7,550.00 BHT!

Well it's been a while hasn't it?

Don't get all excited, I'm not back out around the world just yet :( ... no this is a short update on what's been going on to get ready for trip number two (oh and my F1 trip in two weeks time ... can't wait, and come on Lewis Hamilton!) which, seeing as I've now been home for almost three weeks (50% of my stay here), I need to get on and sort things out...

Vaccinations

A week ago I went for an appointment to see what vaccinations I would need for trip number two. After a brief chat with the nurse (who kept asking me where abouts in countries I would be going to ... I don't know I replied as that's the whole point in travelling; oh and I'm trying to be spontaneous) it worked out that I would need...

• Rabies, £115.00
• Japanese B, £116.00 (which ironically, isn't a problem within Japan)
• and around six months of malaria tables, at around £20.00 per course (luckily there is a weekly malaria tablet so hopefully there won't be too much stuff for me to carry)

As you can see, all these vaccinations work out close to £400.00 (that's like 40 days budget in Cambodia) however better safe than sorry.

Due to the Rabies and Japanese B vaccinations needing 28 days between the first jab and the last, I had to start these vaccinations asap, or else I would be flying to Los Angeles before I had time to complete the course (it's a hard life). The problem was that my doctors had plenty of Rabies vaccinations in stock but no Japanese B; however my nurse told me not to worry as she would order the vaccination in straight away and it would be here, in time for my first vaccination appointment in two days time...

... well it wasn't. The nurse had ordered a Japanese B vaccination but it hadn't turned up and so (this being the last possible day for me to start my Japanese B vaccination course) I had to book an appointment at a travel clinic. Luckily the travel clinic had Japanese B in stock, unluckily the travel clinic was in Nottingham and I had an hour to get there. I made it just ... but to add insult to injury the clinic was running 45 minutes late (could have taken my time a little).

Transport

One of my biggest costs since I've been home. Due to having to go to Nottingham for a vaccination I decided to pop into the local STA Travel centre there. The guy I've booked my whole trip with (Tom) was fortunately working today and had no appointments; I was therefore able to have a chat with him about my North American adventure before asking him to book me a weeks Japanese Rail pass (£226.00 ... apparently much cheaper to purchase one of these outside of Japan than purchasing rail tickets within Japan) and to alter the date of my final flight home to the 31st May 2011. The reason this needed altering is that when I booked my trip originally (back in January this year) the airlines booking system only went up until December 2010. I was now able to change the date of my final flight to the end of May 2011, but the airline still charged me £90.00 for a date change (which Tom had warned me about back in January ... thought that didn't stop me feeling like I'd been cheated out of a £90.00 fee which wasn't my fault).

I also needed to book one flight and I did that today. My flight from Japan takes me to Bangkok ... but I need to go to Singapore. My flight from Japan gets into Bangkok around 3:45pm and I've book a flight with 'Jetstar' from Bangkok to Singapore at around 9:15pm hopefully leaving myself plenty of time for delays and check-in. At first I thought I might get a flight for 800bht but in the end I spend over 7,500.00bht ... around £50.00 in real money. The only problem is that I get into Singapore at 00:30am and so it's going to be a pain getting to my hostel.

After this I got down to some more sensible costs for transport. I booked a return rail ticket to London for my F1 trip to Belgium (really looking forward to this as all the information has arrived and I've been reading through it) and a early train ticket down to London for trip number two. As before I've decided to travel down the night before and stay over near Heathrow at a local hotel ... so why arrive in London around 11:00am?

Well you may remember my Ottawa post when I went to the military museum; I said that I hadn't visited the Imperial War Museum in London and that I wanted to. As I'm going to London I thought I would make the most of it and tick that item of my 'visiting list' (plus it's free to enter).

Visa's

Well there aren't any visa's that I can apply for yet (I will have to do them as I travel around, due to the time limits on the visa's and when I will be arriving in certain countries) but I do need to re-apply to enter the United States of America.

I filled out an ESTA from again (said 'no' to having any involvement in the 1933 - 1945 Nazi persecution of the Jews again) and Barrack has kindly decided to let me back into his country ... who wouldn't?

Accommodation

The only additional accommodation I've booked so far is a night in London near Heathrow. Just like my previous trip I've decided to travel the day before down to London as my flight leaves at 9:30am ... don't fancy travelling down the same day.

I also need to book my Singapore accommodation; seeing as I arrive from Bangkok at 00:30am I reckon I won't be out of the airport until 1:30am and therefore at my hostel it's self around 2am. I think I shall therefore book a single room for two nights as this will mean I won't wake anyone up when I get there and I'll be able to lie-in without having to check out after the first night. After this I shall move back to a dorm ... I'll look at booking this tomorrow.

Foreign Currency

Tomorrow I plan to get £50.00 worth of Euros for my F1 trip, £75.00 in American dollars (for LA) and £75.00 of Fijian dollars to give me a kick start in that country. This should hopefully cover me for the first week of trip two (therefore reducing bank charges but, at the same time, making sure I don't carry too much cash on me).

So that's it I think ... all is looking good, if not a little expensive, for the next installment of 'one otter around the world' see you on the 5th September!

Toodle Pip!