Bangkok hotel

Not made great progress tonight but some, have moved on to the seventh
Georgian lesson. Just had a bit of a flick round on expedia and in the
guide book and have booked myself a hotel for the first four nights.
Guide book makes out in general it's good to reserve in advance at high
season (which is when I'm going), I don't think I can do that for the
rest of the time there but I always planned to book accommodation for
arrival anyway. The hotel is pretty cheap at about £33/night including
taxes, it is in the Silom district which is maybe 2-3km from the really
central stuff, but I figure that's walkable or taxiable or Skytrain-able
(though I am not sure that goes right into the central stuff, but it
would cut out a bit of walking, if that's necessary), and the price was
pretty good and the reviews were almost unanimously positive. I am
taking Andy's advice to the extent of staying somewhere nice-ish when I
first arrive, the place has free wi-fi and air conditioning, even if I'm
not going 5 star. (I went for the most basic room, the description of
all the different room types was identical. I'm not that fussy when it
comes to things like this anyway.) It is apparently near one of the
"must do" things which is a 63rd floor bar, which does sound cool.

I was originally thinking about staying three nights but I figure the
way the flights work I effectively land in Bangkok at 00:40 London time,
07:40 Bangkok time, having been travelling (from Heathrow, longer really
of course) since 10:05 London time, so I expect to be jet-lagged and/or
knackered the first day in Bangkok, so I added an extra day. This way I
will also be there on Friday night if it makes a difference, although
since I'll have to check out the next day that's not great. I can
actually cancel for free (but I have paid the full amount upfront) up to
27 October, so it's a no-lose option really.

Not read much of the guide book yet but skimming it tonight and
yesterday and seeing mentions of rooms with "windows optional" I do
wonder if there's much danger of waking up to find a fucking huge spider
in bed with me. I guess I need to read more of the guide book, I suspect
even outside Bangkok there is plenty to do and plenty of places to stay
without sleeping in windowless huts in the jungle, and also Sue's tip
that a mosquito net provides reassurance against such things to a
certain extent as well as its intended purpose is worth bearing in mind.
(I wouldn't much enjoy finding one under the bed or on the ceiling,
though.) Just need to read enough to reassure myself on this before I
book an onward flight which commits me to spending three weeks in the
country and me too scared to set foot outside Bangkok. Still, I'm sure I
could occupy myself there for three weeks if push comes to shove, but I
will try to read a bit more of the guide book over the next day or two
and then book the onward flight.

I am not entirely sure exactly what I want to do with my time in
Thailand but I guess I don't need to be super organised. I will read the
guide book nearer the time - though I do need to try in general to force
myself to read them instead of just flicking desperately around at the
absolute last minute - and I can play it by ear etc etc.

Thailand guide book, Georgian lessons

Bought Rough Guide to Thailand on Kindle as well. Have had a quick skim
of first bit. Sounds quite a cool place. (I find it odd I need to say
that. I think the slightly pressured preparation for the trip, including
one or two moderate niggles I haven't blogged about, are making it seem
like an enormous hassle.)

Don't seem to have got as much done this weekend as I'd have liked and a
few too many things are still up in the air, but I think there has been
reasonable progress all things considered. Am now onto lesson 6 (of 20,
and that's just the video lessons, there are some audio ones which I
haven't looked at yet, though they may be the same material for all I
know) of the Georgian course, although I am by no means rock solid on
the material of lesson 6. I guess there is at least a moderate chance I
will have the alphabet down before I go, which could well be helpful
when reading signs and what have you.

I am not going to be booking any more flights or hotels tonight. Maybe
tomorrow or Tuesday.

While I remember, I did get some slight soreness in my left arm for a
day or two after the typhoid vaccination. Nothing major.

Miscellaneous preparations

Up later than I'd have liked today, natch.

Called MBNA to see if I can get my credit card re-issued early as it
expires in February. No, I can't.

Called T-Mobile to enable roaming. That was OK, although their recorded
messages suggest you should turn off data roaming to avoid unexpected
charges, whereas their web site (last time I looked) and the bloke on
the phone who I spoke to today both said that you don't get any data
unless you use the phone's browser to buy a data booster, so there's no
need to turn data roaming off explicitly (unless, I guess, you have
bought a booster but don't want the phone burning through it). It's so
freaking expensive that I doubt I'd buy a booster, but I will probably
turn data roaming off anyway. They can't put a cap on the account so the
bill can't go over say £50 a month, nor are they capable of issuing me
with a text warning when the bill crosses a certain threshold. I can
text BAL to 150 but - I asked - they will charge me a roaming text
charge for sending that text message just like any other. So basically
you have to check your balance on the web, if you happen to have a free
data connection. I already knew the whole roaming business was a
complete customerfuck anyway, of course. Obviously you can buy a local
SIM but I may or may not bother - in Georgia I probably won't, perhaps
in Thailand or India I will; basically I want this so I can receive
texts (which is free, fortunately) from family and friends in the event
of minor or not so minor emergencies, and also so I can get verification
codes from Google when signing into GMail, plus the ability to receive
and make calls in the event of serious emergencies at my end or back in
the UK.

Have booked a hostel (double bed to myself, shared bathroom) in Tbilisi
for Sunday-Tuesday nights; I paid hostelworld £5 for a gold card to
avoid the £1 admin charge per booking, as with my previous trips I am
sure I will use them at least a further four times during the next five
months, let alone the next year. Paid a 10% deposit now and the rest on
arrival, as usual; also this way I suppose if I do want to change my
mind I can forfeit the relatively small deposit and book something else.
(However, the hotel on expedia I was also considering now appears to
have no availability anyway.) The hostel offers airport transfers but I
shall take a look at the guide book at some point over the next day or
two and see if I think it might be easier to manage that myself. Arrival
time offered me the choice of 10am, 11am or midday, I chose 10am but I
don't know if I will be able to get into my room then. (It may depend
how busy they are, if the room is vacant the previous night then they
may let me in anyway.) They do offer free tea and coffee all day so I
always have the option of sitting around in the hostel keeping myself
awake on caffeine for a bit anyway.

As per my usual paranoia - I am sure I read this somewhere, I didn't
make it up out of nothing - I am not going to note down the name of the
hostel until I've finished staying there. Off the top of my head I
really can't say why this matters, but there you go.

