Random things to take to/acquire in Europe

I will be taking stowed luggage this time, so I have the luxury of taking more than the bare minimum. (I'll need stowed luggage because I'll need to take textbooks and a full-size laptop, and so on.)

I'll also be staying in the halls of residence, which come with a single bed, a desk, a chair, a wardrobe, and a (VERY compact) ensuite. For €25, you can get a starter kit of bedlinens (two sheets, pillowcase, pillow, duvet), but nothing else is provided. So there are a bunch of things I'll need, and I need to decide what I'll take with me, and what I'll source locally (given I'm doing this on the cheap).

So this is intended to be a list of things as I think of them, and whether I'll buy in France, or bring from Oz, and why. (Much of my information is from a fellow UNE student Sue, who spent the first five months of 2016 at Angers.)

If you can think of anything else I should add to one or other of these lists, would you please let me know?

BRING FROM OZ

• A towel - and not just because the Hitchhiker's Guide says so. Also because the hostel I'm staying at in Edinburgh doesn't supply towels, and I'll need one in Angers too. A travel towel just isn't the same thing.  EDITED TO ADD: I just found out about Turkish towels: same size as a regular bath towel (1m x 1.8m), but super light weight (<300g), fast-drying, and can double as a scarf/shawl/blanket (eg like a pashmina, but light cotton not wool).
• A decent laptop computer, and possibly a full-size wireless keyboard - the French keyboard layout is different to what I learned to touch-type on, and that's not a pain worth going through.
• A small alarm clock - the Ikea Klokis or equivalent will probably do fine.
• My good gamer headset (SteelSeries Siberia), plus adaptor, so they'll work via a single jack
• Aus power board and adaptor(s) - I picked up a really good one from Aldi a few years ago, it includes four USB charger points too.
• Textbooks - I'll have half a semester plus exams for my UNE course while I'm away
• Stationery? - apparently it's nigh on impossible to get regular 7mm feint lined exercise books etc. All their notebooks are in this weird grid format.
• Laundry bag - lightweight, not always easy to find
• If I have the capacity (weight, volume), I'm hoping to take the quilt I made for Malachi with me. It will be a comfort if I'm feeling cold or homesick.
• Mouthguard - I don't expect to be doing any contact sports, but it's custom-made, small and light, and the kind of thing that would be hard to borrow/get locally.
• Night guard - I grind my teeth in my sleep, and this makes a huge difference. Can't sleep without it.
• Champagne stopper - always a travel essential!
• Travel clothesline - excellent thought from Sue!

BUY IN FRANCE

• Kettle - bulky. Will need to order online, as the French (like Americans) don't seem to do electric kettles. 
• Coathangers - yes there's a wardrobe, but no hangers
• Second towel, bathmat, handtowel - because none of those are supplied either.
• Two sets of cutlery/bowls/plates/mugs etc - I'm sure there'll be a kitchen starter kit type thing at the equivalent of Kmart
• Rudimentary cooking equipment - frying pan, saucepan, knife, chopping board, wooden spoon, egg slice, ?rice cooker (also works well for pasta, risotto, etc, and hot plates are a rare commodity)
• Other stationery items - stapler, hole punch, ring binder?
• External DVD player? - Sue ended up watching a lot of DVDs. If I can get tolerable internet, I might go for Netflix or similar.
• Hot water bottle (if needed)
• Waiter's friend/corkscrew - I generally drink sparkling not still wine, so this may be less critical.
• Suction-cup soap dish - I use solid shampoo, conditioner, and cleanser, so a simple wire soap dish is essential.
• A good French monolingual dictionary (?and thesaurus), for study purposes.

Packing list

I've had my head buried in novels for the past few weeks, when I haven't been at work etc or running around getting the house renovation stuff sorted, but given we will be packing tomorrow, I need to get the packing list sorted. And yes, we're still taking carry-on only.

Clothing

Minimal jewellery for Ab + couple of scarves.
Edited to add: Plus sunhats

Electronica - all fully charged and podcasts/books/movies downloaded/updated as required.
'Wear' means packed into SeV hoodie etc (equiv of handbag)

Toiletries & medical
Liquids bag
 - shampoo, conditioner, cleanser, facial moisturiser, deodorant, toothpaste, sunscreen, lip balms, bite cream, insect repellant, hand cream/body moisturiser, baby wipes, contact lenses, hand sanitiser, lip stick & mascara
Non-liquids bag
 - toothbrushes, dental floss, body soap, laundry soap + universal sink plug, tampons,
Medical
 - prescription medicines (Ab x 3), Symbicort, Ventolin, anti-histamine, analgesics (minimal), bandaids, carry-on compliant nail clippers, tweezers, basic sewing kit

Other
Day bags - Kathmandu fold-up satchel & backpack; handbag for Ab
Packing cubes
Collapsible water bottles
Theraband
Notebook & writing implements
Sunglasses (incl normal & prescription for Ab)
Passports, tickets (electronic copies as well as paper), IDPs & drivers licences
Tissues, mints
Spare shopping bag (one of those ones that folds up to the size of a matchbox)
Coin purse (will hold credit card & drivers licence + local currency; in lieu of normal wallet)


(I'll likely update this through the day as I think of things, but it's a good first pass.)

