Flying without Wings

Hello,

As i promised before, I'll reveal our trip on this post. Yeap, tomorrow... me, Faizal and my dad will be flying to London. For the next 18days we'll be going to various places including Derby, Luton, Liverpool and ...( this one is a very special place which soon I'll give you guys a clue).

This time around, we chose Qatar Airways because of its cheap flight and to try different airline. Eventhough we are excited to go but deep down in our hearts we're still missing one person who're always be there to see us pack our bags.

For my dad, this is his first time packing without my mom, I know it's quite tough for him but seeing him fighting is even tougher. Life goes on for all of us here and I'm very grateful to have a very understanding husband whom is always be my shoulder to cry on. For you, B... I am madly deeply in love with you! And again Happy 37th Birthday! And also Happy Birthday to my lovely niece & nephew, Nur Zarrah and Sayfullah who're celebrating together with their Pak Cak.

*Here's the clue for our special destination.

*As usual I'll post the budget details when we come back. Trying to update our trip on facebook as well...

What's in the Backpack..?

Hmm.. rasanya lama juga dah tak update blog ni. Both of us pun kindda busy for the last few weeks. Time macam nilah rasanya seronok kalau ada laptop. Bolehlah update, surf & hangout dimana-mana tempat yang ada WiFi, specially di Starbuck or Kopitiam. But since it hasn't reach our top 10 wish list, we'll keep it for later.

Ok, let's continue with the story as one of our readers was asking on how to pack a backpack. Here you go...

Normally, we'll check on days of trip and destination. If it's a week or more, bigger bag is needed and less clothes to bring. (We normally do the laundry to avoid stack of dirty clothes or else, we just buy a new one.. shoppinglah apa lagi). Yup! that's what backpack is all about, less is more. Space is needed for other stuff like toiletries bag, slippers, poncho, electrical stuff (travel adapter, phone & camera charger) and our travel scrabble... hehe. (Btw... We used Deuter Traveller 70 & a Karrimor Backpack). We recommend you guys have daypack which is attachable to the big backpack. So easy to carry for daily adventure or sightseeing. One more thing, we prefer to use cargo bag to check in. Meaning pack all together our backpacks into one bag. Easy and manageable.

How to squeeze everything in?.. The tips, Rolled up your clothes and put it in nicely.. that's how we do it. (Anna really good at this "bab kemas mengemas"... Thumbs up!).

Now you know the tips. So guys, start your backpack and let's go traveling.

*In midst of planning our next trip, which will probably start again next year. Wanna clue...?

Go to the Land Down Under...

Hello..hello...

Lama jugak rasanya tak bercerita ni.. As for us, busy sikit dengan car boot sales.. If you guys have free time hujung minggu, bolehlah berkunjung ke Bazaar@Maeps, Mardi Serdang.

Anyway, H1N1 nampaknya belum reda lagi... ditambah lagi dengan kejadian bom di Jakarta, nampaknya makin terhad la tempat nak dilawati ni... Yes it is true.. places are disappearing. Since kitaorang dah plan this trip about 2-3 months ago, so we decided to go on with the plan and we pray to Allah hoping everything goes well for us.

At this moment, we are trying to take precautions by consuming lots of vitamins, healthy diet and maybe..maybe.. Influenza jap. You guys maybe wondering..where are we going? Okay, officially...we going to Australia for 2 weeks (12days). Budget this time so far:-

Flights Airasia KL-Gold Coast, Melbourne- KL RM1800(2 person)

Hostels Goldcoast, Sydney & Melbourne RM1100(2 person)

Trains from Goldcoast-Sydney-Melbourne RM1050(2 person)

Total so far: RM3950, jadinya seorang RM1975, ok tak?

Makan + shopping2 + jalan2 tak masuk lagi...tengah budgeting..he..he...

(*Salam Takziah buat keluarga pengarah filem, Yasmin Ahmad yang kembali ke rahmatullah... Al Fatihah).

Shall we stay or shall we go...?

Pantasnya H1N1 merebak... Ada sekolah kena tutup lagi... Makin menjadi-jadi jugak virus H1N1 ni.. Alhamdulillah, Anna baru baik dari batuk dan selsema, suspen jugak ingatkan ada kena-mengena dengan virus tu. Seminggu jugaklah nak recover. Tapi dalam masa nak baik tu sempat habiskan buku kedua dari Andrea Hirata, Sang Pemimpi kesinambungan dari Laskar Pelangi. Tak sangka buku-buku beliau boleh didapati di MPH Bookstore. Nampak jer terus sambar Sang Pemimpi dan Edensor. Beliau ada sebuah lagi novel terakhir dari tetralogi ni, Maryamah Karpov. 