Looking at the onward flights, I land in Bangkok early in the morning of
Tuesday 29th October. I guess I want to be back in London on about
Saturday 21st December. That's about 53 days (I am being fuzzy because
you sort of don't want to count the last day if you're flying back
then). Let's knock one day off for the flight Singapore-Delhi (let's say
Bangkok-Singapore is short enough we don't need to worry about it) and
decide to spend four nights in Singapore. That leaves 48 days between
India and Thailand. Perhaps unfairly - especially given I haven't
actually bought or looked at a guide to Thailand yet - I am inclined to
split that slightly less than equally in favour of India. (It may be a
bit silly, and perhaps I'm rationalising my preference, but with the
visa hassle for India, I am perhaps slightly more likely to visit
Thailand in a fairly casual manner on a future trip, whereas to go to
India I would probably feel I had to spend at least 2-3 weeks there to
be worth the visa hassle.)

Three weeks in Thailand would see my fly out on Tuesday November 19th,
presumably during the day and arriving in Singapore in time to do
something that night. So my four nights in Singapore would then leave me
flying out Saturday 23rd November. I am half inclined to give Thailand
an extra day or two so I get to have Friday and Saturday night in
Singapore. Let's plough on as-is for now and see how it goes.

I would arrive in Delhi the same day I left Singapore. Four weeks in
India would see me leaving on Saturday 21st December. It's vaguely
tempting to try to get back a day or two earlier in the hope of catching
up with friends (who tend to be around mostly during the week), but
Christmas being Christmas I'm not overly confident any of them would be
around, certainly not enough to make it worth losing a day or two's
holiday. I might choose to stay in London and travel back up to Skegness
on Christmas Eve, which would give me the Monday to maybe see people.

That split is perhaps pushing it a bit too far in India's favour, and I
think the weekend in Singapore argument resolves it by suggesting
(subject to flight prices varying hugely day to day) I should extend
Thailand by two days and cut India back by two.

So that gives me these propose dates:
- Bangkok-Singapore Thursday 21st November
- Singapore-Delhi Monday 25th November
- Delhi-London Saturday 21st December

Let's crank up the flight websites and see what's on offer.

Bangkok-Singapore is a short, cheap flight anyway. ITA offers as
cheapest flight on 21st November £68 with Jet BKK 13:25-SIN 16:55, and
those times look pretty good too. (Date makes little difference on ITA.)

Singapore-Delhi doesn't seem very date-sensitive judging from ITA, so
let's go with Monday 25th November. Absolute cheapest is £156 via CMB,
10h all in. For £187 Air India do a direct flight SIN 0915-DEL 1230.
That departure is a bit earlier than I'd like, but it gives me plenty of
daylight to get to my hotel in Delhi on arrival. Also it will encourage
me to have a quiet Sunday night in Singapore, and I am assuming that in
Singapore the transport to the airport is going to be relatively easy.
We'll see what expedia can do but on ITA that Air India flight looks
about the best option regardless of how much money I'm willing to spend.

Delhi-London doesn't seem very date-sensitive either, so let's go with
Saturday 21st December. British Airways do a £336 flight DEL 1230-16:15
LHR direct, which looks pretty good. Absolute cheapest is £246 via RUH,
17h 25m all in; for that price difference I'll take the direct flight.

[I don't know where CMB and RUH are, though I might guess they are
Ceylon - duh, it's Colombo actually I think [filled this in later!] -
and Riyadh. I'm using the airport codes here to save writing anything
inaccurate while also not bothering to look them up.]

For Bangkok-Singapore expedia offers some £61 flights via Air Asia at a
variety of times; these seem to be from DMK not BKK. That is indeed in
Bangkok (just checking!) and I guess that would be fine. If I can find
somewhere to book the Jet flight shown on ITA then that's slightly
better times IMO; expedia can offer AirAsia DMK 1315-SIN 1640 for £70 if
I can't. (I think Andy said the opportunity to add-on a hotel when you
book with expedia is sometimes worthwhile, whereas I'd assumed
otherwise, so I should perhaps investigate this before I book anything,
especially if I am going to try for something nice.)

For Singapore-Delhi expedia's absolute cheapest is £165 via Colombo.
They don't seem to offer any direct flights comparable in price with the
ITA Air India flight; the cheapest direct is £252 SIN 19:35-DEL 22:55,
so I think if I can find somewhere to book it the ITA one wins there.

For Delhi-London expedia's absolute cheapest is £278 via Moscow (15h
20m). They are offering the same BA flight shown on ITA for £346; I will
hunt around but it may be that ITA is slightly off on that and that's
the actual price I'd pay to book it.

So, what is expedia offering by way of add-on hotels? Absolute cheapest
are some hostel-type things, it's hard to just write down a single
cheapest price as it's all a bit fuzzy. There might be some kind of
hostel place which would give me a double room (not clear if it would be
just for me, or I'd have to pay double) for £63.54 a night. I guess if I
want a hostel I can probably - I will check in a bit - do it cheaper and
more flexibly myself via hostelworld. Let's move up the price range.
There is a hotel offering a "superior room" for £30.18 a night, not sure
if it's a great location or not (Geylang). Sorting by "best value", I
can get a "superior room" at a different hotel "in the heart of
Singapore City Centre" (Little India) for a tad over £100 a night. That
does include free wifi, although it then goes to say there is a
surcharge for wifi in the rooms (it's a hotel, naturally they chisel you
left right and centre).

The cheaper places in Geylang seem to offer genuine free wifi (this is
important, but not as important as I perhaps make it sound just now!)
for a tad over £50 a night (I do wonder if the £30 a night thing was
with the 20% discount for staying just one night, not clear).
Incidentally, it's also not super clear if this is a cheap deal with the
flight or not.

Quick web search suggests Geylang is the red light district (to be fair,
this is mentioned right on the expedia hotel pages). Rough consensus
seems to be that it is safe but it's not clear if it has good transport
links or not. Some say you'd be nuts to stay there are there are other
nice areas which are cheap, others say it is a bit more real than other
parts of Singapore.

Frankly I think I need to get a guide book (electronic of course) and
have a skim before I decide what to do. Of course in some sense booking
my initial Bangkok hotel is more pressing, because I will be there much
sooner, but the question here is deciding roughly what I want and what I
expect to pay so I can see if there is any combined flight+hotel deal
which will save me money.

