'Digg' and travel inspiration

I was trying to get some extra tech on my blog and decided to add 'Digg' to try and generate some site traffic. Almost instantly, while adding my own blog to 'travel and places', I came across something which shows the value of putting your site out there for others to see, and getting involved in social media sites. Take a look at this...

This is photography done by a guy called Michael Hughes who took his first 'souvenirs in perspective' photo when he realised he was standing in the same position as photographer who had published a postcard he had purchased for his daughter. You can see more of his work HERE.

meeting STA

I hate photos that feature... me; so after yesterdays little meeting of World travellers I thought I'd take the opportunity to upload a photo of Molly (left) and Juliette (right), of STA travel buzz fame, before the group photo of me appears anywhere! This photo was taken after the beer / cider had already taken its toll!

We had a really good day overall (except one very disappointing visit to Bershka - why are baggy jeans not sold anymore?!). We went to the travelbuzz office, met Molly and Juliette as well as some other travellers who are also going to be writing about their experiences of STA and their world travels - Alreet guys!

At the office we kicked back to watch a slick presentation (found HERE) about 'social media' and all that it encompasses, debating some of the finer points whilst eating, and drinking, all the provided snacks and beer we could. After the business was out of the way we went into Covent garden to a lovely little pub to get to know each other better with the social lubrication that is cider! Everyone was friendly and relaxed which helped us to have a really nice afternoon / evening - Sorry you couldn't come George... Maybe after we all get back we can meet up again?!

A quick goodbye (and hello to an old New Yorker who says we MUST visit lower broadway to watch some jazzz - all the young people like jazz nowadays don't they? well don't we?!), speedy underground journey and dash across Euston station and we were on our way home to Birmingham - 3 weeks of work - 6 weeks until flying time!

This photo turned up. Steven + Sun light = sad face.

This one = happiness!

first stop: New York!

Its finally starting to sink in that we'll be leaving in around 50 days... which seems crazy 'cos we've been planning this baby for 12 months! All the preparation is practically finished (injections on the way - ouch!) so we got to start thinking about what we're going to do once we arrive in our first destination... N Y C! Its a huge MASSIVE city with literally thousands of places to eat, drink and tour; so what do we do?!

Statue of Liberty: An obvious must see... if not only for a foam head 'crown'

Time Square: The bright lights of New York... surely one of the most famous scenes in the city?!

Broadway: Hundreds of shows; Heard 'Wicked' is really good, The classic 'Rent' or even The lion King... too many to choose from but definitely how at least one evening will be spent!

All night diner: The NYC equivalent of a dirty kebab?

Sex Museum: We've visited the one in Amsterdam... would be rude to not play a bit of spot the difference!

Basketball game / Baseball game: Knicks or the Yankees... or possibly both; not just a New York must see but an American must do!

and finally; Fifth Avenue: Shopping, celeb spotting, eating out... 'nuff said!

travel (non)essentials

Forget about what you should take away when you set off on your travels, think about what you really want and can't live without! Below is a list of all the things that I will be taking with me that probably could be left behind in the name of extra space (and less weight)!

• ipod: This one probably will make most peoples essential lists; and probably doesn't really take up enough room to warrant being left behind... its the iPod Classic (80GB). Bought for the bargain price of £140 from Ebuyer the iPod is going to provide me with entertainment on all those LONG journeys en route to all the places that we're going to visit. It'll hold music, video, games, podcasts, audio books and photos (if you activate the hard disc drive mode through itunes - it stores full quality copies of the photos). It'll take a bit of filling but thats what the next 12 months are for!
• NDS: Probably a less popular travel choice here (little bit geeky...) but the Nintendo DS is another gadget that I'll be taking along on my travels. As well as playing LOADS of excellent games it can also surf the web - allowing me to hopefully access my blog for a bit of impromptu updating on a tiny almost useless touch screen keyboard - when I can find free wifi access!
• Clippers: A little bit more obscure... I'll be taking along my wireless hair clippers - good for shaving my head and my face and therefore preventing any hairy-hippy-traveller-itis from occurring - maybe I can make a bit of money cutting peoples hair as well!!
• Sketch pad: I'm sh!t at art but having a few months 'off' regular life its inevitable that there will be LONG periods of time which will need to be filled between exciting (and expensive) activities. So I thought why shouldn't I take up drawing... I used to enjoy it when I was young so maybe I'll find my calling in life and sell a picture for a few million quid!

That wraps up the extra little items I'll be taking along to help make my trip go smoothly... probably unnecessary but they won't be being left behind; unless anyone can give me a good reason to?!

forums...

There are loads of forums online so I created a 'free' ad-riddled forum for our use... Get over there and share hints and tips or just ask us questions about our trip and its planning! Might be quite cool for people to catch up with us more directly while we're away!

Click HERE, sign up and get posting!

'The List'

Hi,

So Steve introduced me to this blog today so I thought I should start to get posting asap.
As the day we fly off travelling gets closer and closer Steve and I have been chatting about the finer details of what we might do when we get away. I came up with an idea of maybe putting together a list of say....20 things we could aim to do whilst travelling, which could be described as 'life experiences'. Things you would normally not get to do. To me this seems like a cool idea....just a way of making sure we do the things we really want to and dont leave anything out!!

