Friday, 24 February 2012
Progress report
A quick update as I've booked the last of the European hostels today. Romania, Bulgaria and Istanbul are all sorted. With imaginative names such as Hostel Costal(Timisoara) and Hostel Mostel (Veliko Tavarno and Sofia) I am beginning to wonder what I've let myself in for. I also started the application of applying for a new passport today so for me that classes as a productive day!
Thursday, 9 February 2012
Why we travel and the value of smart phones abroad
The randomness of the title is quite apparent to me. I guess it is two subjects which require separate posts but both happen to be constantly on my mind right now. I always have to have something on mind it seems and with no real worries to speak of at present the focus seems to have moved towards areas of the trip which always tend to be left until the last minute, practicalities and the age old question, why am I going travelling?
I have neither the stereotypical answer 'to find myself' or a unique, deep answer which makes my adventure any more interesting than anybody else's. The truth is there is no sole reason that makes me want to travel, there are many. I do agree with what many have said regarding travelling being infectious, this will be my fourth major trip now, this one is actually set to be twice the length of the other three put together. Firstly I can at least console myself with the fact that I am not travelling to escape from anything, that may have been the case in the past but one does not normally spend three and a half years saving up consistently to run away from something, chances are you'd want to run a lot sooner if that was the case. I think the first reason is the genuine curiosity I have always had about other countries and cultures. I've had this since I was a child and studied South America in geography and watched the world cup in 1990 with nations I'd never even heard of. I also feel that I fit in with both the people and the lifestyle on the road. I love arriving in a new town by bus and rushing with 50 other travellers for the last 10 beds in a youth hostel, I also love getting to know the people staying in that hostel, exchanging stories from the road, sharing tips on where to go next. I have never felt more confident than those last few months in Central America in 2008/09 and I like that side of me, I never knew I had it until then. It is being in these bizarre surroundings with these crazy new friends that inspires me to do such random things as hitch hiking on the back of a truck in Belize, cave diving in Guatemala, climbing a volcano in Nicaragua, snorkelling in Costa Rica, the list goes on. I see glimpses of that person at times here in this tiny village in the Peak District but I almost feel as though people here know me too well and to start again and then again the next day where I can be myself or I can change who myself is on a daily basis if I want, it doesn't matter.
I suppose that is the main reason now I think about it, I'd say that's a damn good reason to look forward to this trip, there is also the small matter of getting pissed with my best mate around the world of course which is also a very good thing. Then looking beyond that there are the usual reasons like getting a tan, finding exotic women and eating something that isn't Maccy D's for under a fiver.
I would say at present I am looking forward to India the most, I feel going from Istanbul in Europe and landing in the utter chaos of Delhi is going to be the biggest culture shock we are likely to face though in all honesty it could very well be stepping out into the Eternal city of Rome and its millions and millions of people after 3 and a half years of living in a village of a couple of hundred. I think there are many things i'm looking forward to about each country and the trip as a whole as well as the many many many things I have yet to discover yet.
A small piece about smart phones then. I have never owned one until a couple of days ago. My friend had sold me one for £40 and I decided to get it working. I am admitidly late to the i-pad/android/i-phone craze and don't know that much about it. The phone I have the is far from one of the best on the market but it does have several features which make me think having one may now be essential for travelling. the apps for flights/hostels and city maps aside I feel that if I were to purchase one which has all this plus a decent camera, radio and keypad for the blog I may have many of the essentials in one fairly small phone which would leave me with valuable space for other things in my backpack and i'd also save considerably on costs for things like internet cafe's which can amount to a fair bit over a period of time.
I do have several concerns though, firstly the cost of something decent like an I-pad is considerably more than the modest android that I currently posess. To spend that amount of money I'd need to know that the thing would work pretty much everywhere and that I would be able to do this using wi-fi connections without being charged ridiculous amounts of money as I have read about in a BBC News article. I would also need to buy one outright and avoid any contract as I am only in the UK until September(that feels so good to say :-)). Then there is the risk factor, firstly the cost of replacing all the essential features would amount to a lot in the first place. There is also the risk that carrying such a device would make me/us more likely targets to thieves in the first place. This is the reason I've no plans to take a laptop or have resisted the temptation to buy a four figure priced camera but this seems like a risk that may well be worth taking, I just need to get the facts first.
