So, what happened to transglobal?
By Jonathan Blake, Day -19 | June 8, 2009 | 1 Comment
As my good pal Leanne pointed out to me earlier today, I’m supposed to be in the UK today - yet evidently, I am not. So what happened?
Well, the financial black hole that is the global economic crisis that claimed Edward’s job didn’t go away, and whilst he was able to make a valiant and respectable attempt at saving up the necessary capital, in the end, paying the rent and eating took priority. He didn’t quite have enough cash to be in a strong financial position for the trip, and would either have to cut it short, or skip some countries - and where’s the fun in that? So Ed is now keeping himself busy setting up his own business.
As for myself, well, honestly it wouldn’t have been so much fun on my own. More or less the same moment I realised I wouldn’t be leaving when I originally anticipated, my job got really enjoyable. I then met a great girl who is now my awesome girlfriend (really, awesome), and then recieved a significant promotion/payrise to top it all off. With all of these things happening, it became quite clear that I probably wouldnt be leaving any time soon (and hey - payrise means I can save more money), and so I moved out of Ed’s living room, and into a new apartment.
That said, I’m still planning to go transglobal. Maybe next year, maybe the year after - who can tell at this stage. But I will go, and when I do, all of this information will be very valuable. It’s going to remain online as I’m told there is some useful information here for prospective backpackers. When transglobal does happen, it will be longer, and more epic than previously imagined - by which I mean transglobal one will be mixed into transglobal two (asia, transiberian, scandanavia, etc), as foreseeably, I will have more of both time, and money.
Until then, happy travelling, and keep safe!
Reroutes, detours, and time travel - replanning our trip.
By Jonathan Blake, Day -125 | February 22, 2009 | 3 Comments
The route of the Toros Ekspresi, as it ekspresis itself across Turkey
Over the last several days, Edward and I have been busy rethinking, recalibrating, and generally rehashing our plans over and over until they made more sense. A lot of people have been negatively affected by the economy this year, and we’re no exception. The interesting consequence of this is that we’ve had to make some changes to our route, and departure dates, either to compensate for lost time, or to slice off totally unnecessary costs.
I will be landing in England on June 8th. I’m really looking forward to this, as it’ll be the first time I’ve been able to just hang around in the English summer in about 4 years. Or considerably more, if you count the last time I wasn’t in full-time employment. Anyhow, I digress.
Edward will follow mid-july, most probably on the 19th. We’ll then be flying out to Crete on the 27th or 28th of August (I have a very important wedding to attend in mid-august)!
This essentially does two things. One, it pushes our timeline back by about 6 weeks, give or take. On one hand this is very good, as it allows me to spend a couple of months with my family (something I haven’t done for a few years), and it’s extra time to accrue funds for the trip. On the other hand, this is very bad, as it sets out right in the mediterranean high-season. I’m still weighing the consequences of this, but so far I feel I’ve made the right decisions.
Two, we will no longer be landing on mainland Greece at all, and instead will be crossing from the Greek island of Samos, to Kusadasi in Turkey. Which is actually preferable, as niether of us were particulary interested in seeing northern greece anyway. From Kusadasi, we’ll travel up to Izmir, and then take the 17 Eylül Ekspresi (September 17th Express) train to Bandirma, and then the 6 Eylül Ekspresi (September 6th Express) ferry to Istanbul.
Edward was quick to point out that it sounds as though we’re travelling back in time. I agreed. Back to the Future jokes ensued.
From Istanbul, we’ll take the old Toros Ekspresi train all the way across Turkey, down the old Orient Express line into Syria - which is undoubtedly a whole different kettle of fish.
Addendum: whilst I was busy researching the route across Turkey, I couldn’t help but be put ever so slightly on edge by the google images page of Toros Ekspresi. True enough, this in itself isn’t that surprising. What unnerves me, however, is that every page appears to have at least one photo of the train.
On its side.
Sick on the road - how do we cope?
By Jonathan Blake, Day -129 | February 18, 2009 | Add a Comment
This is a rather appropriate photo I shamelessly stole from vacationideas.me - I can only hope I would have the luxury of such a clean bathroom!
I’m recently coming to the tail end of a particularly nasty 4 day gastro virus, and all this time stuck in bed has given me plenty to think about in regards to getting sick whilst on the road. Not least, that like most people, when sick all I want is to be at home on the couch of the family house. Sadly, that’s not possible when you’re living on the other side of the world, and it’s doubley not possible when you’re in the middle of some asian city.
