Two weeks to go

In two weeks, my trip around the world will have started. But it's not because my departure time gets closer and closer that everything gets done by itself.

I finally canceled my subscription to the newspaper, told the car and home insurances I was going, wrote a will, just in case. Better not to take chances. By taking my car out of the road, I will save some money on registration and insurances. House wise, the beauty of renting a place is there will be no change to my insurance.

I told the SPA that my two cats would stay somewhere else (had to think about that), made photocopies of my traveling documents, credit cards and others, to leave a copy at my parent's house and to have one myself in case of a problem. I also sent it all in my e-mail. Then I'll be able to access my documents anytime.

And I finally ordered my JR pass for Japan. It is a pass for strangers you can order online before you get in the country. You can save on transportation with it. But you must activate it in the three months following your purchase.

Thousands of questions

A baptism. Funerals. Lot of work to do. There is a long list of tasks I have to take care of before I can do my check-in in Burlington Airport.

But yet, I spend my time asking myself stupid questions. Will I get a haircut somewhere on the road or do I shave it all? (Stupid questions, I told you) Where do I find a map to find my way in Osaka? Is there an ATM in Petra's airpot? Will I encounter a place cold enough so I need to bring a warm jacket in my luggage? Should I bring my sleeping bag? Should I cancel my cell phone plan? Should I buy a bus pass in New Zealand or should I find my way as I go? Where is Jean Charest's forest in Adelaide? Will Olivier stay one more week on Star Académie? How can I find my way around if I was told not to talk to strangers? 

And there is all those people who wish to see me before I go, while I have so much to do. Maybe I'll need to use Skype to satisfy everybody.

Luckily, there are those nice people coming to me with suggestions. Vicky and Daniel told me about the JR pass in Japan, which is made especially for strangers. Marie Eve reminds me I should buy it fast before I leave. Louise, who tells me it is totally possible to get the chinese visa in Hong Kong.

Oh! And another thing. I need to review my itinerary, already, to limit the problems. And I need to make sure the plane tickets will stay as cheap as possible, even if I improvise on the way. Plan A, to link Sydney and Osaka, becomes Plan B : Sydney Hong-Kong. But I still want to go to Japan. We'll see how often it'll change before I get there.

Tip
This one is very simple. But still. It seems impossible to get anywhere without making a list. List of things to do. List of stuff I need to put in my luggage. List of the credit cards, bank accounts and other financial resources. But the most important is the list of things to buy before the departure date. Be smarter than I was. Put that stuff immediately on the list of things to bring too. I took notes left and right and I'm now very afraid of forgetting something because I didn't put it on the list. Probably for nothing.

Three Little Needles

Voila! It's done! I got my vaccines against most of the really bad diseases which could attack me in the far corners of the globe.

The Traveler's Clinic, it was an excellente idea. With the list of the countries I wish to visit, they looked at all the diseases I could get. The future tourist, me, can than choose if he accepts or not the vaccines recommended. Because some of them are really expensive.

Meanwhile, the nurse gave me a lot of flyers on what to do and what not to do to prevent myself from getting infected by anything. Diphtheria, tetanos, whooping cough, hepatitis, typhoid, yellow fever, etc. could all be combined in three vaccines.

Very expensive, the rabies vaccine can prevent you from getting a sort of blood transfusion you might not want to get in some countries that are less developped. You need three injections, the last one being 28 days after the first one.

Once I got my vaccines, I saw a doctor who gave me a flyer for each country I want to visit. Each one describes the risks for malaria, for example. The doctor filled a list of prescriptions to renew the medicine I already am taking.

They include Imodium, Cipro and Zithromac against diarrhea, Malarone to prevent me from getting malaria, and gastrolyte. They recommend to bring Benadryl againt allergies and pristine, a pouder to treat water to make it drinkable. Don't forget the spray against mosquitos, Gravols, sunscreen and Polysporin.

Tip
For prevention, you can bring syringes. If you need an injection, you could demand that the doctors use your clean and sterilized syringes. It is better if you can get a letter from your doctor which confirms you are allowed to transport syringes.