Two and a half weeks to go!

We're now two and a half weeks from take-off, and while I've knocked over a few of the things on my to-do list, there are still a bunch to go.

What I have done:

• Organised International Drivers Permits for both JD and me
• Bought spare battery for camera (actually three, after the first one took so long I doubted it would come at all - who knew that the best route from Hong Kong to Australia was via Sweden?)
• Advised school of boys' absence
• Renewed scripts for medicines, still need to get extra refill to cover period away
• Confirmed no additional vaccinations required (although we didn't get the HepA booster we should have after India, and probably should follow up)
• Decided I'll get an Italian SIM while I'm there, rather than any of the other options
• Prepared a first-draft packing list, and discovered that JD and the boys will need to do some clothes shopping before we go (see after the jump)
• Booked JD and the boys for haircuts a week before we leave
• Added weather reports of a few of our key locations so I can distract myself when it's cold and wet outside. It's 3:30am in Cahus, and 18C there right now - that's higher than today's forecast maximum and it's a relatively warm day today.
• Got a couple of collapsible water bottles (freebies from Yarra Trams)

I'm also keeping a close eye on Iceland's volcanoes which are threatening to blow. After the disruption caused by the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajokull, I'm a little wary of what might happen. At the very least, I'll be sure to have at least one extra week's worth of medicines with me. And travel insurance to cover any losses.

As an aside, Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority now allows mobile devices to be used during take-off and landing, and Qantas and Virgin have formally received approval. I decided to check Emirates policy, and it appears it's been okay all along (as long as they're in flight mode). Yay! I definitely won't need to get a paperback version for flying.

Mobile phone use while in Europe

I learned a bit back that my Aldi mobile plan doesn't do roaming. So I've been keeping half an ear out for alternative solutions. Ideally, I'd be able to seamlessly forward calls to my current number, but that might be a pipe dream. Alternatively, I'd like a single number to reach me on for the whole time I'm over there, preferably one know before I leave.

When looking around the RACV website for info regarding the International Drivers Permit, I found a page about RoamingSIM. The idea sounds great: reasonably low call and text rates in around 200 countries; call forwarding works, and you also get an Australian landline number that locals can ring to connect to you.

Being the smart little cookie that I am, I checked out some reviews. They were not good. In fact, they were rather damning. It looks like the various other equivalents (eg Woolworths) can be just as bad. And I'm not the only one unimpressed with the choices. (Here's an explanation of how Global SIMs work, and why the sound quality and customer service is often lousy.)

It looks like I might have to get au fait with Skype, a WiFi Dialer app (various options), and/or local SIMs. Fortunately, WiFi seems fairly ubiquitous throughout the bits of Europe we're going to. Oh, and FWIW, my new phone is a Samsung Galaxy S5 (3G).

Here are a couple of other links that might be useful:

• Lots of useful comments to the SMH article linked above
• Pay as you go SIM with Data wiki (the Australia page seems fairly comprehensive). 
• The Italian option page notes that you might need a codice fiscale for online purchases and ID.
• Given our relatively remote location in France, I might enquire which network would be best.
• Whirlpool discussion re SIMs for a month in Europe (hint: buy a UK one)

Do you have any experience with buying SIMs for travel in Europe? Good, bad or otherwise?

Air travel: still the safest way to get there

In the wee small hours of this morning (AEST), Fri 18 July 2014, a Malaysian Airlines plane flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, with 298 souls on board, was shot down over eastern Ukraine. There is an enormous amount of finger pointing, much of it at pro-Russian separatists who reportedly mistook the flight for a Ukrainian cargo plane. There are also questions being asked about why the flight path took MH17 over Ukraine (by far the most direct route). Which is a little bit like asking why the girl who got raped was in that part of town in the first place: really not the point.

My deepest sympathies go out to those who have lost loved ones. There's one poor family who lost family members to both the MH370 (which disappeared en route from KL to Beijing in March) and MH17 disasters. I cannot begin to imagine how they are coping.

But it won't stop us flying to, and around, Europe in a couple of months.

Air travel remains the safest way to get anywhere on a distance-travelled basis. It ranks roughly second-equal safest (with rail) on a fatalities per billion hours travelled (around 30). It drops down the rankings on a per-journey basis (117 fatalities per billion journeys), but is still incredibly low risk. (Figures from here, based on pre 9/11 data.) (Main take-away from that report: whichever way you look at it, motorcycles are a magnitude worse than the second worst, no matter which way you count it.)

Let's look at it another way. Of the 25 most likely ways you'll die, heart disease, cancer and stroke take out the top three places (leaving aside Chuck Norris). Car accidents come in at number five (1 in 100), bicycle accidents at number 11 (1 in 5717), and air travel at number 14 (1 in 20,000).

From a more fatalistic perspective, all four of us are travelling together. If one of us were to die in a plane crash, there's a bloody good chance all of us will. None of us would have to go on without the others. The boys wouldn't be left orphaned, and I wouldn't have endure without any of the three people I love most. It'll be a pain in the arse (and heart) for everyone else, but not for us 'cos we'll all be dead!