If anybody knows anything about this please leave me a comment.
Thanks
Chris
I have neither the stereotypical answer 'to find myself' or a unique, deep answer which makes my adventure any more interesting than anybody else's. The truth is there is no sole reason that makes me want to travel, there are many. I do agree with what many have said regarding travelling being infectious, this will be my fourth major trip now, this one is actually set to be twice the length of the other three put together. Firstly I can at least console myself with the fact that I am not travelling to escape from anything, that may have been the case in the past but one does not normally spend three and a half years saving up consistently to run away from something, chances are you'd want to run a lot sooner if that was the case. I think the first reason is the genuine curiosity I have always had about other countries and cultures. I've had this since I was a child and studied South America in geography and watched the world cup in 1990 with nations I'd never even heard of. I also feel that I fit in with both the people and the lifestyle on the road. I love arriving in a new town by bus and rushing with 50 other travellers for the last 10 beds in a youth hostel, I also love getting to know the people staying in that hostel, exchanging stories from the road, sharing tips on where to go next. I have never felt more confident than those last few months in Central America in 2008/09 and I like that side of me, I never knew I had it until then. It is being in these bizarre surroundings with these crazy new friends that inspires me to do such random things as hitch hiking on the back of a truck in Belize, cave diving in Guatemala, climbing a volcano in Nicaragua, snorkelling in Costa Rica, the list goes on. I see glimpses of that person at times here in this tiny village in the Peak District but I almost feel as though people here know me too well and to start again and then again the next day where I can be myself or I can change who myself is on a daily basis if I want, it doesn't matter.
I suppose that is the main reason now I think about it, I'd say that's a damn good reason to look forward to this trip, there is also the small matter of getting pissed with my best mate around the world of course which is also a very good thing. Then looking beyond that there are the usual reasons like getting a tan, finding exotic women and eating something that isn't Maccy D's for under a fiver.
I would say at present I am looking forward to India the most, I feel going from Istanbul in Europe and landing in the utter chaos of Delhi is going to be the biggest culture shock we are likely to face though in all honesty it could very well be stepping out into the Eternal city of Rome and its millions and millions of people after 3 and a half years of living in a village of a couple of hundred. I think there are many things i'm looking forward to about each country and the trip as a whole as well as the many many many things I have yet to discover yet.
A small piece about smart phones then. I have never owned one until a couple of days ago. My friend had sold me one for £40 and I decided to get it working. I am admitidly late to the i-pad/android/i-phone craze and don't know that much about it. The phone I have the is far from one of the best on the market but it does have several features which make me think having one may now be essential for travelling. the apps for flights/hostels and city maps aside I feel that if I were to purchase one which has all this plus a decent camera, radio and keypad for the blog I may have many of the essentials in one fairly small phone which would leave me with valuable space for other things in my backpack and i'd also save considerably on costs for things like internet cafe's which can amount to a fair bit over a period of time.
I do have several concerns though, firstly the cost of something decent like an I-pad is considerably more than the modest android that I currently posess. To spend that amount of money I'd need to know that the thing would work pretty much everywhere and that I would be able to do this using wi-fi connections without being charged ridiculous amounts of money as I have read about in a BBC News article. I would also need to buy one outright and avoid any contract as I am only in the UK until September(that feels so good to say :-)). Then there is the risk factor, firstly the cost of replacing all the essential features would amount to a lot in the first place. There is also the risk that carrying such a device would make me/us more likely targets to thieves in the first place. This is the reason I've no plans to take a laptop or have resisted the temptation to buy a four figure priced camera but this seems like a risk that may well be worth taking, I just need to get the facts first.
If anybody knows anything about this please leave me a comment.
Thanks
Chris
Tuesday, 7 February 2012
Time for a recap
I've read a lot of travel blogs and books lately and I'm pretty sure mine is the only one that starts a good 2 years before the trip itself even begins! The trip is so huge that it has required so much more planning than most but I feel as though I'm just about there now and have control over the various bits and pieces still to do before we leave the UK in 208 short days time.
I think at this point it may be necessary to just go over the details of the trip again, as much for my own benefit as well as for those who may come across the blog and want to know more without having to go back to the first entry.
