travel essentials
Ok so here we go with our travel journal/blog. Just before we get started, a little word of warning. I’m afraid to say that grammar is not my strong suit; I dropped out of school as soon as I possibly could. My hope is that you can see passed the obvious grammatical errors and enjoy our experiences without throwing your hands up in frustration. Thanks for your patience.
We had hoped to be heading away for three months, but circumstances have dedicated that this trip is only three weeks. Never mind we are going to kick back, relax and pretend that we have completely checked out. Actually one of us has. I finished work last Friday and for the first time in a very long time find myself without any form of income. Julie is going to continue working into the New Year, at which stage we hope to get our long-term travel plans well and truly underway.
This trip has us heading to Singapore (just for one night), Chiang Mai and Siem Reap. We will be challenging ourselves in a number of ways including staying in a complete stranger’s home, courtesy of our stab at using Airbnb. Undertaking my first ever yoga class and getting down and dirty with the elephants at the Elephant Nature Park, where we are volunteering for a week. Julie will be staying on to work at the dog sanctuary at the same venue whilst I return to Chiang Mai to watch the world go by. We are also hoping to spend some time working with Buddhist Monks in the local community in Siem Reap.
After spending the last 20 years working for such tech giants as Apple, Toshiba and Belkin, I’m hoping to detox from the corporate world by the end of day one in Chiang Mai. Julie’s daily work calendar has seen her running/attending between 5 – 15 meetings a day for the last few months for a global telco. On top of this we have been challenged with illness in the family locally and back in the motherland. We need this break more than anybody could possibly believe.
The first big wake up call is that my size 10 shoes take up a bucket load of room in a 38 litre backpack. We had been hoping to just have carry on luggage but rather than stress ourselves out we have succumbed to traveling like the majority of folk. I’m starting to think that long-term travel with a 38 litre pack is going to be out of the question for a 6’3” guy. We are also bringing a bucket load of medication & toiletries due to fact that we don’t want waste any of the three weeks having to shop for essentials.
One of the perks of having worked for overseas companies is that the many work flights have rewarded me with Gold status and lounge access for the next 12 months. I have this reoccurring nightmare of checking in for a flight one day and have my Gold card taken off me and cut up in front of the waiting queue. One day the nightmare will come true, in the meantime this test run started off in the Koru Lounge in Auckland with free beer, free food and free wireless access. Air New Zealand is a great airline, fantastic team both in the air and on the ground.
We have done more research for this trip that all our holiday’s combined ever. Trip Advisor, travel blogs and word of mouth have becomes our go to sources. You could drown in the sea of information that is now available to travellers. There are opinions after opinions on where to stay, where to visit, where to eat, where to drink. I’m sure the only thing missing is a review on where to die. The star rating system could be replaced with coffins as a guide. One coffin – avoid like the plague, Two coffin’s – up and coming, Three coffin’s – total paradise…. Getting hold of reviewers would need to help of a medium and an Ouija board.
Sifting through the maze of information is all about picking a blog or two that specialize on a region that you are looking to visit. Finding an activity and take a good look at the reviews. The key here is to look at how many reviews a reviewer has posted, just one or two is a bit of red flag to us. Try and dismiss the top and bottom reviews. Look for reviewers who share the same values as you.
After much research Julie choose the Elephant Nature Park, Phra Sing, because they treat the elephants with care and respect; you are not allowed to ride the elephants. You are there to take care of the facilities and provide safe haven for these gorgeous animals. They also run an abandoned dog sanctuary, which will give Julie her dog fix for a week.
Talking to somebody who had recently travelled to Chiang Mai to a different reserve. They found out that the same elephants were being used buy two different companies, one where they were treated with kindness and the other where they were beaten on a regular basis, it pays to dig a little deeper.
Trawling through one or two travel blogs has sparked an interest in visiting the White Temple at Chiang Rai. May have to do this on my own for a night or two.
In Siem Reap we are staying at a small yoga & meditation resort. Yoga classes in the morning and evening, an opportunity to do some volunteer work in the local community during the day and also time out to visit Angkor Wat. Certainly not happy to hear this past week that a Kiwi woman had been arrested for damaging statues of Buddha at different temples at Angkor Wat.
Julie is concerned that I may find the yoga a little hard going. I’m concerned that I may not want to leave the place and may have to be dragged back to New Zealand kicking and screaming.