Tuesday 19 June 2012

The flights are booked - the Visas are a-rolling! (though Indian Visas suck!)

WOOP WOOP!

So on Saturday I finally dragged my arse into STA after cancelling last weekend because I 'wasn't ready' - really, I was just putting off spending so much money lol.

Everything had been sorted a couple of weeks ago, I'd set up my flight schedule and the Visa's I'd need and so Saturday was literally just booking everything, and handing over a-lotta dolla. Thankfully on Dad's credit card so he could claim air miles, then it meant it didn't have to come out of my account so soon and it was all covered - thanks daddy, can I owe it to you in 2 years time when I'm back for a bit?? hehe

So my final and detailed Itinerary (though some flights may change further down the line depending how long I want to extend my stay in each place):

29th October is the OFFICIAL LEAVING DATE! Woop!
London Heathrow - Muscat
30th Oct: Muscat - Delhi
Arrive Delhi 30th October at 2.20pm
         I then have 2 nights booked at Hotel Vanson Villa, New Delhi, for free (thanks STA!) to recuperate and get myself accustomed to Delhi. It will also give me time to find accommodation in Delhi for a bit and decide what I'm doing and where I'm going next. Then I'll be travelling as much of India as possible; Golden Triangle, Kerala, Goa, S.India. I'll be spending Diwali and Christmas in India probably, which will be interesting!
         I was also going to travel Nepal and Sri Lanka, but as the blog title states, Indian Visas are bloody ridiculously strict! It turns out, even if you get a multiple entry visa for 6 months (which in every other country would mean you can come and go so long as you leave the country after 6 months) if you leave the country, you aren't allowed to return within a 2 month gap!!! Unless you have special permission to do so, and you have to provide shit loads of evidence - eg: returning for an important flight. So I have to ring the embassy to check my options, perhaps it may just mean I can only do one or the other, as I do have to return for a booked flight out to Bangkok. So we'll see what the embassy say.

28th December 2012
Bombay (Mumbai) - Bangkok
Arrive Bangkok 7.40am 28th Dec
From here my plan is to do S.E Asia in a clockwise route. So it will be Northern Thailand for New Year, into Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and round to S.Thailand and all the Islands. I have a triple entry visa for Thailand at 60 days for each entry, so I will probably make one of my entries for the Thai New Year, Songkran, if I'm not there by then, then back out to wherever I was. From the Islands or Bangkok I'll then travel down to Malaysia and Singapore. From Singapore I've heard you can grab a return flight to Bali for a mere £50! Depending on how much time I have and how much money I have left, I'll then maybe travel Indonesia for a bit. But my luck will probably be that I run out of money and have to go over to Australia to work - hard life eh?

20th May 2013
Singapore - Melbourne
21st May 2013
Melbourne - Cairns
Arrive Cairns 21st May 1.05pm
From here my working holiday visa starts. As I will be entering Cairns in their Autumn/Winter (their winters are like 25degrees though still!) I will probably use the first 3-4 months to work solidly in Queensland and work up some cash so I can travel in the summer months. If you do farm work for 3 months, you can apply for a 2nd year visa, which is what I'm hoping for, as otherwise I'll be heading to New Zealand in their winter - not a wise move! It'll help me also as it'll mean I won't have to stress about money as I'll have another 6 months at least to work casually and see the parts of Aus I didn't get to see in my first year. I really want to see Queensland/Whitsundays, Darwin, Perth, the Outbacks/Urulu and Melbourne which will be my last stop before catching a flight to New Zealand! So will probably do it in an anti-clockwise route.

So this is my first round, which in total only came to £1500 - visas/multiflex pass etc included!! I don't want to think beyond this lot yet, as this is going to be enough to work out/research as it is. The next round will resurface when I'm out in Oz. It will be quite interesting looking back on these blog posts in a years time, to see how much my route will have changed!

I now just need to start researching India and S.E. Asia to figure out my route and what I want to see. Better go get some Lonely Planets!
Oh, and the vaccinations/Indian Visa/Australian Visa/Insurance/Backpack ... sigh ...

Xtina x

2 comments:

  1. Sounds Amazing! You'd better blog some pictures when you are there! :)

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  2. Of course! Plenty of Pictures will follow on here, and facebook of course! hehe xx

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