OK, having had a browse on amazon bought Rough Guide to Singapore. It
was the most expensive they have, but for slightly hazy reasons I
figured I'd go for that one. (Perhaps because I think the formatting etc
on the electronic Rough Guide to India is much better than on the
electronic Lonely Planet Georgia..) Also it was the most up to date,
being a 2013 edition.

Hmm, as far as I can see expedia only allow you to do a flight+hotel
search if you want a return flight. Let's re-search for a flight and see
if it offers any hotel add-ons (although when I was looking at the
prices above, it just seemed to sit there with some kind of searching
animation for ages). Yeah, it's doing that again. Sod it.

I have a couple of hotels in mind at the budget end of the range
(£250-260 for four nights, free wifi, fairly good location, small
windowless rooms but WTF) but I am not going to rush in to book them
just yet. I might do some booking later today and it might even include
this, but I'm not quite that rushed.

Let's just have a try at the multi-stop ticket. expedia let you do this
as well, I just never noticed/bothered. Bwahahaha! The *cheapest* on
expedia, without paying attention to desirability of the flights, is
£1098. The individual flights I picked out above come in at about £591
(adding up the ITA prices just to get a quick figure).

opodo comes in at £501 for the cheapest (which has a 22h 10m flight from
Bangkok to Singapore) and £580 for the next cheapest (which has a 16h 5m
flight Bangkok-Singapore). Basically unless calling up some airline
would somehow massively beat this, I think the multi-stop ticket is no
good at least for the particular combination of flights I want here.
Maybe if I were doing more flights on the ticket (e.g. London-Bangkok as
well) it would be better, but as mentioned earlier (I think) the lack of
flexibility in choosing individual flights also sucks. I will consider
the possibility for the Latin American part of the trip but for this
part, it's not going to be a multi-stop ticket.

I'm going to send this and have something to eat; I've been building
this up over the afternoon/evening so far. I think the next most
pressing booking is a hotel for my arrival in Bangkok, as that's the
nearest unbooked thing which I want to book before I leave home. After
that it's the flight on to Singapore and the hotel there; I might well
book the flights up today or in the next day or two, before I get any
unpleasant surprises with price hikes and to give me the best chance of
getting aisle and/or emergency exit row seats.

Tbilisi flights

Because I really need to get to bed so I can continue trying to sort
stuff out tomorrow (been doing quite a few minor bits of preparation
today, one way or another), I am of course still up and just checked the
London-Tbilisi flight I'm booked on to see if the ticket price has gone
up; it's £234 on expedia at the moment, so I don't think it has gone up
(from memory) since it recovered from the momentary blip down to
£209-ish at which I booked it.

Oh, Raj also recommended multi-stop tickets as a way to save money. It
seems (he recommended phoning someone, but I like the mulling potential
of online) you can get them on opodo at least, based on a quick search.
However, unless flight prices have soared since I took down the prices
of individual flights on a rough planned itinerary onwards from Bangkok,
the multi-stop doesn't really save any money on this route at this time,
and you get far more choice of departure and arrival times with
individual tickets of course. Worth checking out in future however, now
I know they can be purchased online.

I do also need to decide, before I book the rest of the flights, exactly
how I am going to parcel my time up between Thailand, Singapore and
India. Something for tomorrow. Bed!

Laxity

Not been getting on great with preparations. Need to book a hotel in
Tbilisi ASAP; leaning towards springing for a double room to myself in a
hostel with shared bathroom, as a compromise between not burdening
myself with the stress of a dormitory after the flight but still saving
a bit (not a huge amount, but still) compared to a hotel and offering
some prospect of meeting people. The main purpose of the trip is to "see
and, where appropriate, do stuff", not to socialise per se, but of
course a) that's also a potentially fun part of a trip (as long as it
doesn't lead me into excessive drinking any more than I can help) b) is
something I'd kind of like to get sorted out and c) is semi-necessary
when otherwise travelling solo for a couple of months at a stretch. In
respect c) this trip is of course slightly easier than the one in 2010
as I will never be away for more than three months straight, but the
issue still arises.

Went out shopping today and bought a pair of lightweight trousers at
Rohan; think I will take those and the combats I bought to go to
Edinburgh, eschewing jeans (heavy, slow to dry) and the trusty pair of
creamy lightweight-ish chino-esque Rohan trousers I bought for the 2010
trip (which are still in tolerable nick, however; if I didn't think
three pairs of trousers was pushing it a bit, I would probably take
them). Needed to have them shortened, I hope that will work out OK, and
bit of a pisser to collect as they are open from 10-7 so I can't go
before work nor can I conveniently go after work and I'm not in London
next weekend. I might pop over at lunch or failing that one day I will
have to leave work early or get in late. To be fair, if I made sure I
was at the shop in Covent Garden at 10am I'd probably be in work no
later than I often have been lately coming from home.

Got myself a T-shirt and a coat as well. Those were dead cheap,
Debenhams and Primark respectively. I got the lightest coat I could
find, obviously this isn't an ideal time to be shopping for one in this
country. Frankly I suspect it may well be too hot even at night, but we
will see. The cream-y jacket I bought prior to the Mexico trip was too
warm there, definitely during the day and AFAICR at night too. This just
might be lighter in a way - it's waterproof-ish-looking fabric rather
than proper cloth - but you never know. If I don't wear it I don't wear
it, but I will probably want a coat (plus layering underneath) for
Georgia and maybe some parts of Latin America (e.g. if I end up down in
the far south again), and I think it's borderline jacket-y enough that
if temperatures permit I could wear it in the evening and look
reasonably smart without being overly formal. I hate clothes, they're so
complicated. ;-)

Need to get to bed really. Do want to book the hotel in Tbilisi tomorrow
and also look into booking more flights, ideally all of the remaining
flights for the pre-Christmas phase of the trip.

