If you have clicked on the Coming Soon box you will know that my next trip is to Thailand in October/November with a good friend of mine, Cass.  You’ll met her at some point hopefully before we go since one of her tasks is to post something in the Journal.

That really is as far as the planing for the trip has gone.  Other than we will fly in and out of Bangkok.  We will spend most of our time up north.  At least a couple of days on an island or a beach type area, well it is Thailand, one kind of has to spend some time near the beach.

So you may have noticed that I have a few more categories for the journal than what I’ve had previously.  Or maybe you haven’t!  So this is the Budget category under the Before Departure heading.  So many people seem to stress over the issue of budget I thought I’d put mine up.  Now it will be broken into two.  Our proposed budget before we leave and then under the In Country heading there will be another Budget heading where I’ll detail all matters relating to what it actually costs us in country.

Or at least that is the idea.

Now so far we only have a rough, I guess you would say, proposed budget.  Now I prefer to have the same, or near enough, amount of money as the person I am travelling with.  It is just no fun otherwise with one person wanting to do something while the other is wincing and can not really afford it.

Airfares, well this is always the killer.  The specials for October are not out yet, or at least they weren’t last week and to be honest they fluctuate wildly in Australia.  It really will depend on who we choose to fly with.  The other consideration is that Cass, my travel buddy, is on one side of the country and I am on the other.  So if we want to be on the same plane it could prove to be problematic, other than Qantas that is and they tend to be the most expensive.  So that is who the airfare is quoted with since I hope it will end up less not more.

For what it is worth here is the proposed budget so far:

Days in Country: 26

Before Departure
Airfares: $1655.00
Insurance: $314.00

In Country
Accommodation: $20.00
Food: $20.00
Transport: $10.00
Spending: $10.00

Total: $3529.00

So that is based at $60 per day.  Now that is, I am hoping, a relaxed easy budget with plenty of room to splurge.  I am thinking from what I have read that we could cut the In Country allowance in half if we were on a tight budget but we are not and it is only a short trip for us.  Still I am expecting to come back with money so we will see how it goes.

As I said this is a ‘plucking figures out of the sky’ budget not really based on much.  I’ll update this as we get closer to the trip with what the actual cost of airfares and what we are taking with us.

Now if you want to know how to start getting a basic budget up and running here goes.  Start with your airfares.  Just look up some of your favourite airfare search engines, punch in your dates and pull up a fare.  Generally I’ll budget for maximum airfare rather than the cheapest I can find.  That way I’ll save enough and if I am lucky have some money to spare after paying for my airfare.  Trust me it is a pain if you do not save or allow enough for airfares because it means that you are behind on your budget before you even leave the country.

Next I tend to check out the Lonely Planet country guides.  They tend to have a section breaking down the costs in country, they also have the information online with the budget broken into budget, mid-range and high-range.  I tend to look at the mid-range these days and I throw some extra on top for good measure.

Well that is it in a nutshell.

G’day everyone, this is Cass.  Cathy and I have finally done it… managed to get holidays at the same time without the risk of them being cancelled at the last minute.  Why Thailand???  I just happened to be watching Stealth at the time… you know the part… where they are standing under the waterfall…when Cathy rang me and asked if I wanted to go to Thailand so off course I said yes.  I am sort of a spur of the moment person. It sounded (and still does) like a great idea at the time and I knew I already had the cash in the bank because I haven’t been overseas for ages!

Yep… this journal thing is my homework, but it is not that bad. Great idea.  I followed Cathy’s last trip on line and it was a great read.  Very reassuring too, to know what she was doing and that she was OK.

Cathy and I have known each other for… well, a long time.  We have lived together on numerous occasions, successfully without killing each other or destroying our friendship.  Our jobs are similar and our interests are the same… two peas in a pod, so even though she has broken her other fellow travellers (sorry Lou!), I have every faith that we will pull through this adventure and start looking towards the next…

On that note, I have decided to go for a month to Germany in June without Cathy, so look for the entries in the Germany Section until I get back…

In January, Cathy and I met in Perth for a couple of days and we did that shopping thing.  Well, we used my credit card, but Cathy provided invaluable assistance.  We only needed one shop, Mountain Designs… Love this shop.  I would hate to work there though, because I would always be broke!  Here I bought some essentials for the Thailand Trip (Germany wasn’t even a thought at this time.  I just woke up one morning and thought, “I’m going to Germany” and before the day was out, had purchased my tickets!).  Ok back to the Thailand trip!  Mountain Design provided me with my essential hiking boots and hiking sandals.  Both have done many KM here in the Goldfields and are well worn in for the journey.  I also bought my backpack and had it properly adjusted, and some clothing suitable for Thailand… you know the sort, quick dry, easy to pack.

Cathy sent me a Lonely Planet guide book for Thailand, but I have been pretty slack and have not looked at it too closely yet…

Thursday 8th March I attended Kalgoorlie RAC and got my international drivers licence… OK, I’m cheating.  This one was really for Germany, but they last for a year so I can use it in both countries…

I am looking forward to our trip in Thailand.  I have not been there yet so the whole experience will be new.  It will also be great to catch up with Cathy again for a whole month.  Sometimes living on the oposite side of the country sucks!  When I have read more of the Thailand book, I will make another entry.

Until next time…

Seeya

Cass

Ok so perhaps I shouldn’t get frustrated by the price of airfares in Australia. Maybe I should be used to it. After all it has always been this way in Australia.

What am I talking about you ask?

Domestic airfares. Or at least the price of them. I jumped online the other day checking out the various websites of different airlines. Yes I know there are search engines that will supposedly pull up the best airfare but quite frankly I’ve found them to be a joke. I haven’t really found that they do pull up the best fare and for the most part they seem to have a bias to a particular airline. So while I do test them out every now and then to see if they have gotten any better I tend to find that going direct to the airlines own website is cheaper. If a somewhat more lengthy process.

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Ok so finally this week I’ve been able to start booking things for the trip to Thailand.  The airfares, of course, came first both domestic and international.  They are booked and paid for!

We went with Thai International.  I’ve never flown with them before so it will be interesting to see what they are like, still I’ve heard nothing but praise for Thai.  I’ll be flying from here to Perth first up and spending time with family waiting for my travel buddies leave to start.  My leave starts about a week before hers!

Then on Tuesday 16 October 2007 we fly from Perth to Bangkok.

That is where the journey will begin.  That is where the journey will end.

I’m not sure why but somehow a trip just does not seem real until I’ve booked my airfare.  Once that happens I finally start to really believe that I am going.  The excitement starts to build or perhaps its just anticipation.

In typical fashion I really do not know what we will do in country.  The first couple of nights will probably be at the Shangri-La.  That will probably be booked by the end of next week.  After those ‘nice’ nights we will head up North, most likely.  There will be that ‘travel stuff’ of some description thrown in before heading back to Bangkok to fly out.  Well Cass will fly out Thursday 8 October, I’ll wave goodbye and stay an extra week or so.  I’m not sure if I’ll stay in Thailand or perhaps go to Myanmar the last week just for a brief ‘look’ at the country.  I figured the choice was to either head home and twiddle my thumbs for a week and a half there before starting work or stay longer in Thailand.

I chose to stay longer in Thailand!