Singapore and Malaysia served as a good introduction so far for Asia. Singapore is a huge spectacularly clean and modern city with lavish air conditioned malls all over the place. Even on the shuttle from the airport to my hostel it made an impact after coming from a rather autumnal Australia. Firstly the humidity, even arriving at 11pm it was almost suffocating in the humidity, especially in the jeans I was wearing! Then you have the sky scrappers, so many and so many more being built all the time, and many are rather oddly shapped, including one which has a building that looked like a boat spanning the top of 3 skyscrapers!
So I have under 3 weeks until I’m off on a 7 month trip around the world on my own, with just a few friends who I’ve met for a few days on past adventures to visit along the way. If you’ve never been travelling alone before I guess that sounds quite daunting, but having spent 2 and half months travelling North America in the summer of 2009 it doesn’t feel like such a big deal. At least not yet anyway.
So how do you go about planning for such a trip? There are various things you need to be aware of and prepare for, the most important are obviously are those that concern money and health. Being properly vaccinated and having the right medication as required is obviously really important, and anyone going on a trip to places which aren’t anything other than the most developed countries you are likely to need some vaccinations. I’ve had to have a Hepatitis A vaccination at the doctors, and also got to go to a private clinic to get a Yellow Fever vaccination for travelling in South America. It’s also not 100% clear if I need malaria tablets for my time in South America, I’ll be getting clarification when I go to get my Yellow Fever vaccination. Additionally good travel insurance is to be blunt a pain in the arse to find. In the end I’ve got mine from Essential Travel and works out at £160 for 7 months, which is pretty reasonable and seems to have good coverage on the key factors. However you only ever find out if these insurance companies are worth while when you need to claim. Here’s hoping I don’t have to find out. Read the rest of this entry »
So for a while I’ve been planning to do some more serious travelling. Ever since I got back from America last summer I’ve had the urge to get back on a plane at the first possible opportunity. During that time I’ve gone from wanting taking a short break in Europe visiting 3 or 4 cities to a rather ambitious 6 month plus trip across the Southern Hemisphere! Read the rest of this entry »
Cities I’ve Visited