Round The World

This is a list of ‘essentials’ and their their prices. These are things (and not only that) which we had to bought to eventually be able to go for this trip. Prices are in EUR.

Plane tickets 2323

Travel Insurance (blueinsurance.ie) 199

Vaccinations 176

Malaria tablets (104) 84

Drugs (antibiotics…) 25

Trekking Pole 12

Small backpack 42

Sleeping mat 6

Tent 145

Magic Soap Dr. Bronner (shower gel,wash up liquid, shampoon, toothpaste, washing detergent) 11

Shoes Merrell 130

Trausers Craghoppers 44

Jacket GORE-TEX North Face 200

Jumper North Face ‘summit series’ 110

Thermoactive Jumper 35

Thermoactive T-shirt 10

Hat 7

Extra iPod battery 38

Mosquito net (head) 4

Mosquito net (canopy) 11

Iodyne tablets 8

Neutralize tablets 7

Stove Primus ETA-Power 92

GPS eTrex Vista HCx 145

Water filter Aqua Safe Straw 26

Quick-dry towel 29

Travel pillow 12

Waterproof poncho 11

Crystal deodorant 6

Packsafe net – rucksuck security 60

Polarized sunglassess 50

Sleeping bag

Canon Camera 30D + 4 lenses (50mm, 10-22mm, 24-105mm, 17-55mm) & UV,Polarized filters 3000

iPod Touch 32GB 300

Head torch 20

Knife 36

Shoes Salomon 80

Flip flops

Sun filter lotion

Toilet paper

Sewing kit

Mug

Total cost (excluding camera) is more then Eur 4000

…and… in 3 days we’re flying !!! :D

Alright! Ticket has been paid and the flights are:
starting on the 15th of Dec 2009 !!!

1) Warsaw (stopover in Madrid) -> Caracas … 4.5 month in South America
2) Buenos Aires (stopover in Sydney) -> Auckland … 3-4 weeks in New Zealand
3) Auckland (stopover in Hong Kong) -> Jakarta … 1 month in Indonesia ; then Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam (3 months total)
4) Vietnam (stopover in Hong Kong) -> Kathmandu … 3 weeks in Nepal ; then 2 months in India
5) India (stopover in London) -> Warsaw

10 flights all together, out of which the longest is Buenos – Sydney (14h) … I’ll put down roots…
We have more less precised plan for South America. We also know which places we would like to see in New Zealand and Asia the most. The plan for Latin America is:
– Venezuela – as soon as we get to Caracas we head to see the highest waterfall – Angel Falls/Salto Angel (8h in a overnight bus, a flight, 2 nights in the National Park Canaima). The next target is Santa Elena and 4-6 day trek to Roraima mountain.
– Brazil – from Santa Elena we try to get directly to Manaus city, where we spend a day or two and then take a boat going up the Amazon River all the way to Peru (10 days).
– Peru – getting to Peru we have to stop for a little while in Columbia. Our first destination in Peru is Iquitos where we gonna stay 2, 3 or more days. From there, probably by plane, we have to get to Lima. The next stop is Huaraz or Caraz and 5 day Santa Cruz trek. If everything works out we gonna spend Christmas on the trek. Later we head to Cusco/Cuzco to see Machu Picchu or before that we go to Huacachina, where we spend New Years Eve.
– Bolivia – from Cusco directly by bus we get to La Paz, where we spend 2 – 3 days and probably we do the Death Road getting to Coroico. Later with a tour guide company we go to the Salar de Uyuni, Laguna Verde, Laguna Colorado and Geysers el Tatio.
– Argentina – first target is Mendoza
– Chile – Valpariso
– Argentina again – Bariloche (plus Camoanario) and Esquel (if we find time). Next is Fitz Roy and El Chalten, Torres del Paine (trek) and Ushuaia (plus Tierra del Fuego). Then we go up North to the Valdes Peninsula and later Buenos Aires. From Buenos we do Iguazu Falls trip and come back to Buenos where from we fly to New Zealand.

That’s it!. Just before our first flight I’m going to post an entry about all the costs.