That's not to say that it's not a good time to make sure the paperwork is all sorted. I've already organised comprehensive travel insurance, and will have electronic copies of all relevant documents (passports, birth certificates, etc) with us and others. We will also confirm that our executrices (two of our sisters) know where the wills and other important documents are, that we want our Facebook accounts deleted (not memorialised, thank you!), and to please clear our internet caches before you do anything else.

Think of travel insurance like the Umbrella Principle: if you take a brolly with you, it probably won't rain, but if you don't take one, you can be pretty confident it'll pour. And I'd much rather have travel insurance and not need it, than the other way around.

Europe 2014 : Pre-travel 'To Do' list

Again, jotting down a few mental notes in no particular order, which I will add to, and cross off, as I go.

• Advise banks of travel plans so they don't cancel cards while away
• Find, and load currency travel (debit) card (after checking fees etc)
• Top up Bankwest credit card (no currency conversion fees, not linked to main bank accounts)
• Investigate local/overseas SIM options (costs, availability) given Aldi Mobile don't do roaming
• Set up Voicemail on phone to advise alternate phone number(s)
• Day before we leave, save maps for offline use (30 day expiry), and pin hotels/train stations etc
• Ask Jeanne to keep eye on house/collect mail/etc
• Catch up with builder/tradies to sort out as many details as possible before we go, advise contact methods while away.
• Advise boys' school of their planned absence
• Fill prescriptions so have enough meds to cope with extended delays (already made doctor appointment to renew scripts)
• Confirm no additional vaccinations required (got fully dosed up before we went to India)
• Ensure fresh haircuts for everyone before we go so we don't look unnecessarily daggy in photos
• Ditto eyebrow wax for me
• Test all new charging majiggers (had a brand new one go 'bang' and smell of smoke just this evening)
• Register travel with DFAT, maybe. At the very least, ensure friends and family (both travelling and not travelling with us) have copies of itineraries
• In light of MH17 being shot down, confirm executrices know where our wills and other critical documents are, together with copies of key passwords.
• Electronic copies of passports, drivers licence etc
• Get International Drivers Permits for JD and me (RACV shop, need passport photo) (required in Italy and France)

Random aside: travel toiletries - Yellow Stick

Yellow Stick

A friend, Petunia, is about to head off for a week in the French countryside.

I am packed and ready for vacation. I feel like it took me all weekend to get ready. I'm an experienced traveler, it shouldn't take this much work to get ready for a little vacation. And I have packed way too much crap. I look at all my toiletry type items and I don't know why there is so much crap but I don't know how to reduce it. I have have hair stuff (conditioner and leave in shiny stuff), skin stuff (lotion for the body and lotion for the face, fake tanner), make up (basic BB cream, powder, mascara, eyebrows crap), toothpaste and toothbrush, mouth guard, various ailment things like antacids and ibuprofen. What can I leave behind? I don't want to buy stuff there because I already have this stuff and then I like my stuff. 

And I have too many clothes. But I need clothes to hang out in and clothes to go out in and clothes to sleep in and what if it rains? 

I feel like I have enough stuff for a week or a year.

To which another seasoned traveller friend, Cake, replied

Re: Packing

Leave the conditioner, leave-in shiny stuff, the body lotion, fake tanner and either the bb cream or the powder. 

Pack yourself a little bottle of olive oil or Yellow Stick (a 1 ounce solid stick of cocoa butter in a yellow plastic tube, usually a buck or so at CVS) and use that for all your moisturizing/conditioning/hair shining needs. In the summer I prefer Yellow Stick because it doesn't spill or count against my liquid limit and when I want to use it as an all over lotion I just warm it with my hands. The olive oil works well, too. It's actually pretty much all I use at home in the warmer months.

And because I'm intrigued, and because I've been on a bit of an online shopping spree, I thought I'd try this. Of course, including shipping here to Straya, one tube costs more like $7 than $1, but I figure it's worth a try. I'll report back once I find out what it's like.

And because I found the link, here's Cake's homemade body butter recipe from her tragically short-lived blog, After Plumcake. And here's more info about Yellow Stick from an earlier blog, Manolo for the Big Girl (scroll to bottom of the post). There, she said:

I first started using Yellow Stick, which is a solid tube of 100% pure cocoa butter, when I was a volunteer at the cold weather shelter and I needed something I could stick in my pocket without worrying about spillage or leakage. I needed to be able to use it on my hands, lips and any place that got dry, without it irritating my skin or smelling too strongly of anything I didn’t want on my face. Plus, it’s easy to disinfect with a Lysol wipe, which is always a plus in my borderline germaphobe book. I use it for everything now, especially my cuticles and lips, and it makes a great stocking stuffer…you know, in case the jumper cables don’t fit.

And when I checked with Cake and Petunia whether I could quote them, Cake generously added this:

I'm high maintenance and a fanatic about my skin but I also believe in traveling light. A large weekender carry-on will do me just fine for six weeks in five countries because I always try to pack items that do double (or triple, or sextuple) duty, like Yellow Stick. It's solid with a high melting point (I used it religiously through a decade of long Texas summers) so it won't melt or spill and doesn't count against my liquid limit.

