Why why why WHY??????????

Heading to an island

After an interesting experience at Din Dang, we headed south for an island. But first, a quick stop at Surat Thani for one night's stay and some hot showers! 

Pak Song photos....

Although it was a short stay, we had fun!

TCDF Eco-Logic and DinDang Natural Building

One of our big plans on this trip is to volunteer here and there.
We had big plans to jump from one volunteer place to another, but the realities of a tight schedule (surprising, given we'll be on the road for a year), allows us only a few, if we also want to see everything we planned to see.

So, first volunteer place off the ranks was DinDang Natural Building.
The project aims to teach the benefits of building with natural material, mainly local clay/mud, to the nearby community and the visitors.

We left Lang Suan on Tuesday, on the 9.30am bus, which would arrive Pak Song, the village where the project is located.
The project works on a Wednesday to Sunday work schedule, and us arriving on Tuesday would be barging in on their 'weekend'. We didn't want to do that, so it was time to look for options..

Photos from Lang Suan.....

Fun around Lang Suan....

Exploring the Lang Suan area

After a nice relaxing day yesterday, where we did very little, we felt the need to look around a bit today.
But there are no car rental places here, as far as we can tell.
How to get about?

Language barrier

As anyone who has travelled to a country where the official language differs from one's own have found, it can be a real challenge trying to get your point across sometimes.

For example, upon ordering breakfast, I requested 'no meat' in mine..

Bangkok to Lang Suan on an "Express Train". . . .

After 3 days in Bangkok, we took a night train to Lang Suan - No first class available on this train, only second class. The ticket clerk says 'recline seat' so how bad could it be....

Bangkok photos....

Here are some photos from Bangkok.....

Travel vaccines - Tick!

Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute (QSMI) is where we went for our travel vaccines in Bangkok. As mentioned in our previous blog entry, getting vaccines in Thailand was a lot cheaper. In total, it was just over $100 USD... (includes: yellow fever, Hep A, Japanese encephalitis, Polio (with Tetanus & Diphtheria), typhoid & influenza)

Getting Myanmar visa

Myanmar embassy in Bangkok

Checking out the backpacker central, Khao San Road.

Khao San Road - packed with backpackers

Our first stop - BANGkok!!!!

So our first stop is Bangkok, Thailand. We are planning to stay in Thailand for about 2 months including 2~3 weeks visit to Myanmar. In Thailand, we have a volunteer project down in Paksong, a friend's wedding in Koh Samui and some r&r in Chiang mai/Chiang rai :p

We were a little worried with the anti-government 'Bangkok shutdown',  so we decided to avoid all effected areas. We even downloaded the affected area map!

However........

Getting pre-paid sim in Thailand

Immediately on arrival in Bangkok, we needed to hook back into communications - both internet and phone. Promises to parents needed to be kept!

We did some research prior to departing, and knew there would be at least one prepaid sim booth at the arrivals area in the airport, so we headed there.

Flying with ANA - Tokyo to Bangkok

We love flying with ANA (All Nippon Airways). 

Their customer service is excellent and their food is good. So we had a high expectation for their business class service too. The business lounge was a bit of a disappointment for me.

The biggest struggle so far .... deciding what to pack (by Naomi)

Step 1. dump everything I want to bring on my bed....and panic.

Completed Rabies shot, yay!

We started our first Rabies shot on December 7th. The rabies shot is the only one we decided to do in Japan, since it requires at least 3 shots...(First time, one week later, 2-4 weeks from the first shot). 

The rest, we are going to get in Bangkok, our first stop. 

A lot of blog spots suggest getting travel vaccinations in Bangkok as it is way cheaper than elsewhere... So, we've done some comparison...

Preparation: Getting India Visa in Japan

Getting India Visa in Japan

Applying for India visa in Tokyo:

One more week to go!

Eurail pass has arrived today, woohoo!

Round the world ticket (RTW)

For our round the world tickets, we mainly looked into two RTW: Star Alliance and One World. There is also Skyteam but we decided not to pursue with it because the online planning tool was difficult to use (and it seems like it doesn't cover as many destination as the other two). 

Preparation: EuRail pass

One of the things we want to do on this trip is see lots of places in Europe.

We could fly here and there, but what's the charm in seeing a bunch of airports? They are all the same, high-priced food, BS security screenings, etc...

No thanks! 

We'll get enough airport time in without choosing more of them for Europe.

Trippin' for a year.....

Happy New Year! It's 2014. 

This year, we've decided to take a year off and travel around the world.

We wish you all a wonderful year ahead, stay tuned for our adventure :-) 

Big Island, Hawaii.

Testing an Agoda link