Round The World

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.