Preparing China

Today we bought the Lonely Planet China, new edition, which is a "calhamaco" (portuguese) of thousand pages. We discussed a lot about buying this one, or the old edition (half price) or just print the chapters we wanted. After not finding where to print 300 pages on double face and double page per sheet, we decided for the book. And seeing the with the Olympics alot changed, better to have an edition post-Olympics.

Also we exchange our read books with One Man's Bible from Gao Xingjian, Literature Nobel Prize, exhilated in France. His books are not authorized in China, so we will have to hide it a bit on the backpack. Just as for the Lonely Planet because it lacks to say Taiwan is China.

Last Monday we bought the ferry tickets for tomorrow. It will be a 15hour navigation to Qindao, where we will catch a 5.5hour train to Beijing. Willing to buy Business class tickets, the lady in the port told us that it's men/women separated, so we upgraded to Royal class. It means we get a cabin just for us. Also in the boat, apart from eating, we can sing karaoke and go to public bath and sauna.

In Beijing, Saturday, we will meet our friend Anne, from Geneva (well, she is from South Africa, but as most of our friends, there is origin place and living place... actually, she lives in France with Giovanni, Italian boyfriend).

The Renminbi values about a tenth of a Euro, at 9.71 yuan/euro.

Our plan is to travel South along the East coast of China and go at same point to HongKong and then continue West direction of Vietname or Tibet.

What do you actually take with you?

I heard this question many times in the last few weeks. So, here you go, this is a picture of what I took with me (missing items: toiletry bag, trekking shoes, green pants, camera, small shoulder bag). All of it fitting in a 36 liter green backpack.

Life in boxes

All our belongings, except what is on our backpacks, are in those boxes:

Business card

We are now professional travellers. Like for any other business we did our own card:

Second Life

I don't need to play "Second Life" on the Internet. I'm about to give a second life to nearly all my belongings.
Today I sold my sofabed - a huge thing I thought I would have to donate to Emmaus or so because nobody seemed to want it. Anyway, someone just bought it (for 10% of its original price... but in Asia this will be a lot of money). For me, this means a "crying eye" and a "happy eye" (as we say in german). It was my "oldest" piece of furniture, bought for me by my mother 11 years ago, when I was in a flatshare and wanted something to sleep and sit on. Later on it served as a sofa, and then was "banished" to the visitors room/office in my last 2 apartments, to host family, friends and couchsurfers. Now I didn't want to keep it anymore - too big, not practical enough.
Another page turned... later there will be room for a new sofabed.

Sharing country and city tips 1 - Vienna and Budapest

For sure we are not the first going to most of the cities we plan to visit, and certainly you, knowing us, can propose some good places to discover in our itinerary.

Most likely our first stops will be Vienna and Budapest. In Vienna we have our friend Jan to host us, but we are not staying long because both Eva and me already know the city and mainly because is out of our bugdet. Anyway, we were checking the tips at http://www.spottedbylocals.com/vienna/ .

After Vienna we might or not pass by Bratislava but the destination will certainly be Budapest. Eva has strong interest in the city. There we do not know yet where we will be staying and the tips we have are from http://www.spottedbylocals.com/budapest/.

So, friends, you have other tips or even hosts in Vienna and/or Budapest, please leave an entry in the comments of this post or send an email to nextstop@anjo.com.pt

The giving away process - part 2

This time it was at my place!

Vaccination - Ouch!

Lucky me I've been traveling the last few years and lucky me that in Portugal we have a good coverage of vaccination (plus lucky I've Eva). Because of all that today I only got three vaccinations. And before we leave I'll get three boosters of them.

Diphtheria, tetanus, poliomyelitis, hepatitis A and B, measles, yellow fever, typhoid fever, rabies and tick-borne encephalitis are the diseases I should be a bit more protected now and for the next couple years. Today it was the first injection for the latter three of the list. Rabies needs four injections to be effective for 10 years, tick-borne encephalitis needs three. They wanted also to give me the japanese encephalitis one but I thought would not be needed.

Well, apart of this we will need to have emergency antibiotics or similar for malaria, diarrhea and maybe other things. At the hospital they gave me a paper with medication to take with me, just in case. Well, just in case I've Eva, I let her to take care of me (and us).

The giving away process

These days I'm in the process of listing and photographing every possible thing in my apartment and putting up ads to sell or give them away. Not always easy, especially with the bigger items not from Ikea (and thus a bit more expensive)... So today, someone came over to have a look at my chest of drawers I've been using for about 60% of my clothes. He liked it, and.... "can I take it straight away?" oh yes of course.... so I throw out my clothes, we carry the thing downstairs, and it's sold. 400 Fr in my pocket.
And the result is on the picture.... where am I going to sleep?? :-)

Getting into travel mode

When preparing a trip like that, there are some very practical, "everyday life" things, like getting your body ready for travel. Examples:
1. Trying to convince my skin to get used to that nice cream that one can use for face and body (very practical, just one container instead of 2...). Result: my face doesn't like it but with a bit of patience we're getting there. Until then, I walk around with red spots on my face....
2. Getting my eyes used to new contact lenses. They say one can leave them in for 6 days and nights in a row. Result: Very good! No bothering with them in night trains and when I can't wash my hands.
Some other aspects, like my very sensitive scalp, need still to be addressed....

2 months to go!

Yep, about 60 days, as February is short. I start to get excited. Still many things to do but also several others done. Hopefully Daniel will take the apartment and most of the furniture. It will make things easier. My apartment rent is now 1500chf and a raise is expected due renovation of the kitchen. I hope will not be a problem for Daniel. Other people is interested in few of the furniture, but they don't stop asking for cheaper price when I'm making already 50% off the price of new. And furniture is not a car, it gets much less used with the time than a polluting engine.

What is taking time to decide is about the insurance. Basically it exists worldnomads which makes a long trip travel insurance. BUT, their trip ends when you come back to your home country, no matter how long more the policy lasts. It shits if I decide to visit my family. Then they say you can buy shorter policies and renew. But they also write that they stop any cover as soon as policy ends. In my understanding, if you are in hospital when the policy ends, they will not pay, as it ended. If you renew, they say it was a existing problem, so no cover. Other insurance multi-trip exist BUT, maximum trip time is 31 or 45 days. Not easy. Insurers don't really insure you. In Portugal I think not find any long trip insurance either. I'll try next week.

Eva is also searching for people for her apartment who would take the furniture as well. Is nice and shity work at same time. But knowing who will take the apartment makes you feel better.

And it is now public that I'm leaving. The gym was the last to know. I told them on wednesday. David accepted (well, no other chance) but was sad as my class is going very well, with more than 25 people going each week.

Dinner time!