Raj and Manmeet at work gave me some tips on India; apparently I can
hire a taxi for a day for something like £15-£25, which sounds like a
good way of doing some sightseeing in Delhi (although I do want to try
the underground there). Was surprised Raj recommended taking traveller's
cheques, which everyone else I've ever talked to seems to regard as a
prehistoric curiosity. However, I have checked and I have USD200 of my
pre-2010-trip purchase left, so I will regard that as enough for
emergencies and I will try to ensure (Raj recommended £500 in cash,
which is a bit too mugger-prone for my liking) I have maybe £100-£150 on
me (or in my belongings) as a reserve of cash on top. They seemed to
lean towards recommending expensive-ish (although relatively cheap by UK
standards) hotels/restaurants, although Raj said he had stayed in 1* and
3* places and they were OK. I think - oh, Andy made a similar-ish
recommendation about Bangkok - I will lean towards something relatively
fancy when I first arrive in both India and Thailand to allow me to find
my feet before possibly moving down to the cheaper end of the scale. I
am not really intending to go 5* unless it's super cheap however, but
reputable 3*/4* perhaps.

This perhaps makes my choice (not booked of course yet) of a hostel for
my arrival in Tbilisi a bit odd, but then again it's a different kind of
place, I suspect.

Have done lesson 5 of the Georgian course today. So progress has been a
bit slow due to my laxity. Still, better than nothing and I hope to do
one or two more lessons tomorrow, and I think I am pretty much
remembering most of the stuff that has been covered (I keep recapping
some of the older lessons to keep them fresh).

Anyway I am going to go to bed as I hope to not be up mega late tomorrow.

London-Bangkok flights

I need to get to bed...

Just been on the Jet Airways website to check if I got aisle seats. I
did (the economy cabins are not that full, yet), but since I can
apparently pre-reserve seats and emergency exit seats were available on
both flights I have changed them. Fingers crossed I don't get relocated
to non-aisle non-emergency exit seats...

I'm now supposed to be in aisle emergency seat 30H on the London-Mumbai
flight and window emergency seat 18A on the Mumbai-Bangkok flight. To be
honest I probably need to get over my "fear" of not having an aisle seat
anyway, after all I did survive the flight back from Sao Paulo to London
:-) and that was much longer. (Plus I distinctly remember flying from
Sao Paulo to Santiago in a window seat back in 2010 and not thinking
twice about it. It's only relatively recently I've somehow built this up
into a massive deal rather than a mild preference.) To be fair, window,
while a bit more "trapped" in some sense, is better than a middle seat
where you're still blocked off from the aisle by someone else but you
also have someone on the other side.) Window is totally fine in an
emergency row anyway, in fact better since you have the chance of a
view. I couldn't get an aisle emergency seat on the second flight so I
figured I'd chance it. I am assuming of course that if I do get shifted
(or if the plane layout turns out to be wrong somehow) that choosing an
aisle emergency seat will probably at least degrade into an aisle
non-emergency seat.

Anyway, enough about my bizarre psychological problems and towards bed.

Flight to Bangkok booked

Been mulling this over and it's actually cheaper to fly Georgia-London-Bangkok than Georgia-Istanbul-Bangkok, so I'm going to come back to London for a couple of nights before going on to Bangkok. Not great but probably not too bad an idea, and Istanbul would be doable as a normal long weekend kind of trip if/when I'm back at work, or even as a weekend trip after my return to the UK before I started back at work (not that I expect to do that). It does also mean I can maybe make some changes to my luggage from 'cooler' to 'warmer' climate stuff, not that this is likely to be a big deal. Just been checking flight prices online from work and I've booked. About (from memory) £200 to fly back from Georgia via Kiev, then £350 (on ebookers; expedia had same flight for £370) London to Bangkok via Mumbai.

Need to get hotel booked for first couple of nights in Tbilisi sharpish. Also bit worried may not get aisle seats on the Bangkok flights as booking relatively late. I guess I will survive if I can't, and this should also encourage me to book the other flights ASAP so I get more chance of getting aisle seats.

Travel insurance

OK, having slacked off a little at work I managed to find a sane (well, apparently) travel insurance policy with MoreThan or however you spell it. Multi trip for up to 90 days at a time, maximum 180-ish a year which while not as generous as some others (which are unlimited) is still ample and will give me maybe a month of cover to use for any short holidays later in 2014 as a bonus.

As a further bonus they actually let me pay a supplement up front and paragliding (among various other 'risky' sports) is covered (not personal accident or liability, but if I break a limb that's covered). That was something like £35 extra but the total policy worked out at £170ish, which was still cheaper than I could get from Trailfinders.

Normally I would go with Trailfinders even if they were a bit expensive since they were pretty good when I broke my arm in 2010 but the best price would have been £129 for annual multi trip with a 70 day trip limit and then £193 for an additional 3 month single trip for the post-Christmas bit, plus an extra £25 a pop and having to phone them if I do any paragliding. Had there not been the Christmas break preventing me taking out a 5-6 month single trip policy I'd probably have paid the £255 they wanted for that (for 5 months, 6 would be £289) - of course I'd also have had no choice since multi trip wouldn't have been an option then anyway.

The paragliding thing was not a deciding factor, just a bonus - I figured it was worth paying the £35 to avoid any problems, also quite possibly on that policy I wouldn't have the option to add the cover even for a single day while abroad. (It's just luck/the way they work that Trailfinders offered that the first time I tried it.) What was a consideration was that any policy I took had to at least allow for paragliding cover even if it had to involve some extra fee and/or phone call.

90 days is slightly tight post Christmas but in a way I do need something to ensure I come back and start looking for work by the start of April (when it's apparently a good time to do so) instead of dragging the trip out, so that works out OK really.

Vaccination and insurance

Got the typhoid jab this morning. It was the VI vaccine, I saw the label on the box it came in. Nurse spectacularly surly. She asked me to roll up my sleeve and muttered something about going over to "the couch area". I asked which arm. She replied "the top of one of your arms". I picked the left one on my own initiative since I'm right handed so it might make a difference if there is any localised pain, just based on memories of previous vaccinations, this one perhaps doesn't do that. (There hasn't been any in the hour odd since I had it done.) Still, got it done and that's the main thing.

I might just be in a bad mood as I was up late going through a lot of shit trying to find decent travel insurance. I despise insurance companies with a searing passion.

Six month single trip insurance costs way less than two lots of three month single trip insurance. Seems illogical. But I can't take out a six month policy as returning to the UK terminates such a policy regardless, and I'll be back at Christmas. But I'm away too long at a stretch for the multi trip policies. Maybe this is backed up by facts, but it just feels like I'm slipping through the cracks of the common offerings.