I use it for pretty much everything. On the plane I give my face and hands (especially my cuticles which otherwise I might be tempted to bite if they cracked on a long, boring flight) a good application straight from the stick then rub some on my lips. At the hotel I'll usually warm it in my hands and use it as a moisturizer and run whatever's left over on my hands through my hair as non-greasy conditioner and frizz controller and of course I always put one in my pocket or handbag when I'm out and about. It's especially useful then because I tend to wash my hands a lot or, if I'm traveling in someplace less developed, rely on hand sanitizer. Both of those are hugely drying so it's convenient to be able to just pull out the Yellow Stick, roll it between my hands for a few seconds, pop it back in the tube and not feel like my hands are going to crack open. 

(They're both American, so please excuse their single 'l's in travelling/traveller, and 'z's in moisturise.)

Links to travel-related lifehack type posts/ideas

Because that way I can find them when I'm looking. Have you got any nifty ideas to add?

"35 Genius Travel Tips That Will Change Your Life Forever" (just a wee bit hyperbolic, ya think?)
"23 Awesome Travel Hacks That Add Fun To Your Trip"
"52 travel tips you really should know"
"Fifty best-ever travel tips"

• Use the USB slot on a TV to charge devices
• Take a USB hub, with power cables pre-plugged in and organised, or a multi-port charger (NB don't work with older Apple devices)
• invest in a battery pack (portable re-charger)
• Scan (rather than photocopy) important documents (eg passports etc) before leaving, then save them to iBooks or similar so you have offline access
• Take a photo of your hire car and its licence plate, in case you can't remember which one is yours. And drop a pin on your phone map app, so you can remember where you parked.
• Sew a washcloth into a pouch for soap, or toothbrush and toothpaste caddy
• When reserving seats for two people, book the aisle and the window - you're more likely to have the middle seat left vacant, else offer to swap with interloper.
• When you're at the airport, add "?.jpg" to the end of any URL to get around the ludicrously expensive WiFi. Or, try sitting right outside an airport club lounge
• Take your own water bottle - just empty it to go through security, fill it up when you get the chance
• Use ATMs to get currency - much better value than forex converters
• Shop for basic groceries when you arrive, not at the hotel, and also for picnic lunches
• download an offline foreign language dictionary app eg Google Translate
• when you start a new SD card on your camera, take a selfie makes it easier to prove it's yours when claiming it from lost&found (or, make the first one a photo of your business card and a request to mail it to that address if found).
• take a travel sized bottle of laundry detergent (and a multi-size sink plug) so you can wash jocks and socks in the hotel sink
• carry baby wipes/face wipes, and a stash of spare ziploc bags in a range of sizes (dirty laundry thru to snacks)
• use a button to keep earrings together
• apparently there's an outdoor rooftop swimming pool at Changi airport!
• a pashmina can double as a blanket; a sarong as a long skirt or a beach towel or a pillow
• take a small electronic luggage scale so you don't get caught out at the airport check-in
• remember to tell your credit card (and mobile phone) provider that you're heading overseas (so they don't cancel your cards due to suspected fraudulent activity)
• always remove all your luggage from the taxi before paying the fare (they can't drive off with it in case of a dispute)
• a bandana soaked in cold water and then tied around your neck will help keep you cool
• pack a skipping rope and a theraband as a mini-gym
• save maps for offline viewing (use 'OK Maps' in Google maps)
• carry enough medicines to cover unforeseen delays (volcanic ash clouds, anyone?)

(or: hide money in a tampon box - also unlikely to be rummaged through)

Cruisin' - the pros and cons

About halfway through, and again last night I asked each of us to nominate the best three things and the worst three things about their cruise. This is mainly mine, with supplements from the guys.

Best:

• No chores, and no feeling guilty about it. I don’t have do plan, buy ingredients or prepare meals; I don’t have to do laundry (other than a couple of small loads); I don’t have to feel guilty about my untidy desk, or the work stuff nagging at me; I don’t need to drag myself to training or for a swim (I almost always enjoy it, but the inertia is high).
•  Time – time to read a whole novel, time to take siestas, time to sit and watch the world go by, time to get involved with stuff, or write
• There’s plenty of stuff to do and people to talk to if you want to, but absolutely no obligation to do so.
• The food has been pretty good (even the buffet, which is perfectly adequate). Last night, we ate at ‘Salt Grill’, their celebrity chef onboard restaurant. Ky chose particularly well, although we all enjoyed our meals. Given the fish was all brought on board before we left Sydney nearly a week ago, I chose to forgo the sashimi and fish mains (unless they brought live fish aboard, they couldn’t be all that fresh), and the surcharge was only $40/$20 adult/child (even though the kids had a full sized adult meal).
• The staff have been almost uniformly fantastic. The waiters we had at our regular table in the white cloth restaurant were five star world class, and everyone else has been friendly and competent and efficient. I understand that most of them are paid pretty shit wages by Australian standards, but for many of them, that’s better than what they’d get at home (the Phillipines, various Pacific Islands, a few Indians).

