John and I plan to be travelling for 4-7 months. Time depends on budget and how long we want to keep going.
How do you plan for a trip of this length? Lots of planning and flexibility.
Mail: We have a mail service called Texas Home base, we pay an annual fee, forward our mail there the same way we would any change of address. Our mail is opened, scanned and weekly we receive an email with pictures of the mail. This works about 95% of the time, but for some reason, some mail is not forwarded. Luckily, good neighbors have helped grab any mail that slips through the forwarding process. Of note – magazines will only forward for 3 months, not for one year. In addition, anything that allows for electronic statements we take that option.
Bill Paying: electronic banking is a must. We have had a few glitches- some companies do not like us logging in from sites outside the US. Our niece Caitlin helped us with our Texas Windstorm Insurance – luckily, What’s Ap provides encrypted communication so we could talk to her from Thailand while she navigated the site inside the US.
Packing: The start of the trip was a 12-night transatlantic cruise, requiring some nicer clothes, and arrived in Amsterdam in early May – northern Europe spring typically has highs in the 60’s and lows in the 40’s, so we needed a few cool/cold weather outfits. Now, we are in Thailand, so those scarves, sweaters, long sleeved shirts are no longer needed (except for possibly one set upon returning to the US in the fall). I had looked up the cost of shipping from Amsterdam, and for a 6kg (about 13lbs) box I found an online quote of €55. The reality was $165. John took the box but the clerk at the post office insisted it could only be sent by 2-day air. Some items we didn’t “love” could be abandoned, and were left in our Amsterdam hotel room. We still have about 7kg of warmer clothes. The concern is weight allowance – going to Thailand the checked luggage is 22kg, but the domestic flight we planned once in Thailand only allowed 20. Some airlines will also weigh your carry-on, which is limited to 5-7kg.
What made the cut? I have 2 regular t-shirts, 3 casual tank tops, 2 nice short sleeved tops, 2 nice tank tops, 3 pairs of shorts, one pair of jeans, 1 bathing suit top and 2 bottoms, 8 pairs of undies, and 5 pairs of athletic socks and 1 of compression socks when flying, 1 medium-long skirt, 1 long-sleeved light weight hoodie, one sweater, one jacket. Shoes – 1 pair running shoes, 1 pair beach sandals (the dressy sandals were mailed back). Toiletries include 2 solid conditioner bars (much less weight than bottles), 2 Secret deodorants (you can find this around the world, but cost is very expensive), 2 jars of my Clinique face cream (hoping to find my kind in Singapore, but have learned to be flexible), 2 tubes of Clinique face sunscreen (again, hoping to find more in Singapore – I have very sensitive facial skin and this is the only kind that does not make my eyes burn), 2 bottles of gentle facial soap (including one that is a powder you mix with water- so light weight), 2 large and several small tubes of sunscreen (could have come with less, price for this in Thailand has not been as bad as I thought), a bottle of my special non-DEET bug lotion (I get a rash from DEET), 4 books and an e-reader, my laptop, my stethoscope, a thermometer, a fairly extensive first aid kit (including doxycycline and azithromycin) and a sewing kit. Of note, if you pack your favorite shirt, it will invariably become the first thing that gets a massive stain. Shout wipes and Tide pens are helpful, but not able to remove all stains (yellow curry is a beast to get out of cotton or linen clothes).
Medications: Most insurances will let you fill your 90-day supply of meds 2 weeks early. If you begin soon enough, you can get and extra 2 months of meds in a year. For us, being close to Mexico is very helpful – since we don’t take any “scheduled” meds, we can get our prescription meds at legitimate pharmacies in Cozumel (we typically go to the Mega grocery store). John’s doctor wrote for a higher dose of his atorvastatin so he could split the pills. The most expensive one to get was my Advair – a generic inhaler costs $45 in Cozumel – but I was able to pick up 3 spares. We do take some supplements, which we whittled down before leaving, most of which we can find in cities throughout the world. Ibuprofen and paracetamol (the European version of Tylenol) are widely available, though I still brought a large bottle of ibuprofen because I really like the liquigels.
