Is it too last minute?
Is it too last minute?
Hey guys.
is 10 weeks enough time to figure out some sort of loop around SE Asia, plus get visas/ vaccinations sorted in time (leaving 26th May??)
If the flight can be done we’re hoping to finish the parts of SE Asia we missed last time in about a 4(ish) month trip. Thinking northern Thailand, Cam,Laos, Vietnam, Burma, Borneo and/ or Philippines….?(Would like to do them all, but i’m obv realistic and know this probably won’t happen).
I really have no idea yet as it’s all short notice, I’m yet to trawl through here at all the posts and actually ‘think’ about the route itself….
It’s just whether we’ve got the time beforehand to get prepared and get the important stuff done first??? What do you guys reckon?I’m off to work now so I can’t actually look at the visa issues tonight and which ones need to be sorted before arrival. Damn. At least we’ve both had the Hep A & B vaccines already, but I guess we’d still need to check with the doc about J.E, rabies & anti-malarials…..?I don’t even know if 10 weeks is enough time to get those done if required. Ooops.
We need to start in Singapore and end up back there for our flight home….SO, if anyone can come up with a sweet plan for how best to kill roughly 18 weeks in Asia you’d make my day.
Cheers.
Sounds like plenty of time to me. Vaccinations take a maximum of 3-4 weeks, I think they’re the only thing that’s taken any real planning ahead, the rest of it I’m just sorting as I go.
If you’ve already been once then you’re probably already miles ahead of me.
I think 10 weeks would be enough time to sort something out. Regarding Vaccinations, if you’ve had the Rabies jab before they don’t really re-vaccinate now unless you’re volunteering with animals, all it basically means is that you respond better to treatment if you caught Rabies. I’d had it done back in 2008 and went back a couple weeks ago and they said I didn’t need it again for SE Asia. Jap Enceph you can now get a course of 2 instead of the full course of 3 and there’s about 28 days between each jab to finish the course.
Visa wise, most you can get on the border on the way through, you’ll have to pre-arrange your Vietnam one before getting to the country and perhaps look at getting a longer Thailand Visa if you’re coming over land from Malaysia or it’ll only be 15 days.
Not actually been on my trip yet, still got 5 weeks to go but this information is everything I have looked at / done in the last few weeks in prep for my trip! Hope this helps!
Ten weeks to plan everything is aaaaaages - as the others have said, the vaccinations are the only thing that could be an issue so check if you need any as soon as you can.
Since you’ve already travelled in SE Asia before, you’re probably better prepared for what to expect than a lot of people here! In terms of route, flying into Bangkok is probably the most convenient option ... from there, you can travel overland to most of the places on your list.
You should check if you need to get visas in advance, and how long you’re able to stay in each country.
To visit Borneo or the Philippines, you’ll obviously need to fly ... so you should decide if you want to sort that now or once you’re on the road. I would really recommend the Philippines - I spent nearly 3 weeks there at Christmas and it’s amaaaaazing; I’d say it’s really underrated compared to places like Thailand, and I don’t know why as it’s beautiful and there’s so much to do!
Basically, you should take a deep breath, stop panicking, get a couple of guidebooks and start to decide what you want to do. You have ages; you don’t need to make a strict timetable for every day - just get a rough idea, get your flights and then go with the flow once you’re there! :-P
Just wanted to thank you al for your input. I’m Nikki’s worse half and we really appreciate your replies. A bit of encouragement and support is exactly what I (personally) needed!
Cheers to the input guys. I guess I was just a little nervous as it’s so last minute (for me anyway) I feel a bit unprepared.
There’s so much on here about these countries that I actually can’t be bothered to look anymore- from what I gather we just need to organise Vietnam in the bordering country before we enter. Sounds easy enough. Laos and Cambodia I’ve read we can obtain on arrival overland, so that’ll do.
We’ve already done the peninsular between Bangkok & Singapore, so I’m thinking we’ll start off with a return trip from singapore to Borneo. So excited for this! Then after make our way straight to Bangkok so we can do this Northern Thailand route across to the other 3 countries.
Think Burma and Philippines will have to be skipped this trip. Don’t want to squeeze to much in one trip, plus I think Burma in particular would warrant more planning etc..
Haven’t had Rabies vac before, neither the Jap.E- will call the doctor tomo to discuss this. Although the nurse at my surgery is as much use as a chocolate teapot, so i’m better off looking online myself and telling her what i want! Also need to investigate anti-malarials…
You should have enough time to get things sorted however should you run out of time or out of Anti Malarials(Doctors won’t always prescribe you masses if you’re gone for a while) whilst your on your trip, take a look at the website below. It has a search engine which enables you to find travel clinics which offer vaccinations and meds in whichever country you’re in.
I don’t bother with rabies or Jap.E for SE Asia.
Actually I don’t bother with those for any destinations… Not even when I was working at an Ecuadorian animal rescue centre… We used to say feeding the raccoons was like playing ‘rabies roulette’...