Having returned to Hartington Hall from a 4 month jaunt round Central America and parts of Europe in early 2009 the plan was always to travel again. South America was always on the cards and I feel I will right a fairly large wrong when I step off the plane at Bogota airport in around 18 months time due to my failure to get to South America at all during my last trip.
I have now been saving consistently for almost 3 years and feel I will be deserving of the big moment when it all begins on September 3rd this year. The other continents involved in the trip Europe and Asia have gradually fallen into the mix and whilst the actual itinerary was finished last year, I have known the country list since 2010 and that has not really altered as yet.
Early last year a couple of really positive things happened, I got promoted at work meaning a fairly small, but helpful, pay rise. Secondly my good friend Luke decided he would be joining me for the length of the trip as well as starting a second stint of working at Hartington Hall, which for anyone reading who doesn't know is the youth hostel in which we work. As I wrote at the time, Luke's decision to join me gave the trip a real jolt in the arm when it was probably most needed. It has been great having someone to talk to properly about it and who almost shares my excitement(pretty sure nobody can be more excited about this than me!)
The trip itself then, it is entitled Rome to Rio and will start in Rome on September 3rd 2012. From there we will spend some time in Italy before exploring the Balkans - Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia will all be visited before we go east to Romania and Bulgaria before finishing off the European leg in Istanbul. From there we fly to India where we will spend approximately 3-4 months and may pop into Bangladesh and/or Nepal, this is the only part of the trip I am leaving open due to possible transport delays in India. We then fly to Bangkok and do a loop round Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia before coming back through Thailand and down through Malaysia, Singapore before island hopping through Indonesia and ending up back in Malaysia. We then fly to L.A where the plan is to relax and refocus for South America. First stop is Bogota and then it'll be approximately 14 months of overland travel through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil.
Planning the itinerary has been tough, trying to ensure that we see as much as we can whilst making sure to mix things up in terms of beaches, activities, cities and most importantly plenty of rest stops!
So that's Rome to Rio in a nutshell, I'm a bit clearer on where we're going now so I guess that's the most important thing.
I think at this point it may be necessary to just go over the details of the trip again, as much for my own benefit as well as for those who may come across the blog and want to know more without having to go back to the first entry.
Having returned to Hartington Hall from a 4 month jaunt round Central America and parts of Europe in early 2009 the plan was always to travel again. South America was always on the cards and I feel I will right a fairly large wrong when I step off the plane at Bogota airport in around 18 months time due to my failure to get to South America at all during my last trip.
I have now been saving consistently for almost 3 years and feel I will be deserving of the big moment when it all begins on September 3rd this year. The other continents involved in the trip Europe and Asia have gradually fallen into the mix and whilst the actual itinerary was finished last year, I have known the country list since 2010 and that has not really altered as yet.
Early last year a couple of really positive things happened, I got promoted at work meaning a fairly small, but helpful, pay rise. Secondly my good friend Luke decided he would be joining me for the length of the trip as well as starting a second stint of working at Hartington Hall, which for anyone reading who doesn't know is the youth hostel in which we work. As I wrote at the time, Luke's decision to join me gave the trip a real jolt in the arm when it was probably most needed. It has been great having someone to talk to properly about it and who almost shares my excitement(pretty sure nobody can be more excited about this than me!)
The trip itself then, it is entitled Rome to Rio and will start in Rome on September 3rd 2012. From there we will spend some time in Italy before exploring the Balkans - Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia will all be visited before we go east to Romania and Bulgaria before finishing off the European leg in Istanbul. From there we fly to India where we will spend approximately 3-4 months and may pop into Bangladesh and/or Nepal, this is the only part of the trip I am leaving open due to possible transport delays in India. We then fly to Bangkok and do a loop round Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia before coming back through Thailand and down through Malaysia, Singapore before island hopping through Indonesia and ending up back in Malaysia. We then fly to L.A where the plan is to relax and refocus for South America. First stop is Bogota and then it'll be approximately 14 months of overland travel through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil.
Planning the itinerary has been tough, trying to ensure that we see as much as we can whilst making sure to mix things up in terms of beaches, activities, cities and most importantly plenty of rest stops!
So that's Rome to Rio in a nutshell, I'm a bit clearer on where we're going now so I guess that's the most important thing.
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