Archive of July 2008
Almost... there!
It's pretty unbelievable really. Seems like everything is coming together quite nicely. All the preparation work is really paying off as I am still stress free about the entire trip.It's weird. I never thought about it this way, but traveling is very much like everything else in the world. The more you do it, the better you get at it. I may be a bit cocky about it, but i honestly feel like i have everything under control.
The number of donations is great! And I think there are still some more last minute donations that I will be expecting on Thursday and Friday. So far, there is one suitcase filled with donations. There is a possibility where the donations may spill into a second suitcase.
I realized today that while volunteering in Chiang Rai, I will have every Sunday "off" to do what I please. This is exciting as I am not entirely sure what adventures I will be trying to get myself into on my days off. I cannot wait!
This week I registered for classes. I will actually be scheduled to go into class the very day that I arrive from my trip.I am looking forward to going back to school. Taking the summer off is great, but I can definitely feel that its time to get back into the swing of things and back to classes.
Just a week to go!
It's hard to believe my trip is just a week away!
Suprisingly, I am feeling fairly relaxed about the whole thing. I guess all of the planning and preparation is paying off. I know the things that need to get done and I know I've left myself a lot of time to do it. A great tip that I've learned is to do the little things over time and not let it all bunch up. Space out all that you need to get done over time and things will just be so much smoother!
Packing list helps a lot, and planning out the little details made me feel more comfortable about what would be going on. I am starting to get very excited! I cannot wait to walk into the orphanage and play with the kids and show them all of the donations I've been able to collect so far.
Reading List
For my upcoming trip, I am planning on bringing some books along to fill in the downtime. I do not want to bring too many, as I do not want to get so caught up in the books that I miss out on some great experiences, but since I will be spending well over 48 hours of travel time alone, I think some good books could really be helpful.
While it may be a bit of a cliche, I have a bit of a theme for the books I've chosen so far. The theme is something along the lines of "Traveling and how it changes you". Comparing and contrasting past journeys and experiences to those of my own.
The first book on my list, is The Motorcycle Diaries. The book is about Che Guevara's travels through South America during his youth and the ways that it changed his view of life, poverty and the "South American" way of life. His itinerary is one that I would love to one day imitate.
While The Motorcycle Diaries follows the story of a man traveling throughout South America, Into The Wild follows a man traveling throughout North America. Watching the movie and doing some research on Christopher McCandless, I've really fallen in love with his story of adventure and tragedy.
I would like to bring two more paper-backs though I am not sure which ones. Suggestions would be most welcome! I would like to pick two more books that fit my little theme, though I would be happy to venture off the theme for a strong recommendation. If i cannot pick something, I may default to (how lame am I, picking books that have movies based on them) and maybe another book by Paulo Coelho (no movies, yet!).
Doi Hua Mae Kham
...Planes
Phew!
Wow... I can finally breathe! I've been so busy lately, wrapped up in so many little things here and there...
Trip Planning!
Since my little endeavor is, after all, a volunteering trip, it is very important to me that i keep costs incredibly low. Including the airfare. Ultimately, my destination is Chiang Rai, but tickets from Boston straight to Chiang Rai was very pricey ~ $1900-$2100. Using I was able to find a flight from Boston to Bangkok for roughly $1500. I have to admit, that two or three weeks prior to me purchasing the tickets, the airfare was around ~$1200. I suppose the high oil prices are to blame? Regardless, I decided it was best for me to buy right away and not waste too much time shopping around, as the airfare was liable to go up yet again.
Okay, so I make my way to Bangkok, almost there, but not my ultimate destination. This is where AirAsia comes in. Small Asian airline that services all of East Asia and Australia. I scored tickets from Bangkok to Chiang Rai for around 64 bucks after taxes and it includes travel insurance. Both tickets together was still cheaper than the original prices I saw for $1900-$2100.
Now, after the fact, I wonder if it would have of been a better idea for me to fly into somewhere else in Asia and get a cheap ticket through AirAsia to Chiang Rai, though I do hear that lots of travelers use Bangkok as their hub in Asia.
With the tickets I ended up purchasing, I will be flying out of Boston on August 2nd, connecting in Chicago and then Tokyo and Finally to Bangkok where I will catch a plane to Chiang Rai the following day. I will be leaving Bangkok on September 1st, having the reverse connections back to Boston, with the exception of switching out Chicago for Washington DC. The totals...27 hours and 50 minutes of travel time on the way there and 25 hours and 5 minutes on the way back, both including layover time.
Another tip I'd like to throw out there, is a website called TripIt. This site is great! It does everything I used to do when planning trips by hand, but it does it Automatically. I am pretty much using the website to plan out my entire trip. Comes August 2nd, I will have my entire trip printed off of this website to make sure things go as smoothly as they will.