Dalam masa yang sama, sempat lagi buat cupcakes untuk majlis cukur jambul saudara terdekat. Hehe..

Bila kerajaan keluarkan arahan untuk menangguhkan perjalanan/percutian ke negara2 yang serius dijangkiti Swine Flu, membuatkan ramai yang tertanya-tanya. Macamana kalau tiket kapalterbang dah beli (especially yang tambang murah), hotel dah booked dan cuti dah approved. Jadi serba-salah dibuatnya. Kami yang sedang merancang untuk next backpack ke salah sebuah negara yang dijangkiti ini pun sedang mencari alternatif bagaimana mengurangkan risiko dijangkiti.

Jika ada sesiapa yang senasib dengan kami atau yang baru balik dari negara2 tersebut bolehlah berkongsi tip dengan kami. Agak-agak vaksin Tamiflu berkesan tak?

How much have we spent so far...

Okay.. Part II, i think this is the most essential part of backpacking...

We have received some questions on how much to spend, how much to carry, how much to budget and etc..etc..

Before that, we actually are no expert on these but we can share on how we budget the whole trip individually. First, after you have decided where and when to go, then you have to check on the currency rates. We always keep this website handy: Wawasan MoneyChanger (you might have one on your own). Don't book your tickets yet, especially country that requires a visa.

Biasanya, kami kira dulu berapa harga tiket kapal terbang, hotel, pengangkutan domestik, admission fee tempat2 yang nak dilawati dan harga makan sehari. Contohnya: Semasa kami di USA (sebabnya ramai yang kurang percaya on how we did it on USA trip), currency rate at that time was: RM3.50

Tiket kapalterbang: RM3300 seorang (MAS Travel Fair)

Domestic Flight (New York to Orlando to Memphis to Washington DC to New York) : USD300 seorang (expedia.com), RM1050 each

Hotel/hostel: Orlando USD200, Memphis USD160, Washington DC. USD100, New York USD400, RM3010 dibahagi 2, RM1505each.(hostelworld/hostels/expedia).

So, keseluruhannya: RM5855, lebih kurang RM6000.

Admission fee, terpulang pada you guys punya plan. Macam kami, we spent on RM700 each for 2 days Disney & 2 days Universal Studios (mahal kan?! Tapi apa nak buat that's my childhood dream). We spent about USD20-USD30 per day per 2 person for makan-makan. (Itu ikat perut namanya..he..he.., lagipun bukan senang nak cari Halal food)

Duit makan, poket & shopping, we roughly counted as USD500 per state, so altogether USD2000 for 2 person.

Lagi satu, contoh di Jepun. Currency rate was 1000yen = RM30

Tiket kapalterbang: RM1900 seorang (Singapore Airlines).

Unlimited Shinkansen & train & buses: JR Rail Pass 28,600 yen per person, lebih kurang RM950 seorang.

Hotel/Hostels: Osaka(RM600), Tokyo(RM700) per 2 person(on our earlier post, I mentioned RM400 per night based on current rate) Semuanya RM1300 dibahagi 2 :RM650 per person.

Keseluruhan: RM3500 per person for 7 days.

Semua perbelanjaan kami di atas based on our trip, our own research from books/internet/reviews,(you guys should have seen how Anna scribble the plan on paper!) but if you guys can find cheaper than that, it's a bonus! Because being a backpacker, it's all about doing it yourself. So guys what are you waiting for? Feel like starting your own backpack? 

Have Fun on Globe Trekking!

How We Do It so far...

First of all, we're really appreciate with all the comments and suggestions that we have received so far.. and to answer some of the questions from the readers, here we go.

Okay, let's start by How we plan?

Normally we like to travel during low season, you guys can check it out on website from each country. For a longer backpacking (2 weeks onwards) we have to plan at least up to 6 months ahead. But for a week, normally take us 3-4 months. The reason why? because, easy to apply leave ( for those who are working) and can get the flight cheaper. Contohnya: this coming October, insyaAllah we are planning to go to Hong Kong and Macau,and also Shenzhen. We have bought the tickets for 2 (RM500 return).

