Backpacking Trip 2015

Mar 2, 2015

March 3 – May 23: I’ll be backpacking throughout South East Asia and Oceania. It’s been exciting and stressful semi-planning it. For those who keep asking I figured I’d write it down to make it a bit easier to understand.

Old Plan: China, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand

New plan: Nepal, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand

Dummy flight: some countries require you to have an entry and exit flight before they let you board the plane. Sometimes you don’t know how long you’re going to stay in a country or which part of the country you’re going to exit from. So they have dummy flights. If you want to know more, just search for it.

Travel Insurance: this is the first time I’ve had signed up for travel insurance. I know it’s bad. I should have travel insurance every time I travel but… for this long backpacking trip, I definitely wanted to make sure I was insured. I used worldnomads.com and paid about $200 for my entire trip. Not bad at all.

My flight from Korea to Chengdu, China had to be canceled. It was listed as a nonstop flight but when I received the confirmation ticket it showed a technical stop in another China city. According to the China transit rules, a passenger in transit can only qualify for up to a 72 hour transit visa in one qualifying city. With my ticket, I would be in 2 cities. But a technical stop is mainly for refueling. So I called the airlines and they couldn’t give me a direct answer. I called/emailed the US embassy and US consulate to China and got nowhere. No one was sure if I was disqualified for the transit visa or not. The only thing they could guarantee me was that if immigration saw it as 2 city stops, I could apply for a G-visa meaning I would be allowed to stay in Chengdu for 24 hours by paying $100+. No way. The only reason I wanted to stay in Chengdu was because of the giant panda reservation there. So I decided to cross China off the list.

Nepal: 9 days. You can get a visa on arrival for 15 days at the airport for about $25 so that’s something I didn’t have to worry about. I booked my hostel in Kathmandu for 4 nights. That should be enough time to see the sights and even head to Bhaktapur. I want to spend the remaining days in Pohkara and possibly do a small trek. From Pohkara I would have to head back to Kathmandu for my flight to Myanmar.

Myanmar: 20 days. Tourist visas for Myanmar are available online. You can’t get it on arrival anymore. It costs $50 and once you’re approved, you have to print out your approval letter and bring it with you to show at immigration. Even with the letter there’s a chance that immigration can turn you away. You also need to show them an exit flight out or they won’t let you in the country. I fly into Yangon and plan to stay there for 4 days before heading up to Bagan (4 days), Mandalay (5 days), Inle Lake (4 days), and back to Yangon (3 days). I originally wanted to go all the way down south and cross the border into south Thailand but it seems a bit sketchy. The border crossings between Myanmar and Thailand in the south aren’t as reliable as the other border crossings. Since I wasn’t feeling too comfortable about what I was reading, I decided to forgo south Thailand. Sure it would have been nice to see the Thai islands but there are a lot of islands and beaches to come.

Malaysia: 9 days. No visa required. Yes! And no exit flight needed. Yes again! From Yangon, Myanmar to Kuala Lumpur. Since I’ve already been to KL, I’m planning on heading up to Kota Baharu and make my way down to Singapore. I wanted to go to the east island (Borneo) but I don’t think it’s a good idea to go there right now. Plus the states of Sabah and Sarawak have their own immigration entry requirements despite being part of the same country. Don’t think I want to go through the hassle of that.

Singapore: 3 days. No visa or exit flight required. Planning on crossing the border from Malaysia to Singapore. Shouldn’t be too hard to do. Excited to see Esther that’s for sure!

Indonesia: 11 days. Visa on arrival $35. From Singapore I’m thinking about taking a boat/ship (if possible) to Sumatra. Not entirely sure where but somewhere along that island. From there make my way to the Greater Sunda Islands to Jakarta, Java, Surabaya, Lombok, not sure if I want to go to Bali. I don’t think I’ll make it to Borneo. This is the one country that I am freaking out about (health wise). Indonesia has the highest incidence of dengue fever in Asia. Multiple drug-resistant strains of malaria are endemic in some parts of Indonesia but not in metropolitan Jakarta, Medan, Surabaya, and Bali. Avian (H5N1), swine (H1N1) influenza, and seasonal influenza (H2N3) are endemic in Indonesia all year. Rabies is endemic in Indonesia. So basically don’t go to places too remote.

East Timor: going to try and find a way to pass through East Timor on my way to Australia.

Papua New Guinea: would be nice to stop there for a few days as well.

Australia: 7 days. My visa is still valid from last summer. You can get an e-visa for $25 and it’ll last you a year. I’m not entirely sure where I want to start off. I sort of want to visit Perth and make my way to Uluru then to Darwin and Cairns. I don’t know if I’ll have time and I don’t want to be flying all the time. So I might just go from Indonesia to Darwin and then Cairns to see the Great Barrier Reef and Whitsundays Islands. From there I have to fly to New Zealand.

New Zealand: 13 days. No visa. Fly into Auckland and make my way to Tauranga, see Hobbiton, and fly out of Wellington. I don’t think I’ll have time to do the South Island. But maybe I will, who knows. I just know that I have to fly back to Australia.

Australia: 7 days. Most likely going to fly into Melbourne and see some friends. I want to try to see Tasmania before I head to Sydney and see some more friends. I’ve already done Melbourne and Sydney so I’ll be able to see more stuff outside of these cities.

USA: I fly out from Sydney to Nadi, Fiji (2hr layover) then to LAX (2hr layover) then to SJC. My flight lands at 5:40pm on May 23!