A review... - 7 months in

As I write this, I'm currently just 7 months short since I departed the UK. I finally arrived in Australia over the weekend - a destination I was meant to hit about 4 months ago!

The reason why its taken so long is that I've had such a brilliant time in Asia - and I thought I would summarise the good / bad points of my trip so far.

Random Stats

Flights Taken

  • 1. London > Singapore - Singapore Airlines
  • 2. Singapore > Bangkok - Tiger Airways
  • 3. Hanoi > Vietenne - Vietnam Airlines
  • 4. Chiang Mia > Bangkok - Air Asia
  • 5. Johor Bharu > Kuching
  • 6. Miri > Mulu
  • 7. Mulu > Miri
  • 8. Kota Kinabulu > Johor
  • 9. Kulua Lumpar > Bangkok
  • 10. Chiang Mia > Kulua Lumpar
  • 11. Singapore > Bali
  • 12. Bali > Singapore
  • 13. Singapore > Brisbane

Books Read

  • 1. Happy Like Murders - Gordon Burn
  • 2. Crashing - Chris Wooding
  • 3. The Beach - Alex Garland
  • 4. Popcorn - Ben Elton
  • 5. Rage of Angels - Sidney Sheldon
  • 6. The Horse Whisper - Nicholas Evans
  • 7. The Van - Roddy Doyle
  • 8. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

Films Watched

  • 1. Garfield 2
  • 2. You, Me and Dupree
  • 3. Monster House
  • 4. Spanglish
  • 5. Corpse Bride
  • 6. Dodge Ball
  • 7. The Wedding Planner
  • 8. I am Sam
  • 9. In her Shoes
  • 10. The Interpreter
  • 11. Twister
  • 12. First Daughter
  • 13. The Cat in the Hat
  • 14. Freaky Friday
  • 15. Underworld Evolution
  • 16. Serenity
  • 17. School of Rock
  • 18. Into the Blue
  • 19. Thir13en Ghosts
  • 20. Guess Who
  • 21. The Exorcism of Emily Rose
  • 22. The Da Vinci Code
  • 23. The Devil Wears Prada
  • 24. Cars
  • 25. Just My Luck
  • 26. The Break Up

.... Plus many more forgotten about..

Scuba Dives

  • 1. Batugula (Sugar Rocks), Perhentian Islands, Malaysia
  • 2. Small Reef, Perhentian Islands, Malaysia
  • 3. Tukas Bay, Perhentian Islands, Malaysia
  • 4. T3, Perhentian Islands, Malaysia
  • 5. Sales Rock, Perhentian Islands, Malaysia
  • 6. Tukas Bay, Perhentian Islands, Malaysia
  • 7. Tangung Butong, Perhentian Islands, Malaysia
  • 8. Vietemnese Shipwreck, Perhentian Islands, Malaysia
  • 9. Sharky Corner, Perhentian Islands, Malaysia
  • 10. Dulamben Shipwreck, Bali, Indonesia
  • 11. Dulamben Shipwreck, Bali, Indonesia
  • 12. Shark Point, Gili Islands, Indonesia
  • 13. Coral Fan, Gili Islands, Indonesia

Countries Visited

Currencies required

  • 1. Singapore Dollars
  • 2. Thai bath
  • 3. Cambodian Riel
  • 4. US Dollar
  • 5. Vietnam Dong
  • 6. Laos Kip
  • 7. Myanmar Kyat
  • 8. Malaysian Ringgit
  • 9. Brunei Dollar
  • 10. Australian Dollar

Course Taken

Singapore

Length of stay: 5 nights

Date: March 20th - March 25th

Enjoyed Rating (out of 5): ****

Highlights

Lowlights

  • 1. Expensive

Thailand

Length of stay: 24 + 39 + 26 (89 nights in total)