Worst:

• The Hotel California effect – you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave. For a big ship, it ends up being a bit claustrophobic.
• The rooms are hermetically sealed, and despite the aircon, the rooms get very stuffy overnight. We have a balcony, but it’s tricky to prop the door partway open to get some fresh cool air in. Heaven help those without that luxury
• The beds are pretty awful, and the pillows worse. The sofa bed would have to be one of the most uncomfortable things I’ve tried sleeping on – a thin mattress on a soggy trampoline style support, with a solid bar running across the bed exactly where your hips go. The proper beds (we switched with the kids halfway through) are okay, but the pillows are still soggy bits of chopped up foam. I think that’s another reason we’ve needed so many siestas – we’re not getting the rest we need at night.
• We’ve all missed the internet, and keeping up with our online friends and interests, but we’ve all coped pretty well.
• Although there are exercise options, they haven’t been terribly enticing. JD and I are both feeling a bit blah from lack of exercise.

Nevertheless, we’ve all enjoyed it, and would consider doing another in a few years’ time. The chill out time has been great for Justin (he really needed it) - he’s nearly finished his third book this week. Jos also has finished two novels, and enjoyed the sitting around. Ky has loved making new friends – whether they actually maintain contact is to be seen, but he, Alice and Hayley have been thick as thieves for the past five days. And me, it’s been great just sitting and watching the world go by. I’ve eaten way way too much, and JD and I will both get back on the eat less, move more wagon when we get back (I reckon I’ve got about 30 pounds/13.5kg to shed to fit my clothes properly), and get my fitness back up (first target: state selections are less than three weeks after we get back).

Cruisin' - Things to bring

I did some research the night before we packed and picked up some handy hints for things to bring. They included: 

• Over the door hooks, for extra hanging space (I had a set of four I’d picked up from Aldi a couple of weeks ago)
• Extra coathangers, critical if you don’t bring extra hooks
• Plastic bags for storing wet clothes/shoes/etc
• Additional carry bag for bringing home purchases (important if you’re the type to buy lots of souvenirs)
• Febreze for freshening up worn clothes if they’re not dirty enough to require washing
• Crease release (Coles has travel sized bottles) to reduce ironing
• Sunscreen, hats, sunglasses – although the ozone layer is thicker nearer the equator, the pollution is far less. And you’re spending time laying around in the sun because you can.
•  Imodium/Gastro-Stop, analgesics, bandaids, anti-histamines etc, because a trip to the on-board shop (let alone on-board doc) is expensive
• A selection of dressy cardigans etc – it gets cool at night, and that’s when the dress code tends to apply.
• A day bag each, for port calls. We had these anyway (our ‘handbags’ on the plane), but a larger one capable of holding four towels plus gumf would have been useful.
• Bottled water. We don’t drink bottled water as a rule, but some of the ports may not have potable water. I had meant to bring an empty water bottle or two, but forgot.
• A power board – the room has only two accessible points, and we have around nearly a dozen devices potentially needing charging at the same time. A four point power board, plus double USB chargers help stop squabbles.
• A champagne stopper – if you choose to buy a whole bottle, you don’t have to worry about leftovers going flat. (This has had a bit of use.)

Things I really should have brought but no-one mentioned it:

• A lanyard for each person – your room key/charge card/identity pass needs to be with you at all times, even when you haven’t got pockets. And they’re $8 each on-board.
• Power point adaptors – the rooms have Australian-compatible power points, but outside the rooms they’re either UK or US style. If you’re battery runs out, you’re confined to your room if you want to keep typing/reading/using electronic devices.
• More than one book. JD and I both finished our fluffy holiday reading by day 3 (newest Janet Evanovich for me, World War Z for JD, Zombie Survival Guide for Jos). JD and Jos have since switched books; I’m stalling starting my next (Running with Scissors).
•  Reef shoes/crocs/similar – slip on shoes/sandals are very useful on board, and even more so when at port – you can walk on sand and in the water (coral, sea urchins, sea snakes and other prickly things abound)
• Although you give the kids a packing list, and they are generally pretty good about packing what’s on the list, it might be worth checking they’ve actually packed what’s on the list (see also: hats, sunglasses, sandals).
• Consider changing currency in Australia – the onboard rates are appalling (20% arbitrage), and they charge a hefty commission. And if you do, change only a little – both places we stopped at took Australian currency, and often at a better rate than the ship offered.

Other things of note:

• If possible, book a port-side room rather than starboard. Port side you get to see the port when at dock (kinda makes sense), but also it’s the non-smoking side of the ship. While I can sit on my smoke-free balcony, it’s directly below the smoking section of the main top deck.
•  On this ship there’s no choice for the four-berth balcony rooms, but if you can, don’t pick a room immediately below the dancefloor, especially if you’re an early-to-bed type person. I nearly broke out the earplugs the other night.
•  It’s not so much a floating shopping mall, but a floating hotel/resort (dur), and a bit Hotel California – they encourage you to check out any time you like, but you can never leave (except port days, and only then for a few hours). For more adventurous travellers, it’s a bit restrictive.
• That said, we all enjoyed it – you really can do nothing but sit around, eat, drink, sleep, read utterly guilt-free. If you want to do more, there are plenty of activities with varying levels of kitsch/cheese. If you’re an extrovert, there are plenty of new people to talk to.