Like all good hinderances and accidents, those anti-social stomach viruses and bacterial infections are akin to highly trained ninja, sneaking up on you in the dead of night. The next thing you know you’re cramped over the sort of sink or toilet (or worse) that makes a roadside gutter in your home-town look like a kitchen counter surface.
So this post is less of a update and more of an open question, specifically to those of you who have been travelling and experienced the joys and pleasures of being sick on the road. Please share with us your experiences - how you survived, and what you would have done better next time, and any general tips you may have. Afterall, it may be inevitable, but it never hurts to make the inevitable a bit more bearable.
Looking forward to your stories!
The cost of travelling around the world
By Jonathan Blake, Day -132 | February 15, 2009 | 4 Comments
A few minutes ago I finished up a fairly extensive analysis and breakdown of the total cost of TransGlobal and it’s various demands. If you are considering backpacking around the world on a shoestring (although looking at this, I sometimes feel like it’s more of a cheesewire than a shoestring), this should give you a fairly good overview of the sort of costs involved. As always, if you have any questions leave us a comment and one of us will try to answer as thoroughly as possible!
|
Expense
|
Cost |
|---|---|
| Flight - Vancouver - London |
$500
|
| Flight - London to Crete |
$200
|
| Flight - Egypt to Mumbai |
$500
|
| Flight - Kolkata to Bangkok |
$150
|
| Other Transport (jordan car rental, ferries, etc) |
$400
|
| Accomodation, Food ($15 x 365) or ($20 x 290) |
$5,850
|
| Travel Insurance |
$600
|
| Entry Visas |
$430
|
| — Turkey |
$20
|
| – Syria |
$140
|
| – Lebanon |
$15
|
| – Jordan |
$15
|
| – Egypt |
$20
|
| – India |
$100
|
| – Nepal |
$40
|
| – Thailand |
$30
|
| – Cambodia |
$20
|
| – Laos |
$30
|
| Prescription Medication |
$370
|
| – Doxycycline (anti-malarial) |
$300
|
| – Acetazolamide (altitude sickness) |
$10
|
| – Azithromycin (traveller’s diarrhea) |
$60
|
| Travel Vaccinations |
Paid ($270)
|
| – Consultation Fee |
$35
|
| – Vivaxim (Hep A, Typhoid) |
$100
|
| – Hepatitis B 1/3 |
$35
|
| – Hepatitis B 2/3 |
$35
|
| – Hepatitis B 3/3 |
$35
|
| Total Cost |
$9,000
|
The above costs are per person.
So, with that all calculated, all that’s left to do is save up the money required, and start making some tentative logistical plans.
Our currently anticipated date for leaving Vancouver is roughly June 20th, and we’ll be hitting the tarmac in Crete sometime in the first week of July.
Moving out, moving in.
By Jonathan Blake, Day -138 | February 9, 2009 | 1 Comment
It’s been a good while longer than I had originally anticipated before making a new update. Several things have happened in the last week or so, not least the rather hectic and logistically complicated process of moving into Edward’s house. Or, more specifically - Edward’s living room, which has now been carefully renovated into my bedroom and office. Sorry about that, Ed.
Me looking rather exhausted, taking apart my sofa-bed.
After throwing out about a dozen bags of post-living trash, I moved late in the evening of friday night, using van-sized taxi cabs, Edward’s help, and a bottle of vodka (of course). I think we finished moving somewhere in the region of 11 or 12 in the evening. Most of the last week has consisted of unpacking, drinking, unpacking, drinking, and rock climbing - so there hasn’t been a lot of time to use the internet or write up any new updates.
The purpose of this move was primarily a combination of functionality and efficiency. Aside the obvious benefits of shared-cost living (my rent is now less than a third of what it was previously - hooray!), we’ve found the experience so far to be quite a test of our abilities, particulary in spending such a continuous amount of time in each other’s presence, as well as the distribution of general household responsibilities and financial consideration. This is an experience which, between now and the time we leave, will either make or break the trip. Hopefully, by then we will be at least somewhat more equipped to deal with life on the road.
My new office, complete with newly washed dishes, and my sofa-bed in the lower right.