Date: March 25th - April 17th, June 4th - 16th July, 4th September - 1st October

Enjoyed Rating (out of 5): *****

Highlights

Lowlights

  • 1. Rip Off merchants

Myanmar

Length of stay: half a day

Date: April 1st 2006

Enjoyed Rating (out of 5): ***

Highlights

  • 1. Friendly People

Lowlights

1. Wasn't long enough to judge...

Cambodia

Length of stay: 12 nights

Date: April 17th - April 30th

Enjoyed Rating (out of 5): **

Highlights

Lowlights

Vietnam

Length of stay: 23 nights

Date: April 30th - 23rd May

Enjoyed Rating (out of 5): ***

Highlights

Lowlights

  • 1. Hassle from people
  • 2. Food

Laos

Length of stay: 13 nights

Date: May 23rd - June 4th

Enjoyed Rating (out of 5): *****

Highlights

Lowlights

  • 1. None that I can recall

Peninsular Malaysia

Length of stay 22 + 3 + 1 = (26 nights in total)

Date: July 16th - 8th August, September 1st - September 4th

Enjoyed Rating (out of 5): ***

Highlights

Lowlights

  • 1. Price of beer!

Borneo Malaysia

Length of stay: 23 nights

Date: August 8th - September 1st

Enjoyed Rating (out of 5): ****

Highlights

Lowlights

  • 1. Price of beer!

Brunei

Length of stay: 1 night

Date: 23rd August - 24th August

Enjoyed Rating (out of 5): ***

Highlights

Lowlights

  • 1. Expensive!

Indonesia

Length of stay: 10 nights

Date: October 2nd - October 12th 2006

Enjoyed Rating (out of 5): ****

Highlights

Lowlights

  • 1. Hassle in Kuta

Robert Trand aka Trandy
17th October 2006 @ 2.56pm

September 24th 2006 - Updates

From now on, updates will be displayed in the list below...

  1. Melbourne April 3rd 2007 -
  2. Pacific Islands - March 9th 2007 - March 31st 2007
  3. New Zealand - January 25th 2007 - March 9th 2007
  4. Australia - 15th October 2006 - 24th January 2007
  5. Indonesia - 1st October 2006 - 13th October 2006
  6. Thailand yet again.. Updates - 4th September 2006 - 30th September 2006
  7. Malaysia Updates - 17th July 2006 - 2nd September 2006
  8. Thailand again - 4th June 2006 - Sunday 16th July 2006
  9. Laos - May 23rd 2006 - June 3rd 2006
  10. Vietnam - 5th May 2006 - 22nd May 2006
  11. Cambodia - 17th April 2006 - 28th April 2006
  12. Thailand (Chiang Mai, Kanchanaburi, Bangkok) April 3rd - April 16th 2006
  13. Burma - April 1st 2006
  14. Singapore - March 19th - March 24th 2006

No more home games..

So I have run out of Brentford home games to go. My last - a fantastic performance and win against fellow promotion rivals Barnsley. On Saturday, Anjie put this into the programme to the amusement of my mates!!!

Will update you all soon on the progress - but its a manic here at the moment trying to sort everything out the last minute. I do have a working visa for Oz now though!

My goodbye in the last Brentford programme

Robert Trand aka Trandy
14th March 2006 @ 13.13pm

The countdown begins

So it's been 7 days that have past since I booked my trip - most of it has been spent trying to arrange further plans, take advice on where I should go and start meeting people to say my goodbyes. The exciting / scary thing is - I only have a remaining 27 days to fit everything in!

My hotel is now booked up for the first two nights in Singapore. I am staying in the Robertson Quay Hotel with my mate. I am open to suggestions where I can stay on night three - if anyone has visited? I have discovered the Singapore Tourist Board website, so I'll have to start scouting for must "sees". On my list so far is visiting Sentosa Island - apparently they have pink dolphins there!

I'm wondering whether 6 months is over kill for Australia - it doesn't leave much time to fit in New Zealand, Fiji, Cook Islands and the US after all in the remaining 3 months. I'd be happy to cut a month off my Australia visit - however the time I want to be there is over the Christmas period - to fit in England beating the Aussies again in their own backyard in the Ashes! Also can you think of a better place to start the New Year than at Sydney Harbour Bridge?