If we were to do another one (in a few years time), I think we’d fly somewhere interesting and stay for a week, and then take a cruise back home. That way you get the exploring, challenging, exciting, new cultures stuff, and then get the week-long chill-out holiday to recover from the adventurous holiday. Best of both worlds!

Packing notes

It's time to start thinking about what we're going to pack.

This time is a little different in that (a) we will be dealing with multiple climates (total fire ban-hot Melbourne, tropical Singapore, chilly Tokyo, and snowy mountains), and (b) we will be taking some stowed luggage. Although stowed luggage goes against every grain of my travelling soul, we can't take local wines with us unless they're stowed.

Upside: we don't have to be so economical with our packing. Downside: we don't have to be so thoughtful about our packing. But I'm still preparing a rough list to make sure nothing critical gets left behind, and that we're not taking more than actually need (we're expecting to come back with at least one extra stowed bag).

Carry-on bags will still have enough to get us through at least the first day in each new location, in case bags don't make it onto the same flight for whatever reason. That means at least one full change of clothes, basic toiletries, essential medicines, inflight entertainment, and anything we cannot risk losing (camera SD cards etc).

Stowed luggage can have the snow gear, gifts, parcel Em bought online but accidentally had sent to her folks place in Oz, extra pair of shoes, extra toiletries and the like. If we plan it well, we won't even have to open this bag while we're in Singapore.

In the meantime, we need to get everything we want to take with us laundered, tidy up the house, see whether the boys still remotely fit their snow gear (and obtain replacements if required), charge all the electronic devices, load podcasts and movies onto said devices, tee up the house sitter/supervisor, source the hostess gifts, find a phrase book, and squeeze in another full day's work/school. Easy. Heh.

Jet lag sux

India Standard Time (IST, GMT+5.5hrs) is five and a half hours behind Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time (AEDT, GMT+11hrs).

For those of you with daylight savings, you know just how much losing that hour of sleep hurts. Getting up at 7am when your body is grumbling loudly that it's only 6am, bugger what the clock says.

Well, it's like that, but five and a half times worse.

Each day, we have forced ourselves to get up an hour earlier - the alarm is going off at 8am tomorrow (not least because I have to be in Queenscliff by 9am) - so the 6:30am alarm on Monday will not seem any more unreasonable than it usually does. Just really bloody glad we had the better part of a week to recover before heading back to work.


And as a quick aside, BlogPress, my preferred iPad/iPhone blogging app, has now issued updates, so it works again. (Hooray!!!) I am typing this on my iPad while watching the Djokovic/Murray semifinal on telly (Murray won the third set, just, but Djokovic is 4-0 up in the fourth).

Flying home (or why I will never unintentionally fly Jetstar again)

We flew Qantas home, at least on paper - QF3954 DEL to SIN, then QF 292 SIN to MEL. Qantas is the national carrier, and is a reasonably good, full-service airline (recent industrial disputes notwithstanding).

However, we didn't actually fly Qantas, because both legs were codeshares - the first leg by Jet Airways (India), the excellent Indian airline, and the second by JetStar, the low-cost sister of Qantas.

We've flown Jetstar before, when nipping over the Tasman to NZ, mainly because they're the only ones that offer direct flights to Christchurch at vaguely reasonable hours. When you book Jetstar, you know it's a cheapie short flight (around 3hrs), and you plan accordingly. You pack snacks, make sure your iPad, iPhones and iPods are all fully charged and loaded, and you have at least one book each with a few hours reading left. And you only ever do carry-on luggage.

However, when you book Qantas but get Jetstar instead, you feel like you got bait-and-switched.

Home, sweet home.

(Image pinched from here)

We made it back, with almost all our luggage, and are pleased to report that the house neither burnt down nor was pilfered in our absence. In fact, thanks to our wonderful cleaner and the exceptionally fantastic woman who looks after the boys after school, who brought in the washing and the mail and kept an eye on the place generally, the house was looking even better than when we left it.

I currently have my netbook hooked up to our network, downloading the 4000-odd photos and videos we took to the NAS. I did say there would be weeks if not months of new posts!

Next up, I'll create a survey so you can tell me what things you'd most like me to talk about, given there's rather a lot available.

See ya later, alligator!

It is our last night in India. There is no question at all that this is "au revoir" and not "adieu" - we will be back.

We are staying in the very new, very swanky Leela Kempinski in Gurgaon, not too far from the airport. We got housekeeping to unlock the connecting doors between the boys' room and ours, which reduces the likelihood of the boys locking themselves out of their room every time they poke their head in at us. The bathrooms are as big as anywhere, occupying around half the floor space, but the view isn't quite as picturesque as some, it's just as memorable: a 20 lane tollgate (each way). This is the view at dusk, from our second floor room.