Another good reason for the lack of updates: I’ve also been quite ill for the last week, and to acknowledge the best travel guide I ever read - waking up in the night with a fever and cold sweats reminded me that you should always know where your towel is. Edward has also been sick. Whereas I get very, very sick, and very quickly, then get better nearly as rapidly, Edward appears to exhibit no more than a general reduction in energy and temperament. When you combine this with the stressors of moving house, and suddenly having a new roomie (prior to this, both of us lived happily alone), you may start to understand why the vodka became a necessary addition to our supplies.
We also received copies of Lonely Planet’s excellent series: Syria and Lebanon, Cambodia, and Thailand, from our friend Dr. Jessie Voigts of the popular Wandering Educators community, so you can expect a review of these in the coming future.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming…
The Technology of TransGlobal
By Jonathan Blake, Day -149 | January 29, 2009 | 4 Comments
Updating from the road can be an annoyingly inconvenient, taxing process. Assuming you find the time to actually sit down and go through with it, you must first find a location - somewhere with internet access, where this is possible. Once there, you may have the pleasure of navigating an unfriendly nest of USB cables (after you’ve managed to get them out of your backpack). You must then arduously work your way through various social networking and photo sites, uploading and updating, one by one, bit by literal bit - something that can be particularly trying on a dial-up internet connection.
The above is almost a worst case scenario, to be sure, but it does happen, and variations of this more are more frequent than you’d like to expect. Instead of working on your content, you end up spending 80% of your time doing the online equivalent of map reading and refueling. But what if it didn’t have to be this way? What if there are a better way to stay connected?
We believe that with some careful and intelligent preparation, it is possible to free up the vast majority of this otherwise usable time and energy (this appears to be a recurring theme of this site). The secret to connect travel is not to take more tech and more expensive gadgets, but to automate that which makes life tedious. The internet is a vast and expansive resource, and we live in the year 2009 - many of the technologies we commonly believe to be ‘in the future’ are already available to the public at large, providing that you’re willing to do the research. This is an exercise in lateral thinking, freestyle imagination, and devising methods to ‘glue’ components of the internet together into a metaphorical Frankenstein’s Monster, one which I dare say Mary Shelley herself would be proud of.
In the following paragraphs, I will elaborate upon the functionality and chronology of the monstrosity you see below, and hopefully provide some guidance so that you too may nurture a little Dr. Frankenstein within yourself. Now - go get yourself a cup of tea, coffee, or a stiff drink - you’ll need it.
The TransGlobal Tech Tree - How our software and hardware interact to keep us connected with minimal effort.
The tech-tree above demonstrates how we are able to update 5 individual social networking accounts (twitter [x3], facebook, flickr), and the main transglobal website (this one) using only one update from any part of the system.
Live photos from cellphones - photo distribution to flickr, twitter, and transglobal.me
The ability to capture and distribute photographs instantly (relatively - there is a delay of up to 10 minutes of delay to fully propagate through the network) is one of the most useful tools a traveller can have on their journey, as it provides almost-real-time updates to their followers throughout the world, without them having to slow down, or stop and find internet access. It can also be a useful safety net.
Photographs taken from our cellphones (basic phones with low (1-2) megapixel cameras and MMS capabilities - nothing fancy here) are sent to a dedicated flickr upload email address using email-over-MMS, where they are uploaded to the transglobal flickr account. The subject line becomes the title, and the email body becomes the description of the photo. It’s also possible to tag your photos in this method - we have chosen to have flickr automatically tag all of our mobile uploads with “mobile“, not only for ease of organisation, but also because it allows us to feed all of our photographs to Twittergram based on their tags. Twittergram is a one-page service that takes a flickr RSS feed, filters the stream by tag (you can specify this to be whatever you wish), compresses the flickr url using bit.ly, and then posts the link on the @transglobal twitter account. In the meantime, the TransGlobal website takes all of the photos tagged ‘mobile’ from the same RSS feed, and displays the latest 4 images in the LiveGlobal section of the site (on the frontpage).
Short updates from cellphones - string distribution to twitter, facebook, and transglobal.me
We’ve simplified this part of the diagram for the sake of comprehension.
The Short Version: we send short updates to the dedicated twitter service number based on our geographic location, which are then posted directly to the @transglobal twitter account.
