Beebee asks another question

After using the internets to find a way to go around the world with Beebee, Pati sat happily in his chair. Just he was about to doze off, Beebee came to him and said "Pati, where will we sleep when we go around the world?" Pati scratched his beard and thought. Finally, he looked at Beebee and said "Well, we are here now and when we go around the world we will still be here so I assume we will sleep here."

Beebee blinked. Then she sighed and gave Pati a very sad look. She said "Pati, even though we are here and we will be here we will not be here many days. We need places to sleep!" This troubled Pati because he does not want Beebee to be sad. He said "Is this what makes you sad Beebee?" Beebee took a deep breath and said "No Pati, there is something I hoped would change and now realize It will not" as she stared intently at Pati.

Pati was just about to ask Beebee what she wished to change when he saw a squirrel run by his window. Now he sighed. If Beebee was right, he would miss that squirrel. When he turned back to Beebee he realized he had forgotten his question. He decided it must have been something about the squirrel and he would ask Beebee later when he remembered it.

To find places to sleep around the world, Pati looked at the TripAdvisor tube of the internets. The TripAdvisor tube told Pati there were four categories of lodging: hotels, bed and breakfast, specialty lodging, and vacation rentals. Pati loves breakfast so he picked "bed and breakfasts." Pati then sorted the b&b's by ratings and only looked at places with five circles which means most people love them. Then Pati read the reviews for the places at the top of the lists. They either said "I had diarrhea and I hated this place!" or "I did not have diarrhea and I loved this place!" Pati wondered if he could ask for a room without diarrhea but was worried that might not be polite. He would have to ask Beebee later.

The TripAdvisor tube on the internets told Pati that these would be the best rooms:

• Essex House, Miami Beach, Fl for 2 nights at $233/night
• Carnival Destiny, Balcony Suite for 16 nights (disembarking in Rome rather than Venice Italy)
• Daysleeper B&B in Rome for 2 nights at 79 Euros/night
• Cairo Downtown Hotel for 4 nights at $38/night
• MS Domina Prestige Nile cruise for 7 nights
• Walton's Homestay in Kochi India for 8 nights at 2000INR/night
• Blackbery Resort in Munnar India for 1 night*
• Heritage Madurai in Madurai India for 2 nights*
• Green Woods Resort in Thekkady India for 1 night*
• A houseboat in Alleppy India for 1 night*
• Shanghi Mansion Botique in Bangkok Thailand for 4 nights at $141/night
• Golden Mango Inn in Siem Reap Cambodia for 4 nights at $25/night
• Surin Park Hotel in Phuket Thailand for 6 nights at $170/night

Pati bought the rooms marked with an * from a tour company that the TripAdvisor internet tube said was the best one in Kochi. He also got a car and a driver to keep him and Beebee safe.

After finding places where he and Beebee could sleep, Pati sat comfortably in his chair again. Then he sat bolt upright! He knew why Beebee was sad. She would miss the squirrel too and wanted to change missing it! To make Beebee happy, he decided to sneak the squirrel into her suitcase so it could go with them on their trip. Pati couldn't wait to see the look on Beebee's face when she found the squirrel!

Posted with Blogsy

How to get where we are

Last Fall, when Beebee told Pati she wanted to take him on an around the world trip, Pati wondered how he could make that happen. As luck would have it, Pati learned that the Carnival Discovery (sometimes referred to as the "lemon of the fleet") would sail from Florida to Italy in February for a major overhaul. Pati hates winter and hates flying so he booked a balcony suite. Because it is still cool in Italy in Febuary, the one way nature of the trip, and the lemon thing, the cruise didn't cost much more than flying and had better leg room during the trip. Pati was sold!

One thing Pati forgot when he reserved the cruise was that, technically speaking, traveling to Italy does not take one around the world. This was a puzzlement! By searching through the tubes on the internet, Pati found AirTreks - an around the world airline ticketing agency. After hours of planning, Patti found a route through Places Beebee would like. As an aside, every route Pati found required a stop in Kuala Lampor. Pati realized that Kuala Lampor must be like Atlanta when flying on Delta! This was one of many keen insights.

The internets told Pati that a trip from Italy that went the rest of the way around the world (including a stop in Kuala Lampor) would cost about $2200 per person and that Pati should contact their agent. Pati was most eager to do so! When he did, he was informed that the internets had lied! Instead of $2200, the agent said the trip would cost $3284 per person. To Pati, $2200 seemed like less money than $3284. Another puzzlement!

Pati realized that the internets had other tubes so he decided to see if another one could help him. He knew the Expedia tube had helped him in the past so he asked it how much the trip from Italy to around the would would cost and if he must stop in Kuala Lampor. To answer Pati's question, Expedia asked where he wanted to go. When he told Expedia "with Beebee" it told him that was not a valid airport code and he must think again. Pati thought and thought. As usual, little came of that so Pati went to the internet tube called TripAdvisor and was enlightened!