I'm about to go hunting the bowels of the adjacent shopping mall, trying to find a chemist - I have developed a delightful headcold, and will need some sinus clearing stuff before I fly back to Oz tomorrow. The  Ambience Mall, Gurgaon is the biggest in Delhi (a city of 22 million, that is only a little less than the entire population of Australia). The directory of tenants does not seem to include chemists (pharmacies), but there is a "hypermart" in the lower ground floor, so I'm going to try my luck there. The mall timings (aka opening hours) are 10am to 11pm, so the fact that it is nearly 8pm won't be an issue.

We leave for the airport at 6:30am IST, and will land in Melbourne Tuesday morning 7:40am AEDT, inshallah (lit. God willing, aka: that's the plan). We have had a truly wonderful holiday, full of so many incredible sights, sounds, tastes, experiences, everything, and there is absolutely no question that we will be back. However, we are now ready to go home, are looking forward to our own beds (and particularly our own pillows - firm latex/foam rather than soggy down), and are looking forward to not having to peer at the currency to work out which note to pull out of the wallet.

India - time to pack!

Mum and Dad have already determined that they will be stowing a bag (Mum can't quite get under 5kg). Therefore, we will probably do the same, which relieves a lot of pressure to pare back everything.  Nevertheless we will be packing fairly minimally.

Clothing
The trick to packing light is to wear your heaviest clothes on the plane, without sacrificing comfort. It is possible to change out of heavier, less comfortable clothes once on the plane if absolutely critical. Your PITA factor may vary.

On the plane	To pack
1 pr long pants (heaviest, eg jeans?)	2 pr long pants 1 pr shorts
1 long sleeve shirt	1-2 long sleeve shirt 1-2 short sleeve shirt (total 3)
Shoes	Sandals
Socks	3 pr socks, incl one pr Heater
Undies/jocks; (bra)	3 pr undies/jocks; (1 bra)
Soft shell jacket or Microfleece jumper	Thermal underwear (optional)
	Sarong
	Swimwear, possibly goggles
	Sun hat

HTML Tables

Electronica and Entertainment
Because it's a damn long flight, and because you want to document it.

• Aus/India adaptor, Aus double adaptor (decided we won't need a powerboard)
• DSLR camera, standard lens, charger, spare memory card(s)
• Compact digital camera, spare memory cards, spare batteries, case
• Video camera, charger, case
• Netbook, charger, ethernet cable, mouse
• iPad, iPhone, iPod, charger, earbuds for same (& double adaptor jack)
• Kindle & connector cord (Jos), novel/crossword book (the rest)
• Notebook, couple pens/pencils
• Normally, I'd consider taking a travel guide, but (a) my parents are taking one, and (b) we might put one on Jos's kindle.

These will be packed into a selection of handbag equivalents - the camera bag, a new messenger-style laptop bag (pictured), and a backpack or similar for each of the boys.

Toiletries, medicines and miscellanea

Those in the first section should come into the cabin with you, not least to cope with the possibility of the airline, ah, delaying the arrival of your luggage. The latter are more easily replaced, or coped without for a period, if necessary.

• Passports (with visas), eTickets, boarding passes
• Currency, in the form of a travel card, plus some cash (all in USD - widely convertible in India)
• Sunglasses, mints, lip balm
• Daily medicines (Singulair, BCP, A/D, and anti-malaria pills)
• Toothbrushes & toothpaste, floss
• Emergency medicines (Ventolin, Symbicort, analgesics, Imodium, antihistamines, bandaids, tweezers)
• Essential toiletries not provided by hotels (cleanser, face moisturiser, soap-free soap, anti-dandruff shampoo)
• Spectacles, spare pair of contacts, single use solution 5mlx5, lens case


• Hand moisturiser, emery board, nail clippers, 
• Travel washing lines, pack towel (for squeezing out moisture from sink-washed clothes)
• Cream-based insect repellant, sunscreens
• Additional capacity - light fold-up bag to accommodate purchases (optional)

I'm sure there are a few other things that will occur to me tomorrow when we actually pack, and I may get around to updating this list.

In the meantime, I need to make sure all electronic items are fully charged and loaded (eg movies on iPad, podcasts on iPhone, books onto kindle)

What to wear in India

We've been visiting my parents over the past few days, and are starting to get a sense of what kind of clothing we need to take with us to India. Of course, there is a serious potential downside of taking fashion advice from one's parents, but better to be dressed too old than too immodest.

Firstly, only the pre-pubescent get to wear shorts (oblivious Westerners excepted) - everyone else wears at least mid-calf or longer. For women, this is generally either a sari (especially in the south), or salwar kameez (loose pants and a long loose tunic top), or increasingly for the younger set, jeans. Men generally wear trousers, or occasionally dhotis.

Secondly, while long skirts and long pants are both acceptable wear for women, pants are better, as they stop one's thighs chafing (the oh-so-delightful 'chub rub'). And long pants, like long sleeved shirts are also better at keeping out the mozzies.

Thirdly, laundry facilities are extremely limited, which means everything must be quick-drying. Clothes will be washed in hotel sinks and bathtubs, dried by hand-wringing then rolling up in a microfibre pack towel, and then hung up on elastic travel washing line.