I am going to have to have a rethink about though. I have discovered my friend's sister own a "Dark stables tour" via horse over a part of New Zealand which I am now keen on.

I am trying to add a RSS reader to this site to make it easier for everyone else to keep track of when the site is updated. Thank you to everyone has wished me well in the last week. I'll speak to you all soon.

Robert Trand aka Trandy
20th February 2006 @ 9.26am

Talk is cheap

I'm good at talking. I have been telling everyone how I wanted to do this, that and everything else - and never actually done anything about it. But after months of talking about travelling in 2005, I felt pretty stupid that I was still sitting at this PC at home just "talking".

After years of thinking about "travelling" yesterday (13th February) I finally psyched myself up and gained the courage to book a round the world ticket! So on March 19th at roughly 6.15pm I'll be sitting on a Singapore Airlines plane ready to take off and head to Singapore for the start of a new chapter in my life.

The chapter has proposed visits to the continents of South East Asia, Australasia and America - it should be some year - that hopefully "rounds me". See - I told you I know the lingo eh!?

When?

I'm leaving London on March 19th 2006 and flying to Singapore. I plan to spend roughly 3 months in South East Asia until 20th June, 6 months or so in Australia (till just after New Years Eve). The final 3 months I'll be taking in New Zealand, Fiji & the Cook Islands before I reach America where I plan to spend a month. If it goes to plan, I'll be flying back to London on March 18th 2007.

Why?

I have a "settling down" phobia at the moment! This basically involves the fact that I don't want to join the "rat race" of 9-5 every week day for the rest of my living life. Getting a "proper job" absolutely terrified me and I could see life just being the same between now and the day I die. I see this trip as something that will hopefully help me to settle down when I get back to the UK.

Why now though? Won't you miss Brentford doing the double - promotion to the Championship & FA Cup success?

Yes - I will. I have no doubt that Brentford are going to win promotion this year - we are the second best team in this division behind Colchester United. However, New Years Day on 2006 was quite a significant moment for me. I looked back at 2005 & wondered what I had achieved throughout. At the time I thought nothing, but after writing / updating my portfolio for Alpha Web Wise, I realised I had achieved a lot more than I gave myself credit for. But I felt unhappy & that I had cheated myself by not going travelling.

I waited for Brentford FC last year - watching us get to the FA Cup 5th round and the play offs, was great - but it wasn't fulfilling enough for me to look back at 2005 without having regrets. This is one reason why I am leaving now. The others are if I waited for the Bees - how long for? Till May 6th when we have won automatic promotion? What happens if we get to the play offs? It will be May 28th the earliest I can leave. Its then World Cup year & I'll want to watch that at a reasonable hour... then it's the start of the season. You can see my predicament - if I don't go now I'll find other reasons / excuses and yet another year of my life would have flown by.

Another reason is that I have a mate flying to Singapore on the 19th March and as I am doing this trip on my own I really wanted someone to do the first bit with me -just getting off the plane and staying somewhere for the first night.

Fair enough. So where are you going?

I don't have exact ideas of where in Asia I will be yet - although have planned visits to Singapore, Bangkok, Koh Sumui, Phuket, Phi Phi Island, Kuala Lumpur and Bali.

I'll be then flying into Brisbane and working down the East Coast of Australia ending up in Sydney. I'll be settling down in Australia at some point as I'll be working to help my pay my way.

Next on the agenda is flying to New Zealand, Auckland and then working my way to the south island where I'll be flying from Auckland to Fiji. From Fiji I'll be flying to the Cook Islands and then onto LA, USA. My final flight on my ticket is from New York to London.

Its all a bit new to me at the moment, so if you have any advice or can advise any places which are must see either contact me or let me know on the forum.

Won't you miss us too much?

Damn right I will - but too help me get by I have set a forum up where you my friends can communicate with each other & I'll put updates of where I have been & when I get the opportunity photos of my trips in the gallery.

Robert Trand aka Trandy
14th February 2006 @ 10.12am

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