Deciding & Prep

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Hey all,
So iv been trying to find a blog or book or something to help with both what to do and expect traveling to oz for a year and also the prep work thats involved. After spending what seems like 20 years trying to get the info i wanted i have decided to create my own blog as both a record of what was decided on and to maybe help people with their plans. Ok so from the beginning...............

After meeting my girlfriend Melissa ( most beautiful woman in the world 😉 ) about a year ago i was in the process of buying my first house. Once finalised and all the hassle of a mortgage we were talking about things we wished we had done and would like to do. I mentioned that i had always wanted to travel to oz or america for a year and just see the world once but now i had decided to more or less settle with my new home etc............about 2 days later i was looking into how to financially travel and also keep my home going ( easier than you might think ). All that has to be done is
1- Decide to rent your house out for a year
2- Decide to quit your job
3- Figure out can you come up with enough money to travel in the next year!!

See-simple....hahaha

Then decide on where you want to go... we had half decided on america for 1 year and then maybe australia- quickly later after contact the USIT office in dublin i was told unless you were going as a stuent or just fininshed your degree you can only get a 3 month visa!
We almost immediatly forgot about America and decided on Australia with sometime in thailand, cambodia and vietnam...

After all that was decided to be done i did some research on how much i would need for traveling.. this doesnt seem to be explained properly on the net so hopefully this will give people some insight.

For flight from Ireland to Sydney you are looking at between 600 and 750 euro. if you are going for a year just book the cheapest flight you can find as you should be pretty flexible for travel time.

Our first week in sydney we decided to use oz intro, they seem like the best company to help you settle into oz " www.ozintro.com ". using oz intro they sort out your visa, bank account, phone, tax registration, jobs, tours etc. They also introduce you to different people who you will meet on your first week, accom for the first week, teach you to surf, show you loads of sights and it cost about €600 which i think is really worthwhile as it will be less hassle recovering from jetlag and dealing with homesickness etc

So thats your first week sorted, what about the rest!!!

For traveling around australia i have looked at loads of different tour guides. The most popular one seems to be oz experience " www.oxexperience.com " They do bus tours throughout the west coast. The biggest one is "the fair dunkuim " which is basicly everything included. this costs about $2700 which is about €1500. The trip takes a minimum of 2 months. Check out the website and contact them to find exactly what is included in that price.

For flights internally in australia and to and from Thailand im budgeting about €1000 MAX.
I plan on either getting some work in oz to pay for these flights! ( Oz intro help you get work )

For traveling around oz and thailand is completly up to what you want to do! I preferably want to travel for 6- 8 months without having to work ( if i decide i need to i will though ) So my aim is for €7,000 spending money. This is about €40 a day $80 approx which seems like more than enough to do it pretty comfortably.

So the amount aimed for to include:
travel money
flights
oz intro
tours
internal flights
insurance
travel equiptment

is ......... €10,000 ( a lot of people will say this is too much but i think if you want to do it without having to worry its about right, and if you get 10 grand together and dont use it all......happy days ) More money for when you get back to go looking for a new job, rent etc!! )

So- what am i bringing. I bought my back pack last week ( Even though im not going for about 6 months ) as i like to be well prepared. I bought a 65 litre backpack! In this i have enough room for plenty of clothes and the extra space left over- doesnt add up to too much space- will mean extra room for any new clothes etc i find i need! If you realise that the bag is too big when you get there then ust buy a new one and try sell he bigger one in one of the hostels or in a second hand clothes shop or somewhere! One mans rubbish is another mans gold!

So thats that so far! The main checklist you need is....

Clothes
Comfortable bag
Visa
bank account
passport
drivers license
other forms of ID
Money

All for now....will have more closer to travel date!!!

Dave

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