Okay so the news was accepted and I have picked myself up and dusted myself off. I now needed a new plan to fill in what time I was going to be in Ethiopia with something else. The Elkins had said I was more than welcome to stay with them, but I think there is a time that your stay could be overdone and not that the Elkins live a conventional life anyway, it is their home, not mine and I had to let them get back to their routine. I had to find something else to fill my time till the end of November. I was always coming back to Australia on the 26th November. I was to be back in time for my birthday and the George Michael concert that is on the 27th November so I literally had 12 weeks.
Where the hell was I going to go?
I needed somewhere cheap, somewhere I could get to from Addis and some place, preferably, that I hadn’t been before. That was probably the hardest requirement, somewhere I hadn’t been before. I actually had to pull out a map and have a look at where I would be in relation to where I could go. I was saving some places to do in the coming years, 4 places that I have always had on the cards which I had on the list straight up. Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Burma. After looking at the brochures that I had got from Chermside due to cost I ruled out Burma and Bhutan quite early as they were around the 2,500 mark for 2 weeks and I really didn’t want to spend that kind of money and I think I would need more lead up time for those more ‘unusual’ countries on the list.
I needed a ticket back to Brisbane for my November visit, so I started with getting my international tickets from London to Brisbane via Singapore and use Singapore as my hub for my Asian gateway. There seemed to be a lot of flights that come and go from there and the cheap carriers also flew in there, so this was a great starting point. I was surprised I could find Qantas flights from London return for 1500AUD……returning me back to London on the 27th December in time to attend a wedding on the 28th of friends from my South American tour. Maybe I was just too busy to be in Addis at this time anyway??? Then the fun began with where I could fly to cheaply from Singapore and I was surprised on just how cheap the flights were.
Phuket came straight up as an option as I had been invited to a wedding there a few months ago but had declined on the fact that I would have only been in Addis for 3 weeks before I would have had to left again. Well I touched base with the bride and I was lucky enough to be re-instated on the wedding attendance list and I was back in. My first stop was going to be Thailand. I have been to Phuket before but I haven’t done the north with Chang-Mai and Chang-Rai and started to look at group tours of the country but I have to say, I have done the surrounding countries and to just tour Thailand didn’t sound that exciting to me and there seemed to be a lot of hiking which was also not up my alley, so I canned that idea and have decided to spend 11 nights sunning and cocktailing till Shelly, Shane, the girls and the Randall’s arrive in late September for us to hang out for 5 days over the course of the wedding celebrations. This was a great start and to see the girl’s faces when I told them I was now coming to Phuket was priceless. I also received an email from my brother and he and Karla will also be in Phuket for a week during my stay, so I will have some friendly faces to see and by the sounds of it some babysitting duties as well. Lucky my nephew Noah is a cutie xx.
Sri-Lanka was also on the list and that section just seemed to come together. Intrepid have tours running nearly every 2 weeks over that period that I was looking at, so this was going to be the flexible part of my plans as I had a wad of dates to choose from and it is one of those tours that will run with just one person, so no issues of it getting cancelled. I would prefer other people on the trip, but if not I get a very personal tour of the country for 2 weeks. There are 2 camping nights involved, but the rest are in guesthouses and hotels so I am really looking forward to this component as it has always been on my travel bucket list. I require a visa for Sri Lanka but it is like the USA visa’s now and is applied and paid for online and you get a confirmation number, so I will get around to doing that in the next few days.
Looking at a map, I looked at other Asian destinations that I hadn’t been to and the Philippines and North/South Korea came up on the radar. I don’t think that I was up for Korea, the South or the North come to think of it, but the Philippines looked tempting with Jetstar Asia flying that route for 160AUD return it made it that much more appealing. I have heard the beaches of the Philippines are spectacular and coming from 2 weeks in Phuket and surrounds it just makes sense to head to some more beaches I think. How many nights here will be based on what I book next and what dates those tours start but I will be in the capital for a few days and then head to Cebu or Boracay, which are supposed to be some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. I ideally I would have like to have done a tour here but the tours don’t seem to run over the second half of the year which makes me believe I am not there at the best time of year, but I will just make the best of whatever weather is thrown my way. I did see an Adventure World independent package that looked pretty good, so I may just book onto that that gives me 3 islands and Manila. I am excited about this destination.
My other ‘must’ destination was Nepal. I am not a trekker and I maybe the only person in the world that wants to go to this country that doesn’t want to climb Mt Everest and it was actually quite hard to find a tour that didn’t have Everest Base Camp or the Annapurna Trek in their itineraries. I am not a hiker or trekker, never have been and I am not about to start now. I did find a great overland tour with Intrepid for 16 days that encompassed the east of India and Nepal but with the days ticking by, when I looked into obtaining an Indian visa I wouldn’t have enough time here in Australia or in London to get one, so that ruled out that tour and I found instead a 100% 2 week tour of Nepal with a trek included. The only downside to this tour is there is 1.5 days of rafting in the itinerary. Same as trekking I am NOT a rafter either, not a small boat person actually, but after Ellen made the call to Intrepid there is no other way to get to the next stop without rafting, so I am going to suck it up, this is why we travel, and I will now sit in a raft for a day and a bit over 2-3 graded rapids. Apparently it is great for beginners; yeah well I will be the judge of that and report back to you all. The last time I was in a raft was 12 years ago when I did it in Austria on my first Contiki Tour. I am sure that will make an interesting blog entry….. I need a visa for Nepal but after checking the Consulates web site in London I will be able to get one issued within 48 hours. Since I don’t need to get an Ethiopian one beforehand now this shouldn’t be an issue and as a backup I can always get one in Bangkok and fly up for the day from Phuket. It was all too hard for the Indian visa process. The Nepal tour also runs with just one person, so hopefully there will be more than just me, but I don’t have to worry about cancelled tours…..
So that brings me to the 15 November and with promises and commitments to be back in Oz on the 26th November I have a week to work out what I am going to do. I can either come back to Australia early, head back to Ethiopia to make sure Zeme gets on the plane to come for his visit, hit London for the week or just chill in Singapore. This is the only thing I have left to sort out and I guess there is no immediate rush as it is for November. So all that was organized in 4 days. I did a lot of leg work myself so when I rang the office this morning I knew exactly what I wanted, times of flights, trip codes and costs. I rekon I would have made a great travel agent!!!!! So thanks to Ellen who got onto it all for me today with booking the tours and checking some of the flights. I hope to get it all tidied up tomorrow and then I will know exactly where and what I will be doing for the next 3 months.
That brings me back to Australia in November where I will be home for 4 weeks and then I will fly back to the UK for a week for a wedding in London and New Year’s Eve and then a flight from London back to Ethiopia for the 4th time and hopefully final time, well for a while anyway.
My next 4 months in overview:
9 August-01 September UK and Scotland
01 September-11 September Ethiopia
11 September-27 September Phuket
27 September-14 October Sri Lanka
14 October-24 October Philippines
24 October-14 November Nepal
14 November-26 November **TBA**
26 November-27 December Brisbane, Australia
27 December-06 January UK, London
Not a bad little itinerary if I say so myself……..
So another classic example of the silver lining to a grey grey cloud. I can’t complain and it will help pass the time till I get to see Zeme in November before my move to Ethiopia in January. The timings between seeing Zeme doesn’t seem so bad after this last stint of nearly 6 months, a walk in the park and a fresh start to a fresh year.
Super duper jealous xxx
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