What really happens: Our cellphones are tied to our personal twitter accounts. The RSS feeds of each of our personal accounts are fed into a yahoo pipes schema, which is designed to filter for anything beginning in ‘@transglobal‘. We then perform a search and replace (using regex) on each matching item (title) in the RSS feed to replace our usernames with ‘Jon:’ and ‘Edward:’, and remove the ‘@transglobal’ string. This system allows us to post to both our personal accounts, and optionally to @transglobal at the same time. For example:
From my cellphone, I send: “@transglobal we just arrived in egypt - it’s bloody hot!“, which comes through the twitter system as: “jonathanblake: @transglobal we just arrived in egypt - it’s bloody hot!”
This is filtered and rewritten to read on @transglobal: “Jon: we just arrived in egypt - it’s bloody hot!”
This is then output from yahoo pipes to a new RSS stream, which is in turn plugged into Twitterfeed. Twitterfeed is an RSS posting service, which takes the items from an RSS feed and literally just posts them to a twitter account (in this case, @transglobal) on a regularly scheduled interval (30 minutes, 1 hour, etc).
Anything posted to our personal twitter accounts is then parsed by facebook via the facebook twitter application, and is used to update our respective facebook status messages. Finally, the TransGlobal website lists the latest couple of messages from our personal twitter accounts. Once we leave, this will be switched over to a modified version of the official @transglobal account which will have the post updates stripped out (again, using yahoo pipes).
Adding photos to flickr
The last thing anyone wants to do when they hit an internet cafe or kiosk is to use the flickr website on a slow connection and a crippled IE5 or IE6 browser setup. For this reason, we’ve added executable copies of Phlogre, the Flickr photo organizer and uploader, to the memory cards of our cameras. Phlogre can then be run directly from the memory cards, allowing us to sort, tag, and upload our photos without ever using a browser. Although this doesn’t really have anything to do with the aforementioned system, I felt I’d mention it as it is extremely convenient and time saving.
The flickr RSS feed for our photostream is processed by the TransGlobal website, and then displayed in the photo block of the front page.
Updating the website, transglobal.me, twitter, facebook
I’ll skip over the actual process of writing for the site since that doesn’t really fit into the spectrum of this post (I’m sure Edward will make a post covering writing for the internet one day). Once the story has been published, it is immediately added to the transglobal.me RSS feed. This RSS feed is then parsed by Twitterfeed, which does its job admirably, making notification posts to the @transglobal twitter account (which I’m sure you’ve all seen by now). This is also washed down into a yahoo pipes schema (see what I did there?), which distinguishes between posts made by myself, and posts made by Edward. These new feeds are then tied back into Twitterfeed (not shown), where they are used to update our personal twitter feeds and consequently our facebook status messages.
Summary
Here’s the short version of the various processes (the non-automated parts are in italics, output sites are underlined):
And there it is - the technology that lets us do what we do. Hopefully this will give others some inspiration and guidance in their search for easier travel connectivity. If you made it this far, congratulate yourself by indulging in a personal vice - you’ve earnt it.
Travel, New Experiences and Brain Growth
By Edward Wilson, Day -151 | January 27, 2009 | 5 Comments
I think that travel can make you smarter. If you stay in your normal context you do not incorporate much in the way of novel experiences, you do the same things in the same way and your response patter stays limited and stereotyped. but large and varied journeys offer many opportunities to increase your intelligence.
The experience of culture shock should be treasured. That is the moment when brain growth is happening. You are reorganizing your understanding of the world because you were operating on a limiting generalization and you have encountered people who do things differently. It feels disorienting because you are reorienting, The more widely you travel the more opportunities you have to go through this and the smarter you will be afterwards. The more intense your confusion, the more fundamental the assumption that you are correcting.
Communication offers further opportunities for growth. Getting things you need when you don’t speak the language is an exercise in problem solving and creativity, which can’t help but increase your behavioural flexibility. If you try to learn these languages you are forging many new neural pathways and can give you new ways to look at even familiar problems.
The greater the variety of experience you have to generalize from the more accurate those generalizations will be, the more possible responses and possible situations you witness, the more options you have in facing what happens to you in life. The larger the number of places you have been the larger the mental maps in your head. The slower you travel the better these places will be integrated and interconnected. The larger this mental map the better you can location associate your experiences.