After that, we start to check on hotel/hostels. Before that, we usually have to list down what are the places we wanted to go. Then we'll figure it out whether to book hotel/hostels close to airport or city or places of interest or close to train stations. All depends on you guys.. 

The tips: Cari accomodation yang senang untuk sampai dari airport dengan menaiki public transport.

Next, yang dekat dengan public transportation (MRT, subway, bus or train). Walaupun accomodation tak dekat dengan places of interest, tapi kalau ada public transport pun ok.. Sebabnya kadang-kadang, accomodation yang dengan city centre/interesting places biasanya mahal sikit... Tapi jangan cari yang jauh sangat, nanti nak balik malam maybe agak inconvenience (especially girls and kids). Beberapa contoh yang kami pernah pergi:

*J-Hoppers @ Osaka, Japan, 5mins walk to train station, close to Universal Studios Japan.

*HI-Sukhmuvit @ Bangkok, 5mins to skytrain station.

*Arcadia Hotel @ Jakarta, dekat dengan station busway, senang nak ke mana-mana dalam Jakarta.

*Hotel Serena @ Bandung, depan railway station.

*Orlando @ International Drive, close to Universal Studios (boleh jalan kaki, lebih kurang 20mins), ada free shuttle to Disneyworld.

*Memphis @ Elvis Presley Boulevard, sebelah dengan Graceland dan ada free shuttle untuk ke city centre.

Reservation hostel boleh dibuat di Hostel World atau Hostels.  

Untuk hotel biasanya kami guna, Asia Rooms, Agoda , atau Expedia.

Untuk domestic transportation, kalau ada banyak masa, boleh menaiki keretapi atau bas, jika tidak budget airline. Untuk dari satu tempat ke satu tempat, kalau ambil masa lebih dari 8 jam, biasanya kami ambil transport malam so boleh jimat satu malam di hotel. Atau kalau early departure for flight, kami bermalam di airport, pun jimat jugak! He..he...

Untuk jimatkan kos transportation, kadang2 kami beli One Day Pass, Tourist Pass dan macam-macam pakej tiket yang disediakan, biasanya lebih jimat. Ada beberapa contoh:

Bangkok: http://www.bts.co.th/en/index.asp

Japan: http://www.japanrail.com

Europe: http://www.raileurope.com

USA: http://www.expedia.com

Jawa: http://kereta-api.com

Singapore: http://www.ezlink.com.sg/index.jsp

Some of the tickets, you can purchase before you go, sometimes it's cheaper. Tapi semuanya kena buat research, dari buku, forum, blogs dan reviews. Nampak macam banyak kerja kan? Tapi once you have everything in place, you are not only enjoying the trip but also can save a few hundred.

Ada beberapa readers yang teringin untuk mengembara secara backpack, tapi tak cukup duit, susah dapat cuti dan masih belajar. Pada pendapat kami, most of us are facing the same problem. We are not lucky enough to be sent by the company to travel, or never won any contest dan macam-macam lagi la..

Tapi apa yang kita semua boleh buat ialah put aside a few RM dalam tabung khas ke, ASB ke atau apa-apa yang boleh memberi kita dividen atau extra cash. Jangan sekali-kali guna kad kredit (kecuali untuk tempahan online dan emergency semasa melancong). Takut nanti balik jalan, asyik kena bayar hutang, nanti tak dapat la nak ke tempat lain.

Actually we started pun dah lewat. Dah masuk ke 30an baru serius backpack. Tapi sesiapa yang mampu boleh start lebih awal. Untuk permulaan, boleh backpack dalam Malaysia dulu. Kami pun start kat Pantai Timur, naik bas dari KL (9 jam ke Kenyir) dan kemudian ke Kuala Terengganu dan Cherating. Pun dah adventure dan murah..

Jadi kepada sesiapa yang rasa belum cukup mampu, jangan risau, the time will come cuma kena ada displin sikit..Itu aje..Bak kata pepatah, "Di mana ada kemahuan, Di situ ada jalan", and Dare To Dream (itu yang selalu Anna telling herself).

Harap2 beberapa tip tadi boleh membantu, kalau ada sesiapa yang mempunyai tips yang lebih baik dan berkesan, bolehlah berkongsi sama...

*Akan ke Singapore hujung bulan ni, kalau tak ada aral. Dengar2 Universal Studios akan dibuka di Singapore next year, boleh lah start your backpacking story! Next, we'll let you know how much have we spent for the trips.