When I was reading different travel blogs I found few that minutely describe estimate of preparation. I’m also going to create this blog in similar character. I hope that someone find this unfo useful and helpful.
Having the trip plan ready and being awake to where and for how long we’re going to, it’s time to take care of:
– RTW ticket! :)
– vaccinations + malaria tablets
– proper clothes
– backpack, equipment and electronics
– everything else

RTW ticket
Precised piece of information about cheap flights you can find on the wikitravel.org/en/Round_the_world_flights. For those who have a lot of time and money, and don’t really care where and when they land, nay! they desire a bunch of great and not so great adventures, I recommend the kayak.com website and spontaneous, cheap flights (if they’re lucky). We used the oneworld.com calling a Polish agent of British Airways. I had sent by e-mail the planned route and a guy on the other side of the phone told me what should we change. So we realign it slightly, then the bookings were made and the whole ticket was ready to be paid.
Ticket is valid for a year and dates of individual flights are set in advance for the next 10 months while booking the ticket. Future dates are random. We’re allowed to change all dates for free.

Vaccinations
Not a little expense…that’s why it should be done in the cheapest way. The “must have” are
– Yellow Fever
– Hepatitis A&B (Twinrix)
– Typhoid
Additional is Revaxis (polio, diphtheria, tetanus). A supplement of the total are (what is not really necessary): meningococcal, rabies, cholera. All depend on a character and place of your travel.
There is few types of malaria tablets. Some of them are more expensive, some are cheaper. One type (Doxycycline) you take daily, other once a week. The second one (Lariam) is know to cause psychotic disturbances, anxiety, sleeplessness, and depression.

Clothes
You should have them as little as possible and they should be very practical (in the multifunctional meaning).They must be effective in a environment you gonna be in. One pair of good shoes/boots. The “backpacker style” with GORE-TEX would be the best. Also some trainers to give a rest to our legs + some thumbs/sandals. Good rainproof jacket or poncho. Good one or two warm jumpers. There is a lot of places in South America, where days are hot, but at night a temperature goes down to few °C above the zero. One pair of long, cotton, quick-dry trousers + one pair of shorts. 4 T-shirts, 1 par of swimming shorts, 4 of a underwear, 4 pairs of socks + 1 thick pair for trekking. A hat/bandanna?

Backpack, gear and ‘toys’
First of all a backpack has to be comfortable (hip belt, regulations straps etc.) It has to be big enough – 70l should do (plus a 30l as a day-pack). The backpack has to be a good quality, tough, durable (we don’t want it to burst while packing all that stuff we gonna carry all year long). Because our around the world trip includes few hikes, we gonna need more equipment then a emerge backpacking person. So what we need is: a tent, sleeping bag, sleeping mat, trekking pole(s), knife, torch, water filter + iodine and neutralizing tablets, camera, iPod, a watch with alarm clock, GPS, external hard drive, backpack security metal netting…

Everything else
Here among some diary and travel guides I have to mention sunglasses, , quick-dry towel, plug adapter, travel pillow etc. …

Also we have to think about how we withdraw our money abroad. There is few options:
– travel checks. I find different opinions, but in general they’re not good.
– debit card
– credit card. It looks like it’s cheaper to use it then a debit card.
– CAXTON FX GLOBAL TRAVELLER CARD – pretty new thing and this what we have chosen. No fees at all, but you need to live in UK and have an UK bank account.

At first place you struggle with a problem – where to begin with?
The idea of the trip has been created, but how and where you go to???
I think I started from… Google! (of course!) I totally didn’t know which of all these beautiful places in the world I should go to…cause I cannot visit all of them :( And I have to choose only these which I can afford. So first criteria of searching the web looked like this:

– wonders of the world
– seven wonders of the world
– seven wonders of … (name of a country)
– 10 the best hikes/treks
– 10 the most beautiful places in he world
– must go places in the world