So the list so far (and any ideas are definately welcome) includes:


1) Black Water Rafting - basically a step up from white water rafting, which involves you shooting down the water systems found in caves in some sort of rubber dinghy. All very safe stuff (hmmm!). NB: Sta travel insurance do include cover for this activity (pretty brave!), but you do have to apply for the top level of cover. Probably worth it tho knowing me and Steve.

2) Travelling to 'spider town' - an area known as Sukon in Cambodia, 75 miles from the capital. This town has a large population of turantulas, so they are regularly included in mealtimes (and are often bred to feed to curious travellers. Apparently the spiders taste great deep fried.....a little like chicken. Probably need to check vaccinations for this area of Cambodia as I believe its a little off the beaten track, the more rural the area, generally the more risk of disease.

Other than that we havent really had time to discuss any other additions to the list, but hopefully we will think of/add more soon.

So....watch this space!

Ady

...most importantly, the travel bag.

EVERYONE seemed to have a different idea about what I should buy when I was looking for my most important travel companion... the travel bag!

Forums, family and friends all offered advice about choosing a pack that fits well, was easy to pack / unpack, robust, blah blah blah! I basically wanted one that would hold a lot of stuff, not hurt my back and wasn't too inspired by the great outdoors (you know the type... the kind you'd see 'that' bloke wearing with his sandals and walking pole!).

I think the best places to go for 'professional' advice would be the outdoor shops themselves. Most of the ones I visited seemed to have their own expert on hiking, trekking etc. Probably the most useful was a guy in Blacks (Birmingham, Bull Street) who had a VERY enthusiastic love of all things travel... telling me about back support, moulded waist straps, ultra light weight materials etc; he was closely matched in knowledge, but out done on by personality, by a lovely woman in Millets (Birmingham, Union Street). My only problem with these guys is they all seemed to have their favourite brand which they would encourage you to buy (or rather, probably, their managers wanted you to buy). In defence of the outdoor shop sales people... 2 of the shops did agree that Osprey were the BEST choice for trekking bags due to their light weight and excellent comfort levels. This brand does appear to be the most expensive though so shop around!

My solution to this was to head back up north for the weekend and talk to a friendly (and probably useless) geordie for help and advice. As expected the assistant in Tiso (Newcastle, Grainger St.) showed me backpacks, travel packs and a few other alternatives; basically he told me that I'd probably only need a really expensive rucksack if I was going to be doing a lot of trekking (which I don't think I am!) and so a one of the wheeled alternatives (pleasing both my sister and various friends who SWORE that wheels are millions times easier to deal with than rucksacks) would be a much better option. In the end I purchased (thanks Mam and Dad) the Wheeled berghaus Jalen 70 + 15 (pictured). This pack has a detachable rucksack on the front, a separate pocket at the bottom for sleeping bags / shoes etc and a massive main compartment that can be fully unzipped making packing much easier. As well as the excellent wheels it also has a full Berghaus Biofit back system which zips away under a flap for easier airport check-in! Job Done (also worth noting that if you buy a pack and something else such as a sleeping bag from TISO you get 15% discount...if you ASK)!

the fine details of booking flights

When Ady and myself first decided to go travelling it was a bit of a random decision; more of a way to escape working life and do something different than embrace all the World had to offer.

After various discussions we had a BIG list of countries we'd love to squeeze in and an appointment to visit STA in Birmingham to reign us in to what we could actually manage! The lucky travel agent / Tour operator / STA agent person in question was Dawn from the Birmingham uni branch (Thankyou!). She took the time (2 hours I think?!) to tell us about all the available options for RTW tickets that were available and advised us which would be best to satisfy our needs; it turned our that satisfying our needs required us to alter our (over ambitious) needs but we were able to get there in the end.

Booking with Quantas we ended up with the following flights:

• [London, Heathrow to New York, JFK]
• [LA, Tom Bradley to Fiji, Nadi ]
• [Fiji, Nadi to NZ, Auckland]
• [NZ, Christchurch to AUS, Melbourne Int]
• [AUS, Cairns to Singapore, Changi]
• [Thailand, Bangkok to Hong Kong, International]
• [Hong Kong, International to London, Heathrow]

Its worth noting that when booking flights you can usually only book 12 months in advance; this meant that we had to put through preliminary dates all within within the next 9 months or so but STA offer the chance to revise these dates (without extra charge) once flights become available; allowing you the flexibility to book your flights and get the money part out of the way but then sort the exact dates later on.

After you have made the initial booking you have 60(ish) days to pay the balance of the flights; during this time the taxes can change, and so the price can rise or fall. To help us out Dawn kindly re-booked the flights approx. 2 weeks after our first booking which gave us extra time to pay - very useful when you're waiting for the wages to role in. The flights came in at a cool £1480 (a huge chunk of which seems to be tax and apparantly will keep rising - carbon emission taxes / higher oil prices etc!) and will allow us to directly visit the USA, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, Thailand and Hong Kong; although whilst in east Asia we're hoping to do our own thing for a few months and squeeze in a few more countries.