Other travelers had left messages in the TripAdvisor tube that helped Pati decide where they must go if he and Beebee were to go from Italy to around the world. He returned to the Expedia tube with his questions and received the following answers:

21 February - Egypt Air Flt 792 from Rome to Cairo
25 February - Egypt Air Flt MS361 from Cairo to Luxor
04 March - Egypt Air Flt MS352 from Luxor to Cairo
4 March - Etihad Flt 654/280 from Cairo to Kochi, India
18 March - Singapore Airlines Flt SQ5465/972 from Kochi to Bangkok, Thailand
22 March - Bangkok Airways Flt 905 from Bangkok to Siem Reap, Cambodia
26 March - Bangkok Airways Flt 924 from Siem Reap to Phuket, Thailand
2 April - Korean Air Flt 638/93 from Phuket to Around the World.

TripAdvisor gave Pati a very long answer but Pati was happy because it cost less than the short answer from AirTreks.

Pati is happy but has a few worries. First, he must distract Beebee on the trip from Cairo to Luxor to Cairo so she won't realize he is just lost and will not ask for directions. Second, he wonders if Etihad is a real airline or if the internets are playing a joke on him. Third, Pati has an insurace policy that pays an hourly rate for being hijacked in Cambodia. He is worried that he may not have the paperwork the hijackers need to fill out to document how many hours he and Beebee were hijacked. Finally, Pati misses Kuala Lampor and wonders where it is.

Posted with Blogsy

In one word, DEET...

What clothing do you pack for a round the world trip, when your constraints are

• the number of luggage pieces you can check or carry onto flights and ships, and their capacities, maximum dimensions, and maximum weights
• the climates you will be visiting, the predicted temperatures (cool vs. hot) and rainfall, and the sun and mosquitoes you must protect against
• the need for clothing for more social occasions (the "dress-up" dinners) vs for climbing around temples (rugged, easy-clean, mosquito-proof) vs for city exploration (temperature-controlled, dry, foot-saving) vs for fun (quick-drying, sun-protecting)
• the cultures you will be visiting (conservative vs. Western dress)
• safety and security (protecting your money, identity, and important papers)

In our case, we anticipate at least three dress-up dinners on the trans-Atlantic cruise and one on the Nile cruise.  The Atlantic crossing and the cruise ports will probably be somewhere between chilly and merely cool.  The heat will begin in Egypt and build to hot and humid in Cambodia.

Clothing should be conservative to suit the cool temperatures before Egypt and the cultures encountered with Egypt and beyond.  The lighter clothing needed for the hotter climates should be sufficient for the cooler climates if worn in layers.  Our concession to the cold temperatures when we leave home is to wear thermal underwear and fleece parkas.  When they are not needed again, they will finish the trip in compression packing bags to minimize space used in our luggage. 

While rainfall should not be a problem (we are avoiding monsoon season in each country visited), we will have light rain jackets and a small umbrella. 

We are each bringing a hat to protect against sun and rain.

Our biggest concern has been mosquitoes and the diseases they carry.  We are each bringing several items of mosquito-deterring clothing ("bugsaway" and "insect shield") in addition to various lotions and sprays containing DEET. 

Shoes are always a problem. We will have three pairs each: one pair athletic shoes for exercising and for touring; one dressier pair for dressier occasions; and one pair of Tevas for beach and water activities.  We will wear the largest/heaviest pair for travel.

For the first time in traveling, we are seriously concerned about asset (and identity) theft.  We will use RFID protectors for our passports and credit cards.

Who, Why and Where

Who we are

We are a married couple from the U.S. traveling eastward around the world.  As with our first blog (iBall on India) about our first trip to Northern India, we are blogging as Pati (Hindi for husband) and Beebee (Hindi for wife).

Why we are going

This trip meets several objectives, in no particular order:

• See the world
• Avoid cold Winter weather at home
• Circumnavigate the globe
• Experience a trans-Atlantic crossing by ship
• Revisit stunning architecture we have seen before and see even more for the first time
• Explore another major region in India
• Travel the Nile and see firsthand wonders of ancient Egypt
• Admire temples in Bangkok
• Be amazed by Angkor Wat
• Relax at a beautiful warm beach before returning home

Where we are going

Our original list of places to go was short:

• Trans-Atlantic crossing by cruise ship
• The Nile
• Angkor Wat

However, travel takes time and flights need airports, so additional stops were suggested by available flights.  Since we have a 10-year visa already for India, an extended stay in Southern India (new to us) was an obvious choice. Travel to Cambodia for Angkor Wat means traveling through Thailand, so Bangkok (for temples) and Phuket (for beaches) were obvious decisions.  Our early stops in Spain and Italy are cruise ship ports and opportunities to revisit sites we remember fondly from earlier trips.

We expect to have internet access periodically and hope to blog from each destination.

Round the World 2013 Calendar

Our 60-day round the world journey spans February 2 to April 2, 2013. It includes 2 cruises, 13 flights, and 7 countries. 

 

We hope to post to this blog regularly, though it might be difficult during some parts of the journey (e.g., during the Trans-Atlantic crossing).