(Oh, and one comparison site treats you as having a medical condition which must be declared if you have *been to your GP in the last five years*. But it's OK, you can call their oh-so-convenient non-24h medical screening helpline to discuss your case. Or you could just use someone not quite so fucking anal about it.)

Typhoid vaccination

Just made an appointment with private clinic at Canary Wharf to have the typhoid vaccination tomorrow morning. £60 but probably better safe than sorry and it does last three years. (I asked and they do have the injectable VI vaccine, which is 75% effective - distressingly low, really - and lasts three years vs the Ty21a oral vaccine which is only 50-60% effective and lasts a year. Why I typed that out I do not know...)

Indian visa

1515 Trekked over from office to pick visa up.

1531 Just got out, that all appears to be in order so maybe I will book flight tonight.

Tbilisi flight price changes

Fri 14:35 Just had a look on expedia and the flight is currently showing
as (still) "only 2 tickets left at this price" but the price is back at
£234.

Indian visa probably OK - or is it?

Just had text and e-mail saying 'a decision has been reached' on my visa and I can collect my passport any day including today. I am assuming the decision is favourable but it doesn't actually say so.

Actually, from a quick look at the website this might mean nothing except passport is ready for collection and it has been refused. Probably is OK but no way to tell.

Flights, additional

Of course, as per the blog, the Tbilisi flight was showing up as about
£230-235 beforehand, so I've "only" saved £25-ish via this sudden drop
in price, but it's still better than a smack in the face.

Been terribly lax (and there is some other stuff going on in my life
right now of course, that makes it sound massively portentous but I'm
just being a bit circumspect on the blog) about the Georgian course,
maybe having made it concrete by booking the ticket will kick me into
gear a bit. I have 90% mastered the first three lessons but need to
press on to the fourth ASAP. Still, I can now say "thank you", which
will probably be useful.

Anyway, I really need to be moving towards bed.

London-Tbilisi flight booked

I was dithering over what and "if" to book for the last few days. I
checked earlier tonight on my saved itinerary on expedia and the Warsaw
route (which I had pretty much decided in favour of anyway; I also did
some double checking earlier on ITA's matrix and really there were no
better flights, almost regardless of cost) was £250-ish. I just clicked
refresh (presumably after midnight made the difference) and it showed as
£209! Rather than wait around and see if the price went down any
further, I took that as kind of an omen and went ahead and booked it.
Oddly, it actually cost £206.30 in the end. (I may - the price is low
enough already that I'm not going to be getting too upset, and it would
perhaps be educational - try to check periodically to see how much the
flight costs as time goes on. I just checked on expedia and I could book
the same flight again for £209, though it says "only 2 tickets left at
this price".)

The flight details are:
Saturday 12 October
17:50 Heathrow - 21:20 Warsaw
22:40 Warsaw - 04:00 Tbilisi

I am thinking I might (as if I need to make an effort, really, barring
pre-trip nerves!) deliberately try to get up as late as I can on the
Saturday, so that I'm as fresh as possible to bear up on the
super-late-night involved in the flight.

I haven't booked a hotel in Tbilisi yet but I had a quick look on
expedia the other day and there are some cheapish hotels on there with
availability at around the £30-£40/night level (with free wi-fi, which
really is very important to me, given I use it to book onward
accommodation, not to mention e-mail/Skype), and there may be options on
hostelworld. I will try to book that in the next few days, but I feel
less worried about prices surging there (still don't want to hang around
of course). I need to decide how many nights I am staying in Tbilisi to
start with; my inclination is two or three. Given I will want to be back
in Tbilisi at the end of the trip if only as a buffer so I'm not stuck
halfway across the country the day before I have to fly out, I don't
want to overdo it at the start of the trip, which sort of makes me lean
towards two nights. On the other hand, after effectively staying up all
night on the Saturday and not going to bed until 9am-ish London time
(because of the flights), Sunday is going to be a bit scrappy even if I
do a bit of casual sightseeing and I might be feeling a bit fucked up
the next day (and my sleep cycle might be odd), which does half incline
me to make it three nights.

I also need to start thinking about booking the flight out of Tbilisi
soon-ish, perhaps this weekend I will get that and the first couple of
nights accommodation sorted out.

I will observe just briefly that my Uncle Bob died on Tuesday. However,
striking a purely practical note since it's really not what this blog is
about otherwise, speaking to my mother the funeral is probably going to
be early October, so it isn't a factor as far as the trip goes. I was
dithering about booking the flight on Tuesday before I found out and
then that did at least partly contribute to me holding off on the
booking, but I wouldn't like to say how big a factor it was. In any
case, the delay worked out in my favour anyway, since I've saved £40-50
on the flight.

I just checked on the LOT Polish website and my reservation is there and
my seating preference, as given to expedia, has been respected and I
have an aisle seat on both flights. Spiffing.

Indian visa

Took form, passport and photos over to the visa centre near Barbican this morning. Surprisingly painless (I suppose most of the pain came with the online form), I was called up to the desk about five minutes before my 915 appointment time and out the door at 915. I paid when I did the online thing for text and e-mail updates. The woman said the earliest it would be done would be Friday, so I have reasonable hopes of getting it back in time.

Only fly in the ointment is they only allow collection (which I chose) between 3 and 430pm, which seems a bit crappy but not the end of the world.

Flights to Georgia

(In the unlikely event anyone but Future Steve is reading this, massive
amounts of tedious detail alert. Frankly even Future Steve might want to
skip this one...)

If I fly out on Friday night after my last day at work, the only option
at a remotely sane price is £342, LHR 2230-IST 0420, IST 0705-TBS 1020.

If I fly out on Saturday, the absolute cheapest (on ITA's matrix, which
I am kind of trusting - maybe I will double check on expedia before I
book anything) is £234, but that gets me into Tbilisi at 2325, and I'd
really rather not be arriving in an unfamiliar city where I don't speak
the language at midnight.

Now, what seems to have popped up but wasn't available before is a £235
flight LHR 1635-TBS 0420 via Athens (2h 15m there). And, oddly enough,
the Polish airlines flight I was flirting with which seemed to have gone
up £80 last night is now back down to the original price. I wonder if I
just ballsed up my search last night. Anyway, that Polish airlines
flight is £256, LHR 1750-TBS 0400 via Warsaw.

