Tahiti on a Budget?

Tahiti conjures up images of azure seas and large expanses of coral and sealife. In one word: paradise. It's also quite remote and very expensive to reach, even if you live in New Zealand. And even after you've shelled out hundreds of US dollars for the return flight, the costs on the islands can be exorbitant. But according to Lonely Planet, it's possible to do French Polynesia on a budget. It's worth noting that the French Polynesian franc (XPF) is pegged to the euro at 1000 XPF = 8.38 EUR.

http://www.bbc.com/travel/feature/20120820-island-hopping-french-polynesia-without-breaking-the-bank

Europe By Rail

Paris

The easiest way to travel around Europe is by train. You can easily go from city centre to city centre without the hassle of airport security checks and the like. Possibly the biggest dilemma one faces when going via rail is whether to get a railpass or buy point to point tickets. In my experience so far, point to point is far cheaper than the railpass if you buy well in advance. However, whilst the tickets are cheaper, you lose the flexibility to change them. On the other hand, if you shell out the extra money for a railpass, you have much more flexibility but the price per ticket that you're paying can in some cases be significantly higher than point to point. On top of that, some countries add on a railpass surcharge, may require reservations, and sometimes have quotas for railpass users. Unfortunately, you'll have to really think about which one works best for you. For more information on this and train travel in just about any part of the world the amazing website www.seat61.com has got all you need. I used this site extensively to do my European train research.

The Great Aussie Road Trip

I resigned. My last day of work was on 14 March, 2012. Since then I've moved onto the air bed in the common room aka "the pit" and packed away all my belongings. In a 1970s second-hand suitcase which cost me a whole 8 aussie dollars I've deftly packed away about 21.5kg worth of footwear and clothes. The most important thing to remember when packing clothing is to roll everything up tightly to conserve space, not even my suit jacket was spared. In another bag are some odds and ends which I'll sort out before I leave Australia. Everything else is in a 25 litre daypack and a 74 litre backpack. Considering that I've been living here for a little over a year, that's not a lot of stuff.

Tomorrow Fintan and I will be driving up the east coast of Australia. We picked up a 1994 Toyota Camry off some French backpackers who very recently completed their travels. The car is in good shape but it looks like we'll need to replace the front tyres pretty soon as well as clean it out. One guy has been living in it for a couple of weeks now and even though he said he was showering daily the odour in the car doesn't reflect that... The Camry is a manual transmission so driving it today was pretty nerve racking since I haven't driven a manual since last Jan/Feb when I learned how. Considering the rain, darkness, and big city traffic I was surprised that I got back in one piece and only stalled two times. It's been a few hours but my heart rate is still above normal.

The plan is to drive from Sydney to Perth via the top end (appx 11000km) in about 8.5 weeks. I'm hoping to surf in Byron Bay, sail the Whitsundays, go off road on Fraser Island, dive or snorkel the Great Barrier Reef, see an outback sunset, bushwalk in Kakadu, swim with whale sharks at Ningaloo Reef, not get punched by a wild kangaroo, and not get bitten by a shark or croc. I'm sure there's plenty more to see and do but because of time and money we won't be able get to everything. We may not even get to Perth. Anyone ever seen the film Wolf Creek?

Travel Finances

Despite the recent weaknesses shown in the US economy, the dollar is still king. It's still widely used as a baseline currency even in far flung places in the world. At the Tibet - Nepal border, you could only pay the visa fee in Nepali Rupees or in US dollars. Euros, Pounds, Francs...not accepted. So no matter where you're from, it's advisable to carry US dollars with you. It saved me a lot of headaches and money to already have my own supply of US dollars.

The next most important thing is to have a bank card which you can use anywhere in the world. My account with TD Bank doesn't charge me any ATM nor foreign transaction fees. In addition to that, they refund me the ATM fees which other banks charge me. In places like Thailand where the ATM fee is about 5USD per transaction this can really add up!