Finally, while us womenfolk will probably be able to find and buy clothes over there, big burly blokes like Dad and JD will really struggle to find anything to fit. Therefore, they really need to take appropriate clothing with them.

Completely lacking in suitable clothing, JD and I left the boys with their cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents and drove down to Melbourne. There's a section of Little Bourke St, between Elizabeth St and Hardware Lane with a fair range of specialist adventure wear shops - Paddy Pallin, Snowgum, Bogong, Columbia, Mountain Designs and others, and there's a Kathmandu store around the corner.

The much-advertised 'Boxing Day Sales' actually means 'very limited sizes, styles and colours available'. Nevertheless, we managed to spend a largish amount of money on clothes that actually fit, are comfortable, and which meet the requirements stated above. I got a pair of grey 'hiking' pants (Mountain HardWear, v comfortable), a lovely fitted fuscia long-sleeve shirt (Columbia, with pockets!), and later, in Woodend, a pair of loose cotton elastic-waisted pants. JD got two pair of hiking pants and a pair of below-knee shorts, and two short-sleeved and one long-sleeved quick-dry shirts. And we also each picked up a couple of pairs of quick-dry undies each.

We'll get the kids kitted out on Friday when we get home - thankfully, they can both wear shorts. Finally, the upshot of taking a small number of very lightweight garments means we might yet meet the 5kg Malaysia Airlines cabin baggage weight restriction.

Can't do carry on only?

As you may know by now, I strongly prefer carry-on luggage only. Seven kg (including bag weight) plus a handbag is usually plenty, even for three weeks in a variety of climates. However, we're flying Malaysia Airlines on the way over, and their cabin baggage limit is five (5!) kg. Given most bags weigh nearly 2kg, that doesn't leave much for clothes, toiletries, cameras, essential electronica and other stuff.

We'll do an experimental pack, but we might have to have a stowed bag going over. (I always expected to stow luggage on the way back, even if my purchases are fairly modest.) My parents, who are flying with us, will have stowed luggage, partly due to the Malaysia Airlines unreasonable weight limits, but also because they'll be going onto much colder altitudes (7000ft, in winter, in the Himalayas). So they need tropical south, desert northwest and mountainous northeast. And if they have stowed luggage, there's less disadvantage if we do too (lost luggage notwithstanding).

So Lucy L, you might win that bet - we may have checked luggage. But our collective luggage weight would likely be fine on most other airlines.

Brilliantly simple, simply brilliant

A couple of Facebook friends posted a link to an article called "25 clever ideas to make life easier". Usually the ideas in these kinds of things are pretty inane, but the friends whose intellect I trust were delighted with it.

As a soon-to-be-traveller, I was particularly tickled by this idea: Store shoes inside shower caps to stop dirty soles rubbing on your clothes.

Like most simple, elegant solutions, it is obvious once you've seen it and you wonder why you never thought of it before. (JD's sandals will still have to go in a sealed bag - for whatever reason, they're remarkably whiffy.)


The other idea that I really like is the gutter garden. Again, brilliantly simple once you've seen it.

Ouch - immunisations time

Yesterday afternoon, the four of us got our immunisations in anticipation of going to India in seven (7!) weeks. The shots themselves didn't hurt much, as the needles were very fine and the nurse, Anne, very competent. Jos and Ky calmly stated "ow" two or three time for each, but didn't flinch, setting the standard rather high for us. Afterwards we went out for a delicious but way-too-much-food Indian meal. 

This morning, however, we are all sooking and groaning. I feel like I've been given a not-friendly-at-all shoulder punch on both sides. Lifting my arm up to shoulder height (to get a teabag out of the tea caddy, for example) has me making faces and muttering "ooof". The others are feeling equally worse for wear.

Nevertheless, I'm glad I got these done this weekend, as next weekend I'm swimming in the MS Megaswim (a pool-based Relay for Life type thing, raising funds for Multiple Sclerosis research) - my hour-long slot starts at midnight next Sunday morning. I don't think I could lift my arms up over my shoulders repeatedly this Sunday! And the weekend after that, we have our TKD grading. And the one after that is our infamous work Xmas party.

For those interested in the nitty gritty details (like my sister El, who is joining us a week into our India trip), the shots we got were:

• Adacel - combination diptheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP) booster
• Vivaxim - combination Hepatitis A and typhoid (a HepA booster in 6-36 months will give lifelong immunity)
• Menveo - broad-spectrum Meningococcal vaccine (C, W-135 and Y)

The kids have already had their Meningococcal vaccines (given to them as pre-schoolers), and are not yet due for a DTP booster, so they only had two shots:

• Havrix Junior - Hepatitis A vaccine, and
• Typhim Vi - a typhoid vaccine (there's no kid-suitable combination vaccine, for HepA and typhoid)

All four of us will also be taking malaria tablets, starting two days before we leave, and finishing two weeks after we return. The doc prescribed a slightly lower dose for Ky, on the grounds that it might stunt his growth. Given he weighs practically the same as his brother, and is only a couple of inches shorter than him (despite the 2.5 year age difference), and is the tallest yet youngest in his class, I don't think stunting his growth is a significant issue.