Just traveling with its expansion of your mental map and exposure to novel experiences will help improve your functional intelligence but there is something you can do to intensify this growth, reflect on your experiences. Living the experience once gathers the novelty, living it a second time in reflection helps you integrate it. This is one of the reasons I write about my experiences. It is fun to think about them again, it helps solidify the experiences in my memory and extract meaning and life lessons from them.
Of course, your reflection doesn’t have to be written down. Maybe you just like thinking about your travels on your own, talking about them with friends or flipping through a photo album. The more ways you re-approach your experiences, the more you can get out of them.
One thing you can do is play the why game. Looking at those experiences that gave you the largest culture shocks, think about the reasons why the different cultures do things differently. You don’t have to be right for thinking about reasons for differences to help you integrate those differences. Another similar activity is to take any single experience and try to figure out what it says about your entire existence, why you had to have that experience and what you needed to learn from it.
For me, any experience that doesn’t make me a better person wasn’t worth doing. If I went on this trip and came back as the same person that I left as, I would consider it a horrible failure no matter how much fun I had. Make no mistake, I intend to have a lot of fun on this trip but I also intent to learn and grow as a person. And to do that you have to challenge yourself, you have to be willing to experience discomfort.
“I’m good at being uncomfortable, so I can’t help changing all the time.” - Extraordinary Machine, Fiona Apple.
So you want to get a visa….
By Jonathan Blake, Day -152 | January 26, 2009 | 13 Comments
Visas - arguably one of the most often overlooked elements of travel planning, also happen to be one of the most important. Without one, you’re not getting into your country of choice - and if you do, you’re almost certainly not getting out (unless you’re some kind of spy or secret agent).
When you’re planning to cross this many borders the difference between careful, concise planning, and ’sorting it out when you get there’ becomes a critical distinction between making it, versus getting stuck half way and requiring an extensive lesson in bureaucracy as your local consulate or embassy attempts to bail you out.
Worse still, if you find yourself travelling through a country which provides a visa on entry, only to discover that the next country on your list requires a pre-approved visa (in other words, you should have sent your passport to the embassy or consulate before you left), you’ll then be forced to either backtrack (assuming you haven’t already outstayed your welcome), or be stuck in the country without a valid visa, which is step one of a three step process - two and three being ‘placed under arrested’ and ‘deported’, in that order.
Greece
We start from Greece which, in terms of visas, is a nice hassle free country. As I will be travelling on my UK/EU passport, and Edward will be travelling on his Canadian passport, no visas are required during our stay. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs allows both of us to stay in Greece for up to 90 days without acquiring a visa. This makes the beginning of our trip a good deal easier. These rules apply to most citizens of the western world.
Turkey
Turkey is the first country on our list that requires both a visa, and a fee to obtain it. Like Greece, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs allows us to stay for a total of 90 days. There appears to be some disdain for Canadians, however, as although the entry fee for a UK/EU citizen is a paltry $20, Canadians are allowed entry for the less trivial sum of $60 - three times that of the former. Both of these visas can be obtained at any border crossing, and all you have to do is hand over your passport for a few minutes.
Syria
Understanding the Syrian visa system is much like how I would imagine being transported back in time to be. The closest thing to an official visa information site is the Syrian Ministry of Tourism, who spell the number two, as ‘tow’.
Syria is the first of our two pre-approved visa countries, and as such we’ll be required to send our passports to the Syrian Embassy in Ottawa, Canada. By far the most expensive visa on the list, the Syrian visa will set us back a not-so-modest $141 each, and while it allows us multiple entry, it only lasts for a total of 15 days, and must be used within 6 months of issuance. We may then apply for an extension at the visa office in Damascus, for another 15 days.
A couple of notes about Syria: ladies, I’m afraid you’re out of luck - unless you’re over 35 or accompanied by a male family member, you’re not getting in (so they say). Secondly, the usual Israeli visa stamp rules apply. This means that if you’ve set foot in Israel, at any point in time, you’re not getting in either.
I have to do a little more research regarding entering and exiting the country and it’s affect on our viable duration, so if anyone has any information about Syria, I’d love to know. Which brings us to….
