Last week I did an English Corner at Web on backpacking and traveling (an English Corner is basically just an hour-long interactive presentation) to students interested in learning/practicing English. To many Chinese, traveling by yourself or backpacking seems crazy as most choose to go with a travel agency or travel with a group. Students always say to me that I like to travel "DIY" (do-it-yourself). I don't know where they learned that acronym but it has definitely caught on in China.

To me, trip planning is half the fun of traveling. It gets me more excited about what I am going to see and do, I learn a lot more and I feel more in control and just generally more satisfied when I travel by myself. True, trip planning by yourself is a lot of work and can be more difficult, but it is also usually cheaper and (I think) a lot more rewarding. This year Sean and I have been working hard at getting ready to travel this winter. After weeks of searching on different airlines we finally committed to dates and bought our tickets (with the help of Daniel - thanks Daniel!) Daniel, a teacher from last year, is going to join us for part of the trip - it should be a good time!

Here is what we have so far:
January 7 - Shanghai to Kuala Lampur, Malaysia (Sean finishes teaching on the 6th)
January 19 - Kuala Lampur to Jakarta, Indonesia
February 3 - Bali, Indonesia to Singapore
February 8 - Singapore to Cebu, Philippines
February 24 - Manila, Philippines to Shanghai (We begin teaching again on the 28th)

We were pretty stoked that the cost for all of these flights for both of us was only about $1200 total. The airlines that we used were Air Asia and Cebu Pacific.

Here are some of the tips that I presented to my students about DIY travel.

1. Read as much as you can about where you are going and talk to other people who have been there to see what they have to say
2. Get a guidebook - there are many different kinds but we like Rough Guides or Lonely Planet
3. Check airlines for prices early - sometimes there are promotions
4. Get some travel insurance. I've used (and others have recommended) "inext"
5. Make sure to check the temperatures and weather of the places you are going so you know what to pack
6. Register with the US government so they know where you are if you have a problem. Also, they send you travel/safety updates on the places you are going
7. Check the CDC website for required vaccinations/medication.
8. Check if any type of visa is required
9. Make sure that your passport is not expired (or anywhere near 6 months of expiring) and that you have enough pages for new visas/exit and entrance stamps
10. Make sure you have multiple sources of money - i.e. ATM/debit cards, Visa/Mastercard and cash (write down the customer service numbers of your cards in a safe place in case they are lost/stolen)
11. Print out and make copies of everything - i.e. flight itineraries, passport and visa of permanent residence
12. Call your credit cards and bank to let them know where and when you will be traveling
13. Make a packing list and start throwing things in a bag
14. Make a list of the most important things you want to see in each place so you don't waste too much time figuring out what you want to do
15. Make a budget (for this trip, ours is about $50/day for each person - that is probably way more than we will need for these countries but we want to be safe)
16. Check the voltage in each country and pack any adapters/converters if you need them
17. Make sure you take along some addresses if you want to send any postcards (I love post cards!)

There are probably some other tips I'm missing, but that's all I could remember on the top of my head for English Corner. We're excited to travel this year!

1 Comment

1. Erica on December 26, 2010 at 10:11 PM

   OOoooh!! Can't wait for the pictures and stories. Last year's Winter travels were SO much fun to read. :)