I am not paying an extra £100 for the Friday night flight in order to
get an extra day's holiday, even if I weren't at all concerned (and
there'd probably be no problem) with flying out directly after work on
my last day. That would be quite cool in a way, but at this price no.

Last night there seemed to be a cheap flight via Azerbaijan (Baku), I
even e-mailed to check I didn't need a visa to change planes there. That
would have been oddly cool, plus the Baku-Tbilisi flight would have been
in a smallish plane which would also be novel, but it seems not to be an
option any more.

You fool Steve, you've been looking at the Sunday by accident.

So the cheapest and probably the best option is now the via Baku flight.
£257. LHR 2205-GYD 0735, then GYD 1010-TBS 1011 (in an Embraer RJ-190
for 1h1m). It's a real shame that isn't an option on the Friday night
but it isn't (or if it is it costs like £800 and I filtered it out). In
a way it seems a shame to be "wasting" the Saturday like that, as I
wouldn't arrive until Sunday morning, but basically the trip takes about
7-8h minimum so unless there is a flight on Friday night, I either
arrive late on Saturday (which I really don't want to do, as noted
above) or fly overnight on Saturday and arrive Sunday morning.

Hmm, sorting by arrival time, there is actually a £234 flight via Kiev
which leaves Gatwick at just after midnight on Saturday, arriving 1540
in Tbilisi. However, it has a 6h 45m layover in Kiev.

OK, expedia can't turn up any decently priced flights on the Friday
night, although they do turn up the via Kiev flight just after midnight
mentioned above at £236.

On Saturday, expedia is offering the LOT Polish flight LHR 1750-TBS 0400
flight for £235, although ITA is showing it at £331. Not that it's a
major factor, but that also involves a probably small plane (Embraer
RJ-195 this time) for the second hop, although in this case it's 3h 20m
on the thing.

I am thinking I need to look at the London-oriented times of these with
a view to comparing the sleeping potential.

So, going via Baku (£257, ITA) I leave Heathrow at 22:05 BST and have a
5h 30m flight to Baku, i.e. we land at 03:35 BST. I then spend 2h 35m at
the airport before flying out at 06:10 BST, landing in Tbilisi at 07:11
BST, 10:11 local.

Whereas going via Warsaw (£235, expedia) I leave Heathrow at 17:50 BST
and have a 2h 30m flight to Warsaw, landing 20:20 BST. I have a 1h 20m
stopover there, we take off at 21:40 BST and after a 3h 20m flight land
in Tbilisi at 01:00 BST, 04:00 local.

Now looking at that my gut feeling is that the via Warsaw flight is
better. I have more chance of sleeping on the plane via Baku, but I
could very easily just be falling asleep by the time we land in Baku and
then I don't really get much of a chance to sleep after that (too risky
to sleep at the airport, and only 1h flight to Tbilisi). If I go via
Warsaw, because it's a bit earlier, I probably won't sleep, but given my
typical UK hours, I probably won't be particularly tired when I land at
01:00 BST. If I assume I could check in as early as I liked, I'd
probably just be getting really tired by the time I got to the ho(s)tel
maybe 2-3 hours later, i.e 04:00 BST ish, 07:00 local.

I would probably be knackered, especially if I couldn't check in and had
to occupy myself with coffee until check in time, but the Baku flight is
probably no better in that sense. I'd probably not get to sleep on the
planes at all (I often don't fall asleep until 1-2am anyway), and I'd
just be even more knackered when actually travelling from the airport to
the ho(s)tel.

I suppose either way it's like staying up all night and not being
allowed to go to bed until check in time. If check in time can be early,
that's a big bonus for the Warsaw route as it means I can go to bed by
04:00 BST-ish, which wouldn't be that big a strain. If check in time
can't be any earlier than (say) midday local, which would be 09:00 BST,
I have to effectively stay up until then, it's just that via Warsaw I
spend the last 6-7 hours feeling tired in Tbilisi a staggering distance
from the ho(s)tel, whereas via Baku I spend more time feeling tired at
Azerbaijan airport or trying to navigate transport in Tbilisi. Throw in
the fact that the Warsaw flight is a bit cheaper anyway and it's
starting to look like a no-brainer.

[I'm going to stop writing ho(s)tel and just use whichever word seems
appropriate, without implying anything about my plans unless I'm
explicitly waffling on that theme.]

Hmm. I might hope to book something today but I clearly need to brood on
this a bit more anyway. I'm going to send this to the blog now and I'll
perhaps avoid waffling further online.

Lack of progress

Been a hectic few days with other stuff. Very little progress on
Georgian - I am reviewing the first three lessons now and that will have
to do. I haven't booked any flights yet, just had a quick check and the
flight I was going to get to Tbilisi via Warsaw has gone up about £80
(from memory, not exact). There is a sort of good-ish/better-ish flight
with another airline for about the same price - this one leaves 10pm
Saturday via Kiev (I think) arriving 10am ish Sunday, vs leaving 6pm ish
Saturday arriving 4am Sunday. I am not likely to book tonight but I
really need to get at least this initial flight booked soon - any
further flights will be two weeks further in the future so things are
not "pressing" and prices presumably escalating as much.

Anyway, shall return to the Georgian lesson review and muse and just
maybe I will book this tonight or tomorrow or something.

Vaccinations

0905 At surgery in waiting room. Forgot to bring little yellow book of vaccinations with me, only realised while filling in form. Ran back home to get it. Questions on form not answerable, asks for country and location to visit. Frankly I don't know exactly where, except for India. Will see what nurse says. Not going into the Latin America trip here, I suspect these vaccinations will cover me and I can always come back if necessary.

I suspect malaria tablets are going to be the big difficulty.

0935 Waiting for DLR to work. No vaccinations, typhoid was apparently sort of a bit recommended but they don't have any in stock, there is a national supply problem and if I avoid places which prepare food unhygienically I'll be OK. Frankly a bit dissatisfied with that but what can you do? I just might see if I can get it done privately.

I don't need any malaria tablets. Thailand doesn't have malaria except where it 'leaks over' the borders. Basically the nurse made out it's a huge drag taking malaria tablets 1-2 days before and 1-7 days after entering a malaria region, so unless you're going to be away from medical attention it's not worth it. I didn't realise "that's tedious" was how this worked. I guess I won't exercise or watch my drinking because "that's tedious". She didn't quite phrase it like that, it was more "and are you really going to bother taking all those tablets?". I thought malaria was kind of incurable once you got it but you know, it would be tedious taking any tablets. Advice basically seemed to be use DEET etc.