Lebanon
Sometimes called the Paris or Switzerland of the Middle East, Lebanon has a long reputation in the west of being somewhere you probably don’t want to go. This is a fairly general point of view, usually shared exclusively by people who have never been. As always, you never know if you don’t go, so we’ve opted to pick our visas up at the border of Lebanon and Syria. Lebanon’s visa laws are fairly lax, with the exception of the usual Israeli passport stamp considerations which it shares with Syria. A lebanese visa will set you back $15 for 15 days, and 90 days will cost you around $35. The Lebanese Security website makes this issue a good deal more confusing, as they list three different types instead of two, and with altogether different rules.
Jordan
So we come to the Kingdom of Jordan, a country of veiled mystery. We’re not sure what’s there other than Petra and the Dead Sea, so obviously it’s time to find out. Jordanian visas are cheap-and-cheerful, and can be obtained at the border for only $14 each for single entry, $30 for multiple. The Jordanian visa appears to remain valid for 30 days, and unless there’s floating cities and magic flasks, a month in Jordan should prove to be more than enough to see the country. Noteworthy addendum: You will be charged a $7 tax for leaving the kingdom at all border points.
Egypt
In order to get to Egypt, we cross the Red Sea from Jordan. The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is virtually no use at all, and for such a popular tourist destination I was quite surprised at how difficult it is to find reliable visa information for Egypt. What I did find out, though, was that Egypt charges different fees for different nationalities, with each source giving a different price - anywhere from $15 to $80. I’m told that it’s roughly $20 to $25, so we’ll just have to hope for the best.
• Edits: Don’t ever stick your visa stamps in yourself once you’ve bought them, let the immigration officials do it (thanks to Heather McKay)!
India
The land of India is the second of our two preapproved visa countries. There is a whole array of options when it comes to Indian tourism visas, the minimum being 6 months for $60, and maximum as five years for $200 (bargain). We chose the middle ground - one year for $100, simply because it’ll take us so long to actually get to the country in the first place and the validity of the visa begins on the date of issue. Because of this, we’ll be sending our passports off to the embassy (again, in Ottawa) as the last thing we do before we leave Canada. Everyone needs a visa to enter india.
Additionally, I especially enjoyed their all-caps usage of the word ‘entertain‘ in it’s original context: “ALL ENQUIRIES REGARDING VISA AND OTHER CONSULAR MATTERS WILL BE ENTERTAINED BETWEEN 1530 TO 1730 HRS ONLY” (my emphasis).
Nepal
By far the most interesting of the list, the Nepalese visa information was actually remarkably easy to find - it’s just that the whole site is written in legalese!
Fortunately, their tourism site is a little friendlier. Nepalese visas can be obtained on the border of India and Nepal, and will set you back $30 for 60 days - plenty of time to trek around and chill with the locals (literally). What makes Nepal exceptionally noteworthy, however, is that anyone can become a resident of Nepal. That’s right, you heard correctly. Anyone who wishes to live permanently in Nepal can do so by paying an initial fee of $200, and then $100 for each subsequent year. That’s what I call a backup plan.
Thailand
The Thai visa is getting increasingly more complicated. Several years ago, they restricted annual visa validity to 90 days per 180 days, at 30 days a time. This change required anyone wishing to stay longer than 30 days to do the classic ‘thai border run’, and hop over into a neighbouring country for a day to renew their visa, every 30 days for a total of 90 days (as opposed to indefinitely). Sure, easy enough - except that in December 2008, they passed a new regulation that drops that 30 days to a rather anemic 15 days. Not to be straightforward, they’ve also taken this one step further and done away with the 180 day limit, meaning you can now (theoretically) do unlimited visa runs. It seems far too early to tell how this is going to play out, or whether they’ll change it again before we leave, so this is another one to file under “we’ll see when we get there”. The fee is allegedly about $30 per visa.
• Edits: On arrival via air, visitors are granted a 30 day, no fee entry (thanks go to @nomad_chicken and cityrat).
Laos
Frequently referred to as the ‘new thailand’, Laos will give you a 30-day, non-extendable visa on arrival in exchange for roughly $30-$40, depending on your nationality. Like thailand, much of the information currently available is conflicting, out of date, or inaccurate. If anyone happens to know the latest on Laos visas, do tell me.
Cambodia
Surprisingly, Cambodia is somewhat ahead of the curve, having discovered that the internet can be a useful tool, and has started to issue e-visas. An E-Visa will cost you $20, plus a $5 processing fee. However, not all borders support E-Visa yet, so do check before you fork over $25. Interestingly, they support paypal as a payment method. I wonder if you get buyer-protection. E-Visa will give you a validity of 90 days from your date of entry. Otherwise, you can obtain a visa on arrival, the old fashioned way.
