Advertisement
Published: November 30th 2009
Suomeksi vai enkuksi? In Finnish or in English? I think the answer is in English because there might be few people who don't want to read this in Finnish. And Bad English is the most spoken language in the world so I'll stick with it.
Well, the trip is now near and today got a bit more things to worry about. The Finnair is on strike again and not certain about the flights tomorrow... The flight is scheduled to leave at 8.15AM and the strike will continue until 10AM. Just saw from news that there is few cancelled flights already. And if the flight departs on time will the checked in luggage follow? Well, we'll see that tomorrow.
People have asked why I chose Thailand for the first destination of my trip. Because it's quite (and maybe too) common place to travel and I have been on some more "exotic locations" so why i din't continue on that course? Well, the answer is simple. Never been on this long trip on my own so I'd like to start from easy "target". And the fact is that those "exotic locations" have been pre-arranged package tours with very few possibilities to influence on anything. Just been a passenger and went where I have been taken. Exception is the trip to Cuba which was "real" backpacking but had friends with me and it's always easier to travel with people. And if I think Thailand is too crowded or Canary-Islands-like, I always have the option to go somewhere else.
People have been asking also about the plan for the trip and the plan is that there is no plan. Just some rough outlines. I will head first to koh tao (http://wikitravel.org/en/Ko_Tao) where I will do the PADI diving certificate. Or will try to do it... Don't have an idea how long I will stay there. There might still be the monsoon season going on so the waters might not be very clear now, so if the diving is not good there at this time I might head sooner from there. Or be there for some time. From there I'll probably head to South Thailand and possible destinations are Ko Tarutao (http://wikitravel.org/en/Ko_Tarutao) and Ko Libong (http://www.travelfish.org/location/thailand/southern_thailand/trang/ko_libong) where lives some very rare dugongs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dugong) which I'd like to see. From there I'll head to Northern Thailand and continue the trip to Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Not sure yet though how long i will stay in Thailand and do I have time to visit all those countries. Time will tell.
We Last few days have been very busy packing and arranging things and setting up the party also. And had nice party on Saturday, so thanks to everyone who was there! Will miss you! Everyone who has ever travelled with me, even just a weekend trip to summer cottage knows that I'm a serious overpacker and this trip is no exception... I can't understand how people are able to travel a full year with 10kg of luggage... All the camera gear doesn not make that task any easier... Once again I have full packback dedicated just to electronics... It's crazy to carry all that stuff around and I know it but I just can't go without... Though last summer I went to Madrid and had just small camera but the photos just suck and won't do it again. I borrowed a scale and decided to weight all my stuff and write it down. So here's all the stuff I'll take with me. I'm sure that there will be some very useless junk that i don't need, so you can try to quess which will be the most useless piece of stuff I have with me.
Camera bagpack:
Acer 3810 laptop + recharger, 2kg
Canon EOS-30D, 860g
Lenses: 20mm, 50mm, 105mm and 70-200m + flash, 2,2kg
Sony HDR-CX105 video camera + recharger, 550g
Batteries and othe small stuff and the bag, 2,1kg
Total 7,7kg
Big rucksack:
Books, 1,8kg (2 Lonely Planets and 1 Mondo Guide books + Jupiter's travels and Rhum Diary. Not sure if it's wise at all to carry that amount of books...)
Mozzie net, 270g (not sure if I need this eiter...)
Underwater camera case and diving goggles and snorkel, 950g
2 Maasai blankets that I bought from Tanzania and Kenya, one for sleeping and one as beach towel, 670g
500GB extra hard drive for backing up photos and videos, 250g
Turkish peppers and other salty liqorice. Some of them for souvenirs for Finnish diving instructors in Koh Tao Divers. Also some Fisherman's Friends for Fisu! Will get rid of this stuff quite soon, 940g
Shorts, shirts, gore tex jacket and some other stuff 3,2kg
T-shirts, boxers, socks. I have too many of these but don't want to travel with too few because I don't want to keep washing them every day... Of course I should by them from the location but Don't want to spend money on stuff that I already have 😊 Will replenish with local stuff if/when needed 2,4kg
A day pack filled with all kinds of small stuff like extra glasses, sun glasses, contact lenses and probably the most useless piece of equipment, a mini weather station 😊 I like to keep stats of the weather here in Finland and will do it on the road also, 2,7kg
Medikit, 950g. Should have plenty of meds.
Sneakers, trekking sandals, flip flops (or thongs as they say in Down Under) and the sucksack, 4kg.
Also gonna take my trekking boots (will wear them on the flights, not sure though if I go to do any trekking, but better to take them than leave them.) 1,6kg.
Rucksack total: ~18kg
Total 26,7kg.
Not a very pleasant amount to carry around... Read from a newspaper article about packbacking and it said that everything over 10kg is too much... Would really like to see the day when I'll travel that light... Would like to hear comments from fellow travellers what kind of amounts you carry on the road and what I miss and what's unnecessary extra?
Time to get some sleep now. On the next episode we will see did I arrive to same location as my gear and will hear the first impression of Thailand.
Over and out.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.087s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 9; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0525s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
trish
non-member comment
go for it
Hey there Pete, sounds like a great adventure - can't wait to hear what sort of things you lose along the way... make sure you get plently of pictures of those giant bugs...