan after all.
At least I would save quite a bit of money that way because Japan is probably the most expensive Destination in my current Itinery.
10: A New Home
October 18th, 2005Today I created www.saschas-world.co.uk
I decided to move my blogs from blogger.com to BootsnAll because they have better web and blog support it seems.
Sadly though the URL to BootsnAll blogs is rather lengthy so I decided to get my own domain which should make it considerably easier for friends to remember it 🙂
So in future just go to
8: Coffee, Scones and Travel Guides
October 17th, 2005Almost worth noting that for the last 4 weeks I have been making full use of Waterstones Bookshop with its fab Starbuck Coffeshop Upstairs. The seating area even gives you a nice view of the Castle..
Those kind Waterstones people allow you to grab any book you like (or 5-6 in my case), go up to the Starbucks counter in the shop, ask for an Iced Cafe Mocca and a Very Berry Scone and then find a nice table, sit down, enjoy your beverages and read whatever book you chose to take along (without the need to buy the book(s) beforehand or afterwards so long as you are careful with the book(s) of course).
You can sit there and read until the shop closes and many people do just that 🙂 Kind of nice and incredibly good for sampling Travel Guides…
No doubt this is where I will be for the next few weekends 🙂
saschas