Finally, I’d like to mention Project Visa, a rather obscure site (doesn’t show up on most google searches) I found incredibly useful when I was researching this information. Some of the information is inaccurate or out-dated, but it’ll set you on the right path - and when it comes to travelling, that’s the only thing that matters.
Shot in the arm: Our first travel clinic visit.
By Jonathan Blake, Day -156 | January 22, 2009 | 7 Comments
The hefty, and indispensable IAMAT booklet, and a rough screenplay of my visit to the travel clinic.
Earlier this evening, I got shot in the arm.
Not with a bullet, but with vaccines for Typhoid and Hepatitis A (vivaxim), and Hepatitis B in my left and right arms respectively (although honestly, I’m beginning to wonder, given the sudden ineffectiveness of my left arm’s ability to do anything remotely practical). Whilst I would love to say that the process was the nightmarish clinical hell-ride that it’s frequently made out to be, my experience was quite the opposite.
This evening was the landmark event of our first travel clinic consultation (and to Edward ‘I-Hate-Needles‘ Wilson’s horror, the first set of our shots) at the Travel Medicine & Vaccination Center (site is down at time of writing) in Downtown Vancouver, BC. We arrived prompty at our scheduled time of 6pm and were immediately set to work filling out a rather comprehensive form detailing our previous vaccinations, travel plans, and various other grids of health related questions. It reminded me somehow of the car rental forms I filled out this weekend. Once complete, we were greeted by quite possibly the happiest doctor I’ve ever met, who showed us into her office to begin the consultation.
The initial introduction involved a highly interactive discussion about our travel plans (obviously) in an attempt to perform a basic risk-assessment of our trip. How long we’d be in each country, what time of year, and where we were going to be before and after, all played roles in the final decision making process that would lead her to developing a much needed plan for our survival.
The next stage was risk-management - in other words, since we’re not planning to travel around Africa, besides Egypt, what are the odds of us contracting Yellow Fever. These turned out to be remarkably low, so ol’ yellow jack was scratched off the list. We wouldn’t be travelling through the truly rural zones of South East Asia between May and December, so Japanese Encephalitis goes too (saving us roughly $300). Fortunately nobody saw the point in getting shot up with a Rabies vaccine, which is just aswell because such protection comes in at a hefty $550-$600. At that price, you can likely afford to buy your own asian bodyguards whilst you’re in the area - perhaps a wiser investment as it will protect you from both animals and people.
My new collection of (probably quite expensive) prescriptions, for Travellers Diarrhea, Altitude Sickness, and a almost year's worth of Malarial drugs.
After establishing the vaccination plan that both I and Ed would undergo for Typhoid, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B (two shots that evening, and two in the following months), the next item on the agenda was prescription drugs. We were initially prescribed 3 rounds of Azithromycin each, for travellers diarrhea (won’t that be fun), but given our duration of travel she thought better of it and further increased this to 4 rounds each. We mentioned our plans to trek up to Everest Base Camp in Nepal, and were subsequently written a prescription for 10 days worth of Acetazolamide each, to be taken in the event that one or both of us fall over with Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS), aka Altitude Sickness, as opposed to dying on a mountain (the other likely alternative).
Finally, after reviewing the large world map and considering the countries on our itinerary vs. malarial hotspots, we conceded that we may aswell rename “TransGlobal One: From Crete to Cambodia” to the equally catchy, “TransGlobal One: All Malaria, All the time”. Appropriately, we were prescribed 300 days worth of Doxycycline, my anti-malarial of choice. I hate to think how much space 300 gelcaps will take up in my bag, but I’d imagine it’s a rather negligible tradeoff when compared to catching malaria. Doxycycline is a tetracycline, that is - it’s technically an antibiotic. So it’s also useful for treating and/or preventing variety of other ailments, including but not limited to: E. Coli, Shigella, Lyme Disease, MRSA, Respiratory and Urinary Tract Infections (huzzah), Elephantitis-causing nematodes (worms), and last but not least - Acne. And just for fun, it’ll also protect you against Bubonic Plague (the Black Death that ravaged europe in the 17th century) and Anthrax.