The map she had (travax.nhs or something) showed no malaria risk for the New Delhi-Agra-Jaipur area of India, and none for Georgia, so that's not a concern.

Oh well. I guess it's all OK, it just feels like this is very much of 75% kind of effort deal. Probably I'm just in a bad mood.

India visa application

Not done a huge amount re the trip recently, although I have 75%
mastered the first two of the Georgian lessons. Progress is slow but WTF.

I filled in the Indian visa application online tonight. What a tedious
load of crap. However, I have submitted it online, I have paid and I
have an appointment to hand my paperwork in next Wednesday at 09:15. I
hope that will be OK. I somehow struggle to believe they are ever going
to grant me a visa, there has to be *something* wrong with my
application (e.g. the fact I asked for multiple entry, on the advice of
the guide book, even though I don't strictly need it), but it will
probably be OK. Oh, I got two 50mmx50mm Indian visa-sized photos taken
at Timpson at Canary Wharf on Monday, so I'm good to go there.

I probably need to think about booking some flights this weekend if not
before, at least the earlier ones which are perhaps looming a bit more
than the others and could get suddenly expensive if I'm not careful. No
real thoughts about the after-Christmas part of the trip yet, I guess
that can wait a week or two. I still haven't bought a guidebook for
Thailand or read any more of the India guide, although to a certain
extent I don't really need to now as I more-or-less know I am flying
into and out of Delhi and I can read more nearer the time.

Anyway, it's getting late and I have to be up early tomorrow so I'll
stop. Oh, I have an appointment with a doctor/nurse at my local surgery
about vaccinations at 9am on Friday.

Switching India and Thailand

Having fiddled around with the flight planner a bit more, it seems in
reality breaking the return journey from Singapore in the Gulf is not
particularly cheap. I'm not over confident in my conclusion, but I guess
it's a question of carriers competing on certain routes and hence the
prices for A-B via hub C can be considerably lower than the combined
prices of separate flights A-C and C-B. Given I was only stopping in the
Gulf because it seemed "helpful" - not that I wouldn't like to go, but
I'm not desperate - I think I might knock that on the head.

What I am leaning towards now is going to Thailand before India. So
instead of approximately
London->Georgia->Istanbul->India->Thailand->Singapore->Gulf->London it
would be London->Georgia->Istanbul->Thailand->Singapore->India->London.
In other words I am increasing the length of my flight out of Istanbul
eastwards in order to allow me to break what would otherwise be a long
flight Singapore-London into two halves by stopping in India going west.
My current draft itinerary has mostly direct flights (the only
non-direct is London->Georgia, which has an hour or so in Warsaw
airport) and no flight longer than 9h 45m, most being considerably shorter.

Having had a quick look on a couple of random websites, the best time in
terms of climate to visit Thailand is November-February, and although
for India it does depend where you go I found something saying that for
most of India the tourist season starts in winter, which is
November-February. So it looks as though visiting these countries at the
times of year I'm proposing to be there is reasonable. I think
especially for India I should let the time of year help influence where
I go within the country.

There seems a hell of a lot of stuff to sort out before I go - flat
sitting, flat insurance, vaccinations, maybe some new clothes - but I'm
sure it will all be fine. It is sort of fun in a strange way, even if it
does feel a bit hectic. Perhaps I should have done more work on this
preparation earlier, but a) I didn't, so that can't be helped and b) it
was perhaps never going to happen with all the other stuff I've been
concerned about.

As I said in the previous entry, I think Georgia is sorted in terms of
the planning I'm doing at the moment. So given the itinerary is firming
up, I probably need to buy guidebooks for Thailand and India and give
those a skim through. I suspect in a way India is the more "pressing",
since - perhaps naively - I assume for Thailand I pretty much do want to
fly into and out of Bangkok, whereas for India I could imagine it making
sense to fly in and out of different cities, so my plans for my time in
India have more bearing on my main flight plans.

(I should say that while I don't want to leave making my plans for the
second half of the trip until I'm back in the UK at Christmas, I
obviously feel that's less pressing right now. Maybe in 2-4 weeks when I
have hopefully got flights booked up for the first half I will start to
mull over that a little more. However, while I do expect to be doing
some flying in that time, I suspect there will be a lot more overland
travel by bus between countries, so booking flights is less critical. Of
course, I do want to get the outbound flight from London to wherever
booked with a good few weeks in hand so as to avoid paying over the
odds. I do wonder if I will have the balls not to book a return flight
to London before I leave to give myself more flexibility. Anyway, we
will see how the plans fall out when I start thinking about that.)

[Several hours pass]

OK, I've been doing other stuff and half dithering over buying an India
guidebook. I fiddled around with the Georgia one converting it to PDF so
I can view it properly on the netbook and also on the phone; the Kindle
version does not seem to be zoomable on the phone, which is not good for
maps. (Also, if I have a PDF version on the phone I can be 100%
confident of viewing it without internet access, whereas the Kindle
version just might decide to get uppity.) I didn't want to buy another
electronic guidebook in Kindle format without checking that sort of
problem was overcomable.

Anyway, judging from the amazon reviews the Lonely Planet guide is not
so great in the latest edition, so I think I will take a punt on the
Rough Guide to India. Disappointingly all the books seem to be 2011
editions, but I don't think I've ever stayed in a ho(s)tel listed in the
guide book - it certainly hasn't been common - and I guess that's the
kind of stuff which ages most rapidly. (Must admit the mention in at
least one review that Rough Guide is aimed at a broader range of
travellers whereas Lonely Planet seems aimed at gap year students and
backpackers sort of helped, but that isn't really why I've picked it. I
suppose in some sense I am a backpacker anyway, although I can do
without an excess of SYT "tone" in the text. The Lonely Planet Georgia
travel guide seems superficially relatively free of that kind of thing
anyway.)