Having a credit card which doesn't charge you any foreign transaction fees is also really useful to have. My Capital One card works anywhere in the world (although sometimes I have to call them to authorize a transaction) and gives me a near up to the minute FX spot rate. When I was in Iceland, I used this card when I went out for drinks. On my statement, you could see that the price of each drink was slightly different due to the small shifts in the ISK-USD exchange rate over the course of the night.

Lastly, if you do need to call your bank or credit card company, I found out you can call for free via Skype. I don't know if it works for other nationalities, but my Skype account is US-based and I can call US toll-free numbers from Skype for free. That has saved me loads of money. 

Overland from Siem Reap, Cambodia to Bangkok, Thailand

This journey was much worse just 2 years ago when the road on the Cambodian side wasn't paved. Nowadays, there's a paved and sealed road on both sides of the border which allows for quick land transport to and from. Now here's the hitch: Thai buses aren't allowed in Cambodia and Cambodian buses aren't allowed in Thailand. Despite all the promises of there being a toilet, no people sitting in the aisle, etc etc there isn't going to be a toilet and there will be people sitting in plastic chairs in the aisle on the bus from Siem Reap to the border at Poipet.

Now back to the hitch...Since the Cambodian bus isn't allowed to cross into Thailand you would think it would be as simple as having a bus waiting to pick you up on the Thai side. But as with all things in this part of the world, it's not so simple. We stopped at the bus company's office about 2km from the border to exchange our tickets for red stickers. Every bus company has their own color to distinguish themselves. The fact that there's no overlap in color leads me to believe that they're all working together in some sort of price fixing scheme. Now back to the stickers...we were stopped at their office for nearly an hour waiting for the guy to come up with the stickers. A better way of doing this would have been to give out the stickers when we boarded the bus instead of wasting an hour handing out stickers. Idiots! 

Like all border towns, Poipet is really seedy and not a nice place to stay for longer than you have to. The only thing you can do here is gamble at one of the many casinos that have popped up in recent years. Crossing through Cambodian immigration took a while because they're not equipped to handle large amounts of people but immigration on the Thai side went very smoothly. After crossing over we then waited for over an hour while the idiot bus staff arranged minibuses to take us to either Bangkok or Koh Chang. Why it took so long to get people into minibuses is beyond me. It's not difficult to put 12-13 people and their luggage into a bus. It certainly doesn't require an hour to get it sorted. And in the end after all the fuss the bus company staff put us through to fill up the vehicle there was an empty seat on our minibus. It never ceases to surprise me how dumb people can be. Thankfully the rest of the ride went smoothly despite our driver thinking he was on a formula 1 racetrack.

For those of you planning on taking this trip, the current going rate is 8USD for the full ride from Siem Reap to Bangkok. There are 2 toilet breaks along the way but no food stops so be sure to bring food and water with you before departing Siem Reap. We stopped for petrol around 16:00 and luckily there was a noodle stand there but before this point the only thing available was a semi-ripe mango for 20THB at the Thai border. Departure time is around 08:00 and arrival time is around 18:00 near Khao San Road.

The Temples of Angkor - Day 1

A Cambodian batmobile / tuktuk

The Temples of Angkor in Cambodia are SE Asia's largest temple complex and is the largest pre-industrial temple complex in the world. As a result, the airport in Siem Reap is busier than that of the capital, Phnom Penh, and receives about 2 million international visitors annually. Visits to Angkor can be arranged upon arrival in Siem Reap; there's no need to book ahead. The main temples, Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom are about 6km from the center of Siem Reap so walking is not really an option. Options for going to Angkor range from bicycles to helicopters and just about everything in between. Unfortunately, motorbike hire is not available in Siem Reap, probably to keep the tuk tuk drivers in business since there is an overabundance of them.

Given the sheer size and distance of the entire complex I bought a 3 day admission ticket for 40 USD (1 day tickets are 20, 7 days are 60) which allows me to go on 3 separate days within a 7 day span. Dasha and I hired bicycles on the day I arrived for 1.5 USD each (which in hindsight was a ripoff, we could have gotten a bike for 1 USD elsewhere) and cycled ourselves to Angkor Wat, Bayon in Angkor Thom, Ta Keo, Ta Prohm, Banteay Kdei and Pre Rup all in one very long day. Angkor Wat is the centerpiece of the complex and while there was some scaffolding up due to renovation, the temple was no less impressive to behold. The intricacy and volume of the carvings on the outer walls of the temple are astounding.

