This trip to Thailand is Tiz and my "toe in the water" for the life I hope we can lead after Tiz has retired, which will occur towards the end of this year, if all goes according to plan.
We are aware that "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry" but we want to embark on lots of new adventures and without a plan to get on with we'd just be another pair of dreamers doing diddly-squat until the lights go out.
Thailand, this time around, is going to give us a fair idea of what it would be like travelling light and staying long term in other countries, some of which we are less than familiar with. That sentence has terms that should be explained.
Travelling light -
There is no metric for the word "light" but the way I have travelled in the past would not be even remotely considered as light.
Previously I have generally left packing to the last moment - 1st mistake.
Commonsense, which I lack in so many aspect, tells travellers to plan and pack early .... like Tiz. Tiz was packed 6 days before leaving. I'll do better than in the past, this time, by packing 24 hours before walking out the door, which is better than two hours, which is what I considered "early" in the past.
I always know what the temperature should be like but always pack three or four times more than I should, e.g. 6-8 t-shirts for a two week trip, shoes and runners and thongs and sandals for the same period, 6-8 pairs of undies, 3 pairs of shorts and 2 pairs of long pants get packed too. This is for a warm climate holiday. - 2nd mistake.
A warm climate requires a sensible person to take 2 short sleeved t-shirts, 1 long sleeved t-shirt, one pair of shorts, 1 light pair of pants, 3-4 undies, sandals and runners. Even that is for somewhere where you are not likely to be able to buy cheap clothes. *Note - if your travelling through Asia buying cheap unbranded clothes can help you blend in with locals, which is generally beneficial.*
My eldest Georgia Came to visit us, from her home in Vietnam, in early February. She left four years ago to travel the world with a professional 33 litre back pack, that I thinks could easily carry 20+ kg.
She got off the plane carrying her luggage which must have weighed less than 7 kg and was the size of a common plastic shopping bag. She commented that she had learned to travel light.
Child teaches parent. Brilliant!
Having said all that there is the elephant in the room, and for those that know me it comes as no surprise.
Without exception my electronic stuff, e.g. laptops (yes, plural) with external keyboard and mouse (I hate the inbuilt keyboard and mouse on every single laptop I have ever used, and so does Tiz), chargers of various sorts for various pieces of equipment, phone, various hard drives, adaptors, power boards, USB hubs/chargers, USB leads, spare USB leads .......etc. etc. always weigh 60-80% of my 15 kg.
This time the ratio may still be similar BUT there will be far less of everything, including electronic stuff.
..... that's the plan.
I will report on the success of my plan after we have left Australia.
Staying long term -
I think three months can be considered long term. For us it will be more a matter of what is allowable in the countries we are going to and how much we like it.
Other countries -
The information that we currently have leads us to believe that most countries we want to go to will allow a tourist visa for up to three months. Beyond that period it gets more difficult to stay.
As both Tiz and I will have Italian passports staying in EU countries for any length of time won't be a problem, but we want to try and limit it to 3 month blocks.
The current list includes a return to Thailand, Slovenia, Portugal, Costa Rica, Malaysia and hopefully many more.
We're flying Jetstar, mainly because the flight is shortish - 7hrs 40mins to Singapore, 2hrs stopover in Singapore and then 2hrs 25mins to Bangkok - and it's cheap. I don't think anyone would ever choose to fly Jetstar on a long haul flight unless there was no other choice or they absolutely had to spend as little as possible.
We leave at midday in Melbourne and get to Bangkok at 8:40pm.
Our villa in Cha Am looks as nice as you could possibly want without being ostentatious and it's close to everything we need. Here is a link to it. You will get to see more of it as the blog continues.
If you want a good look around Cha Am this YouTube clip is great to watch. It's 40mins long but a lot of it can be sped up without missing anything.
I think that's enough for now.
Welcome to our Thailand 2019 adventure.
We hope you enjoy it as much as we will.
Always remember that what you are reading here are my experiences and views, some of which you may not agree with or know of in a different light.
Take care,
Marino & Tiz