[Oh, I did find myself reading the paragraph of blurb about each of the
writers of the Georgia guide book. As always they sound like insanely
interesting people whose lives sparkle in a way mine doesn't. But I also
thought, not for the first time, there's a lot of spin about these sort
of things. I'm oddly tempted to write my own potted biography, sticking
strictly to the truth but sticking to the cool-sounding bits, just to
prove it can be done. I don't intend to stick it on here if I do, of
course.]

Reading the guide book now, I find I actually need to apply for a
tourist visa. By the looks of it this shouldn't take more than a week or
two (I have only just skimmed the details), but it's a good job I didn't
find this out nearer the time. Not applying just yet, but will probably
do so at some point during this week. It also seems that you basically
can't leave and re-enter India within the same two month period, so
although I don't particularly intend to do this, the plan which floated
through my head briefly while fiddling with the flights earlier of doing
India twice in two 1.5-week-ish bursts once in each direction wouldn't
have worked anyway.

While the guide book is trying to be reassuring about the health
situation in India, it has naturally had the opposite effect. Still,
I've been ill (at the diarrhoea sort of level) abroad before and I've
got through it, and maybe I have finally learned my lesson about
drinking the water, and I have to assume anything worse is pretty
unlikely. I am wondering if I should take some water purification
tablets or something, if only so that if I do get caught without bottled
water when drunk or ill I can take advantage of whatever water is available.

While I am hardly any distance through the book, even just skimming it,
the obvious thing to do, and apparently good at the time of year I'm
going, would apparently be the so-called golden triangle which I believe
is Delhi/Agra (for the Taj Mahal)/Jaipur. Not having anywhere particular
I'm desperate to go (although I suppose the Taj would be cool, and is
pretty much mandatory :-) ) I don't see any need to be deliberately
contrary. I suspect that area could quite easily fill three weeks by
itself, but if it wouldn't be pushing it I could imagine venturing
further afield. On the other hand, my style of travel is lazy so I might
do well to spend the three weeks solely in those areas, perhaps a week
each. Anyway, still skimming the book and will see how it goes; except
for making flight bookings I don't need to make detailed plans yet. At
this rate I suspect I would fly into and out of Delhi.

Georgia

Not got as much done re the trip today as I might have liked, but still.

I have now skimmed most of the guide book on Georgia (skipping the bits
on the other countries). In no particular order:

Looks like there could be a jazz festival in Tbilisi during pretty much
the exact time I'm there, which could be interesting.

Tandem paragliding is probably an option "in" Tbilisi; this scares me a
little as I don't want to break a leg so early in the trip :-) but would
be pretty cool.

I very much get the impression that flying into and out of Tbilisi is
the way to go, which sort of minimises the amount of planning I need to
do up front.

The guide was (I think; haven't double checked just now) published in
2011. The country looks almost scarily off the beaten track; typical
accommodation details seem to be of the "son/daughter X speaks a little
English and is sometimes around" variety outside the bigger cities. I
have just had a look and hostelworld.com does at least have a number of
places in Georgia listed, which is probably helpful.

The Georgian language has its own script. This makes the idea of hardly
anyone speaking English even more scary. ;-)

I think it will be cool. Probably best is not to try to cram too much
stuff in, take a few risks with buses/trains around the country and do
what I can. I don't think it's my style anyway, but trying to cram in as
much stuff as possible in the two-odd weeks I intend to be there seems
like a recipe for toppling dominoes when I accidentally end up on the
wrong bus somewhere. Oh, and obviously I also want to have a nice buffer
of time planned in Tbilisi at the end of my time in the country so any
delays are less likely to result in me missing my onward flight.

The guidebook says Russian is widely spoken in all three countries it
covers (though I only intend to go to Georgia) and few people find it
objectionable to be spoken to in Russian; I do wonder if I should invest
in some kind of basic language course (of the "please may I borrow your
garage?" variety), although whether I'd find the time to work through it
properly would be another matter. If cheap it wouldn't hurt too much. I
imagine English will be more widely spoken in India, so that would
"only" leave me needing to do Russian and Thai for the trip, which is
probably just about achievable. (I also suspect English is moderately
common in Thailand, although I really don't know - but it is such a
stereotypical backpacker destination I feel justified in making the
provisional assumption, I will of course be reading a guide book on it
in due course, and that's not to say I won't make some effort to learn
the language anyway.) I suppose I could possibly do Georgian, if there
is a suitable CD+book type course available, on the grounds that I might
as well go for maximum goodwill if I'm learning the language from
scratch specifically for this trip. In reality I don't think these
courses get you to a fantastic level, but on the other hand I've never
been anywhere so probably non-English-speaking before, and something has
to be better than nothing. (I have also read that just a few words of
the local language make you seem more like a human being and less like a
target for exploitation; there is probably something in this.)

I hope I can get wifi at the typical accommodation over there. The
guidebook rarely seems to show its wifi symbol on the places it lists. I
can live without surfing, but it is a very convenient way to book onward
accomodation, not to mention e-mail if not Skype contact with friends
and family and of course this fascinating blog. (Oh, I am also hoping to
keep up my Spanish lessons over Skype to some extent while travelling.)

I think beyond possibly ordering a language course (can I get something
over the internet to avoid waiting for it to be posted? I am not so sure
for an audio-based item like this) I can provisionally consider Georgia
sorted. Two weeks will be fine, I think. When I come to book the flights
I also need to be sure I can book a ho(s)tel in Tbilisi for the first
two or three nights, then I will probably make my onward plans while I'm
actually there. Quite apart from not wanting to be too harried with a
rigid plan, I want to remain open to any interesting options that come
up, or meeting other people who might provide comfort if nothing more to
travel with, or tours offered etc.

Looking on amazon.co.uk for Georgian language material, there is a
bizarre subgenre of lightly sexually suggestive clothing/mugs (in
English), e.g. T-shirts saying "If you don't ask me in Georgian, I won't
do you!" Maybe this exists for all languages, I don't know.

Sod it, there was a DVD (e-book+MP3 files) on amazon.co.uk for £7.98
including postage, I've just ordered that. That's only the price of two
or three pints and I might manage to get some of it studied. It says the
course was prepared for diplomats, ambassadors etc and was "digitally
remastered"; I have the possibly half-baked idea this is going to be
some material produced by (e.g.) the US government in 1940 which has now
been acquired cheaply and tarted up. We will see. Delivery is in 3-18
days, I hope it's nearer the former but 18 days would still give me some
time with it.