A lot of digging, grubbing around and even more reading. After a time I realized that the best source of information are www.tripadvisor.com, www.lonelyplanet.com, www.virtualtourist.com and www.bootsnall.com. Less useful but still:
http://www.worldtravelguide.net/
http://www.iexplore.com/
http://www.backpacker.com/
http://www.gobackpacking.com
http://www.budgettravel.com/
http://www.backpackgeartest.org/

When finally the rout was more less planned I started to drag myself into reading travel blogs written by people who already did RTW trip or haven’t finished yet. I quickly noticed that this is the best way to find out about the most important things. Starting from recommend by these people places worth visiting, through the best and the cheapest ways of getting there, ending on the most reliable accommodation. You can really learn about many very interesting places, not those the most commercial, which you can google typing “10 the most beautiful places in he world”. You can e-mail these people and get even better help. They have been there, they’ve seen, they’ve experienced – they know the best.

Money, money
Planning this type trip is connected with some kind of sacrifice and scrupulous saving. I have to admit that it wasn’t that bad experience to me. For sure my body is grateful for this break in partying every weekend. The fact is that this almost a year long asceticism will be recompensed to us in a beautiful style :)
I started my saving in January ’09. 10 months is not that long, but a rise in my job helped a lot. Cannot say that I’m rich right now so the character of this trip is going to be in a backpacker style. The most important thing about traveling cheap is being hosted by other people. Personally, I have never liked this way of interfering with people, but we have no choice :] We will have to manage our saved money to prevent a situation that in Thailand we wake up with no money and it’s time to go back home.

As a matter of fact I have always liked to travel. I have alway enjoyed spending time in nature, watching trees, mountains, oceans and deserts. New sounds, views, tastes and smells change us, expand our horizons. Everyone must agree that there is something exciting in what is unknown to us, right? :)
The idea came to my head don’t remember when and don’t remember how. Whatever the case might be it was more then 2 years ago, I guess. It’s quite possible that I already spoke about it with my very good friend Maciej Pinkowski when we were on our way to Ukraine for the New Years Eve ’08. Subsequent trip to Alaska aimed, inter alia, to save some money, which unfortunately didn’t work (because of trip to Mexico and NYC), however some of the earning I invested in a gear that I’m taking with me.

As I mentioned in the previous entry, there was more eager to go. I think that 4-ppl crew is an optimum. For sure it would be funnier, safer, and even if while hitchhiking we could separate into twos.When there is a group of 3 the situation is still good, but it could be a problem with finding accommodation amend people from the Hospitality Club/CouchSurfing
Whatever the case Tom and I will manage without any bigger incidents…we will have to :)

Some people may think that this kind if trip is a madness. Actually I’ve already faced with this opinion. The fact is that among Aussies, Kiwis, Canucks or Yankees ‘gap year’ or other is pretty popular form of spending holidays…long holidays.
Since several months I’ve been getting into the swing of reading many travel blogs. It is unbelievable how many people travel the world. At least I haven’t realized until now. The number of visitors to Huayna Picchu is limited to 400 per day – that means something. Moreover, China wants to restrict the number of climbers on Mount Everest (Article 1, Article 2). The highest mountain in the world is not challenging anymore, everyone can do it…

The decision about going around the world is made, proper actions has been taken. We won’t regret :)

…how shall I begin…

who?where?how?
About an year ago me and my very best friend Tom made a decision about going for a trip of our life. At the beginning it was 4 of us, but for the other 2 life has chosen different path…what a pity…
The year has passed very quickly. A lot of planning, wheeling and dealing plus a bit of arranging and we’re almost sorted. 1,5 month left to go so we are feeling more and more excited … :)
With impatience and even bigger happiness I’m really looking forward to the day we leave this beautiful Ireland (that is 31st of Oct)…

We will spend 2 weeks in Poland on moping-up operations. Also I’m going to try arrange first few meetings with people from the Hospitality Club/CouchSurfing, who (I hope) will host us in some of the places we are going to.
We are planning a going away party too :)

This is where we are going to: Venezuela-Brazil-Peru-Bolivia-Argentina-Chile-New Zealand-Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand-Cambodia-(Laos)-Vietnam-Nepal-India

peace!