My God you're lucky!

First reaction : "My God you're lucky!" That is at least the message I received the most since I announced that I would be leaving for a trip around the world.

Let's set things clear right now : chance has nothing to do with my decision to leave. A long trip, on paper, is extraordinary. Like having Sidney Crosby, Claude Giroux, Kris Letang and Jeff Skinner in your hockey pool at the job. On paper, it's perfect. But in reality, it's not that clear.

I didn't win at the lotery. Nobody offered me for free to discover exotic places. I made a decision. And it would be hard to leave without having thought it throught. The list of tasks to do is huge. But the secret, actually, is to make lists and to check or cross stuff as you go.

Vaccines
I managed to make an appointment to get my shots. The Traveler's Clinic is amazing : an appointment two weeks after the phone call. They promise to update my vaccines and they'll suggest everything I need according to the countries I will visit. They analyzed my itinerary. They will renew my prescriptions. But the bill could be hard to pay. 

Cats
I also found a place where my cats would be fed and taken care of while I'm gone. And I won't need to separate them. I realized that while you stress for things like that, you ignore that a lot of people would agree to take care of your animals for a temporary time while you're gone. Less responsabilty for them than if they had to adopt.

ATM
Leaving your home to fly to a different country can pose some problems on the budget or trying to get some foreign currencies. Joy! Technologies are helping. ATM saves you a lot of headhaches. You can usually withdraw some money as soon as you get in a new country.

But one needs to know there is two types of debit cards : Plus and Cirrus. A symbol behind your card tells you what system your card is compatible with. Some will tell you that you need a four digits PIN in some countries. Not with the Plus system. That one will recognize automatically your five digits PIN. My bank told me so.

International driver's licence
Other thing to do : get the international driver's licence. That's a traveling document that gives your details in several languages. It doesn't replace the original driver's licence, but makes it easy to read for the authorities. It costs around 30 $ in Quebec and it's good for one year. I don't know yet if I plan to drive abroad, but I don't want to take chances.

Be careful. Some countries won't let you drive, even with the international driver's licence. It is the case in Cambodia, where it is not advised to drive. Note that it could be a good idea to study the signs also, since they may be different from the ones you see at home.

Flags
To conclude, to challenge you a little bit, I added a section on my blog where I will put the flag of the country I will be visiting. You'll see, without cheating, if you can guess where I am.

When it's time to go

What about a good share of resilience to start the sprint of preparation? No choice, when the clock does tic-tic, you need to move forward. And to accept that all will not go as planned. What a training!

First things first : passport. It's one thing to say that paying more will get you your passport one day before you take the plane. But if you have time, why not trying to save yourself from some stressful moments. Lots of occasions to be « last minute » are waiting around the corner anyway.

When I got my latest passport, everything seemed easy. Valid until 2015. Lots of empty pages... No! When you look at what you need to get some visas, you realize you often need one or two empty pages to be granted the right to visit a country.

Used the calculator. Fast! To find out, for example, that if all the custom officers were nice enough to use all the room available in a page to put their stamp, I should be okay. Probably! But there is always one who chooses to use a full empty page to put his stamp right in the middle.

So! No choice, needed a return trip to Montreal to make things easy. The form fully filled, ugly pictures of myself in my pocket, and the « old » passport... The « old » passport! Where is it? Disappeared? Sweating! Flash (McQueen)! Lost for a moment on the sidewalk downtown Montreal. Good start! As long as it doesn't happen downtown Tokyo...

While I was there, why not ask for a 48 pages passport, thicker of course, but at least it would keep me from trying to get a new one in the middle of Jordan or Cambodia. And there would be enough room in there to heal the blues of being back, if I need to. Skeptical, the passport agent, but everything seemed okay. Only need to wait now.

Next time : getting some vaccines. The only thing is that it is impossible to get an appointment between the doctor's voice mail that sends you back to the web site where the appointment form looks like it disappeared. Tic, tac!