Bayon, Angkor Thom

The Bayon is the centrepiece of Angkor Thom. It features several spires on the main temple platform each with stone faces carved into them. The faces are near identical and if you're standing on the main platform they are everywhere you look. We weaved our way around the crowds of Chinese and Korean package tourists and managed to get some good photos with no people in them. Trust me, it can be a challenge to find a spot in the Bayon and in Angkor Wat with no people around.

The other temples we visited on Day 1 were not as large but were impressive in their own way. Ta Keo, Banteay Kdei, and Pre Rup offered up some find examples of Khmer architecture and nice views of the jungle from the top. I'm not sure if the ancient Khmers had tiny feet and long legs but given the way the steps are constructed I think the people were shaped that way. Some scenes from Tomb Raider were shot at Ta Prohm, which is overgrown with massive trees that literally have crushed or grown into the temple walls. The trees are as tall as buildings so it's no wonder that they'd be able to knock out or at least weaken the structural integrity of the walls. We tried to watch the sunset from the top of Pre Rup but it was too cloudy and we also realized that it would merely be a sunset over the jungle (no other temples were in sight) so we started cycling back before it became really dark.

How to Access Blocked Facebook in Vietnam

http://www.ehow.com/how_5856840_access-blocked-facebook-vietnam.html#ixzz128kjEfV0

How to Access Blocked Facebook in Vietnamby testervn, eHow Member

no facebook no problem

How to Access Blocked Facebook in Vietnam

User-Submitted Article

These days, the famous social networks like Facebook or Twitter have been blocked by ISPs in many Asian countries (including Vietnam and China). In a recent article, I presented 7 Ways To Access Blocked Facebook. These tips helped us a lot, but there are some problems we still have to face, such as some tips are quite complex whereas some are not so efficient (in speed and other functionalities). Today I have a good news for Facebook users in Vietnam.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• No thing special

1. 1
   These are the elaborate steps to configure in Windows:
   Go the Control Panel.
2. 2
   Click Network and Internet, then Network and Sharing Center, then Manage network connections.
3. 3
   Select the connection for which you want to configure Google Public DNS. For example:
   * To change the settings for an Ethernet connection, right-click Local Area Connection, and click Properties.
   * To change the settings for a wireless connection, right-click Wireless Network Connection, and click Properties.
   If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
4. 4
   Select the Networking tab. Under This connection uses the following items, click Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4), and then click Properties.
5. 5
   Click Advanced and select the DNS tab. If there are any DNS server IP addresses listed there, write them down for future reference, and remove them from this window.
6. 6
   Click OK.
7. 7
   Select Use the following DNS server addresses. If there are any IP addresses listed in the Preferred DNS server or Alternate DNS server, write them down for future reference.
8. 8
   Replace those addresses with the IP addresses of the Google DNS servers: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.
9. 9
   Restart the connection you selected in step 3.
   All done! Have a good time with Facebook and Twitter.

Indian Railway Tickets

By far the easiest way to book tickets on Indian trains is to use cleartrip.com. It has a similar layout to kayak.com and is a gift from heaven compared to the official government website. Another useful site is yatra.com, which allows you to book tickets per special quotas such as women-only and tourist. Once you've purchased your ticket online, you'll still need to bring a printout of it, but that can be done for a mere 10 rupees in most places. 

Jabs and pills

Medical preparation is very important to consider before going anywhere. It's essential to get all your vaccinations and pills before departing. Today I'll be getting all my booster shots for everything from hepatitis to yellow fever. There are about 10 different diseases that I need boosters for in addition to the malaria and altitude sickness pills. It's also important to note that many countries have nationalized healthcare so if I break an arm or something I won't have to worry about an massive bill. Also, most of what we call "presciption meds" don't require prescriptions in many countries. I learned that firsthand in Brazil when I got traveler's diarrhea and needed meds. Speaking of which, I never want traveler's diarrhea ever again!!