This in mind I am quick to conclude that Doxycycline is not just an anti-malarial drug, it’s an anti-everything drug. With a possible exception being the Sun,which appears to be it’s only true weakness - the primary side-effect of Doxy is photosensitivity and photodermatitis (sensitivity to the sun, extra-proneness to sunburn, heatstroke, etc). So remember carefully - if you need to outwit somebody on your travels who is taking Doxycycline, use the Sun or a large Sun-mimicking lightbulb (doesn’t everyone carry one of those backpacking these days?) and hope that they are within the 10% of prescriptees who suffer from this uncomfortable side effect. Hopefully, I won’t be one of them. I count my lucky stars that we won’t be taking Doxycycline in the deserts of the Middle East.
The shots themselves were actually rather trivial, and as true as it may be that they were the least pinching of any injection I’ve had prior, my right arm is quite sore, my left arm feels like I failed to listen in primary school during one of those classic ‘Hey kids, don’t stick your arm out of a moving vehicle!” VHS tapes. If I wasn’t writing this, I would be tucked away cosily in bed, hoping to sleep off the potentially miserable combination of typhoid-and-hepatitis vaccine symptoms I was warned about earlier in the evening.
The whole interview lasted roughly 30-45 minutes, and during this time we were also forced to accept the fact that other than arbitrary time estimates, we really had no idea exactly how long we planned to stay in each country on our itinerary.
Thankfully, our doctor was wonderfully understanding, and she decided to ensure that we’d be OK, no matter what we did - as long as it doesn’t involve ending up in Africa or South America. Sure, we said, we don’t plan on going there yet anyway - that’s another trip altogether.
Adventures in Customer Service
By Edward Wilson, Day -157 | January 21, 2009 | 2 Comments
The trip down to Portland this last weekend was primarily to pick up our mystery ranch bags. Well, that and to give us as test run on what it’s actually like for us to travel together. A resounding success on both accounts.
The CBMR back packs are, of course, the central components of our travel gear and our research had already convinced us that these were the bags for us. What I hadn’t known before hand was how pleasant the company was to deal with but that requires a little context.
Originally Jon and I were getting them from a tactical supply company, botach tactical, for a sum total savings of $100. We even went so far as to place our order with them. Then we heard nothing for longer than a week. The company didn’t answer their phones or reply to emails. This wasn’t going to work for us. When you drop four figures on gear you absolutely need, you want some assurances that you are getting what you pay for and promptly.
An evening walk on the Sea Wall and we decided we’d have to cancel the order somehow and buy direct from mystery ranch. A call to my credit company confirmed that the payment was pending but not posted. We were left in this bizarre limbo where we didn’t have our purchase or the money to buy else where. You can’t even dispute the charges until they are posted, when they are pending the money is just stuck.
I emailed botach again, this time asking for them to cancel the order rather than explain the delay. I kept phoning. Mainly I got a voice mail telling me to call back during their business hours, during their business hours. The next day instead of a machine I got, “Hold please,” and left on the line in a soundless void indefinitely.
After the second or third hold hell, I phoned my credit card company to take more agressive action and I discovered that the pending charge had vanished like it never existed. Good enough for me. Botach didn’t even inform us of this order cancellation until several days later. I would never ever order anything through Botach again.
Buying direct from Mystery Ranch was an utterly different experience. Their website was well designed and using their online checkout was simple. It even included a comment box that we filled with special requests, like getting the Manticore in black. We placed the order with the cheapest and slowest shipping possible.
In the middle of the night the next night while walking the Sea Wall, we decided to go down to Portland that weekend and that we’d need to expedite the shipping. I fired off an email. The next day I followed up with a phone call. I didn’t even finish telling him my name and he listed off my order, told me that they had made the bags in black, thrown in some extras and were bumping up the shipping so that we would get it when we needed it. The speed with which our order was made and shipped still boggles me.
Ed checks out his pack for the first time
I was so flabbergasted after the botach hell that I stuttered out a thanks and dropped off the phone, promptly forgetting the name of the person who assisted me. When we pulled into our friend Klint’s place we discovered that our bags were pretty much custom creations with significant upgrades, most of which we didn’t ask for, at no extra cost.
The service was good enough that I’ll be looking for excuses to deal with them again. That reminds me, I should phone them and tell them how pleased I am with the service and the product.
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