Laundry: We plan to do laundry roughly one time per week. John prefers to use the wash-and-fold services when we can find them. The cost varies widely – 5kg of laundry has been as much as €32 in Amsterdam and as little as 200baht (about $6) in Thailand. Occasionally, an AirBNB will have a washing machine, rarely a dryer. Laundromats are often tucked into alleys, so Google can be your friend when you need to find one. Self-washing in Berlin was €10 total for wash and dry, and in checking the machines on Koh Phangan would be about 100Baht.
Transportation: We use web sites Omio for train tickets in Europe, the website Rome2Rio is great for planning on how to get from one place to another (such as – is it better to fly from Singapore to Sumatra or get a ferry?). Sometimes prices for flights can jump tremendously from one search to another (we were looking at Singapore to Padang, Sumatra – most searches were $150/pp with 1 checked bag – but Expedia was $3400pp). Look at several sites over a couple of days, you don’t want to rush to make what turns out to be a very expensive bad decision.
Public Transit: Each city is unique when it comes to public transit. Amsterdam was easy to travel on foot; Warsaw, Krakow and Berlin all have metros and buses – but are not the easiest to navigate if you need to change trains. Some cities have day passes, which are helpful if you plan to take several stops in a day. In Poland, public transit is free for those over 70 years old. Bangkok does have a metro and a skytrain system, but none come out to Khosan Road.
Uber/Bolt (the German version of Uber) is fairly inexpensive in Poland, but almost as much as a taxi in Amsterdam. When carrying luggage, it can be your best option. In Thailand, even though Taxis are supposed to use meters, most don’t and you should negotiate the price before entering the vehicle. Bangkok has rideshare companies, but the islands do not.
Flexibility: If not 100% sure you will be going to a location, its sometimes better to pay the extra appr. 20% to get a more flexible ticket (flexible train tickets in Germany can be double the cost of a regular fare – so not worth getting) or one that allows changes. We are in Thailand at the start of rainy season, and originally planned on going to Phuket after Bangkok. When we reviewed weather forecasts in different parts of Thailand, we found out Phuket was getting steady heavy rains, but the other side of the island – Koh Samui and Koh Phangan– were getting intermittent rains, mainly in the evening, so decided to cancel our hotel reservations (and lose $84) in Phuket and proceed to Koh Samui. Another is how long we are staying in a country. Initially, we wanted to spend 2-3 months in Thailand. Years ago, an American entering Thailand was automatically granted a 90-day visa. Now, we get 30 days and you can apply to get the visa renewed in 30-day increments at immigration offices throughout the country. Due to time and inconvenience, we have decided to proceed onto Singapore for a couple of days then Kuala Lumpur for 3 days before proceeding on to Indonesia (which will be another 30 day stay). Thailand does have a 90-day e-visa, but the application is very long and requires an onerous level of paperwork (which needs to be converted to pdf format – cue the Progressive commercial not becoming your parents “now let’s convert this file to pdf” and all the participants go “nope”- which was my reply as well after having fought through 4 other pages of the application).
Credit Cards: In Amsterdam, many places are “card only”, Berlin was OK with cash or credit, in Poland, there was rarely a problem using a card, but in Thailand, you mainly need to use cash. You can use credit cards in larger hotels (typically a 3% charge), the 7-Eleven stores – which are common through both the islands we visited- take cards for any purchase over 100baht and do not charge a fee. To get cash, we mainly use a debit account through Charles Schwab, which reimburses all transaction fees at cash machines.
Essential Apps: WhatsApp and Messenger for communication; GetYourGuide and Viator for tours and harder to get tour tickets; Booking.com, HotelsTonight and AirBNB for lodging; YouTube for entertainment; Omio if traveling in Europe and plan on getting trains and buses (boarding passes automatically load into the app and are available offline).
What I wish I had looked into before leaving the US: There is a global E-sim card you can use through an App that costs as little as $7 for 1GB over 7 days. This would have been very helpful all those times we tried to call an Uber and then lost he wifi signal so couldn’t find the driver or when using Google Maps and it needed to redirect us. I am currently testing an e-sim card I downloaded for $5 for 7 days for use throughout Asia (if it works well, its $13/month for 3GB).
Next post – all about Bangkok!