Subscribe to this blog11 February 2008
Visa, Exchange Rates and Global SIM cards...
Parts of my upcoming journey will cross Belarus, Russia, Kazachstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Mongolia within six weeks before arriving in China. That gives a total of seven tourist/transit visa to obtain. Most of the travel guidebooks and online blogs from other travellers rightly talk about the "visa hell" when visiting Central Asia (or: the "Stans").
Visa paperwork
Being based in Switzerland requires some extra planning for this already complex multi cross-boundry itinerary: Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan visa
can only be obtained abroad (in my case I did choose Vienna for this). But even for embassies here, the complexity of sequencing these application forms in a proper order becomes a small project. For example: Belarus will only approve a transit-visa if there is a visa for the destination country (in my case: Russia). But the Russian visa itself can only be obtained earliest 45 days prior to the first entry into the country. On the other end of this six week leg, the Chinese will easily grant a 90 day visa - but since it is valid from the date of issue, there is little use in getting this too early in advance. This will be definitely the last visa to pick up - I might even want to pay the express surcharge.Oh - and let's not forget the most important visas for the "Stans": Turkmenistan requires the dreaded LOI (Letter of Invitation). Without this invitation, they won't establish a visa. Getting the LOI from local agencies in Turkmenistan might actually be very easy. But shopping around for the cheapest "official" government approved travel agency is yet another annoying paperwork task.
Getting a grip on the prices
Now, this is where comparing prices for hostels comes to the list of things to check out. The average buying power also differs heavily between the "Stans". This means that similar services, such as accommodation, transport or food, can fluctuate substantially in cost - even after currency conversion. To get at least some level of control, I ended up in whiteboarding a list of currencies. This doesn't really take care of the buying power - but it helps to avoid having to switch back and forth between currency tables in the planning process.
This is what the board currently looks like:
| Country | Cur factor | US Dollars | Swiss Francs | Cur name |
| Russia | RUB 100 | $ 4.10 | CHF 4.50 | Rubel |
| Kazachstan | KZT 100 | $ 0.85 | CHF 0.95 | Tenge |
| Uzbekistan | UZS 1'000 | $ 0.80 | CHF 0.90 | Sum |
| Turkmenistan | TMM 10'000 | $ 1.95 | CHF 2.15 | Manat |
| Mongolia | MNT 1'000 | $ 0.85 | CHF 0.95 | Tugrik |
| China | CNY 100 | $ 13.90 | CHF 15.30 | Yuan |
| Nepal | NPR 100 | $ 1.60 | CHF 1.75 | Nep. Rupee |
| Vietnam | VND 10'000 | $ 0.65 | CHF 0.70 | Dong |
| Cambodia | KHR 10'000 | $ 2.55 | CHF 2.80 | Riel |
In fact, there are some extra columns showing the options where I might pick up a particular visa for that country along the way. Whew! :-)
SIM cards for all these countries
As if this wasn't enough, I felt like wanting to add a bit of complexity, because I like technology so much: Connectivity using my mobile phone. Luckily there is a pretty good site out there, comparing the essential different global "Roaming Free" SIM card offers. Another useful information on that site is an overview of prepaid national SIM cards, with details about providers and prepaid price plans.
Based on the length of the stay within a country, I might opt for a national SIM card - simply because they offer data plans (which global gards don't offer) and they are cheaper for local phone calls within a particular country (notably hostel reservations). This makes especially sense for countries where I'll intend to stay a little longer. China and New Zealand come to my mind here.
On the other hand, being globally reachable - mostly without roaming charges on the receiving end and through the (almost local) Liechtenstein prefix (+423), is somewhat tempting. Not that I feel the urge to keep in touch with everyone back home. In contrary: I probably will purposely forget to charge/switch on my phone anyway.
Sure, there are still the traditional calling cards around. These can be bought at news stands in most countries for the use from any public phone there. But this is what we used eleven years ago while backpacking through Australia. Now, we live in times of ubiquitous connectivity - and hey, I'll be using my mobile phone for convenience anyway. So why should I bother using calling cards and public phones?
Having said that, you see that I have plenty of excuses to get one of these fancy global "Roaming Free" SIM cards - or national cards wherever these make sense. Because I always wanted a Liechtenstein, a Chinese or a New Zealand phone number. :-)
So the exploration of visa, money and mobile phone options keep me quite busy these days. By the way: I should also be working (and earning some extra cash), do some exams at school and be selling my household in the next couple of weeks. Sounds like I really will need a long vacation after all...
Labels: Preparation
posted by Reto at
18:00
1 Comments
Links to this post
10 February 2008
Should I take the laptop - yes or no?
The question whether to take a laptop computer on a round the world trip will be answered by anyone you ask in a different way. After reading through a lot of advice on travel forums, I guess it comes - for me - down to answering a couple of questions.
- How long is the journey?
- Are overnight stays planned mostly in individual hotel rooms?
- Blogging a lot?
- Need to edit photographs?
- Have a light / small laptop?
- Renounce to a laptop in case of loss or theft?
There are actually a couple of answers which might point in favor of lugging my old, bulky Acer Travelmate 2300 (3kgs) with me. It is so old, that I don't really mind anyone stealing it. But then, what's the point of bringing it along if I don't mind not having it anymore. Yes, I like to crop, edit and resize photographs - so that my shots will look perfect when uploading them to the blog. But do I really want to spend my time in the evening - somewhere in the Mongolian desert for example - editing pictures?
It seems that the only true problem to be solved on such a trip, is the backup of all the valuable pictures - not whether to use a laptop computer or not. However, solving this problem is quite easy these days: Photo shops all over the world will burn digital pictures from memory sticks (or other media) to CD or DVD - which then can be sent back home. Heck, even Internet-Cafés are doing this. Sure, there's the (real) issue of having a CD infected with a virus - but a good backup strategy - using several CD's and memory cards - still seems to me being more sound than carrying the extra weight of a Laptop.
Weighing into this decision is the fact that my mobile phone (Nokia E61) is happily surfing the web using any (open) WiFi access point. Its browser is decent, supports Javascript, Flash, etc. - so it is a viable solution for booking that next hostel through the Internet. Actually, this is one of the reality checks, I already figured out back last spring in the U.S.: The seat-reservation I made for the return flight on Swiss airlines, was done using my Nokia by sitting outside in a parking lot of a Chicago shopping mall - using the free WiFi from a "Subway" fast food restaurant.
Moreover, the trusty Nokia E61 has become - over the past few months - my MP3-player of choice. It's just so much more convenient to have everything in one device (which I tend to carry around anyway). For more music choice, I might want to ramp up the 1GB SD-mini card, though.
So this is the technology gear I plan to carry around:
from top left, downwards: Noise cancelling earphones from Sony (I won't leave home without them anymore), small pouch (reusing an old Logitech webcam bag for protecting the chip cards), two USB sticks (512MB noname, 8GB Sony), USB cable for the Sony W-200 digital camera (Sony, I already hate you now for this stupid, proprietary and heavy cable), power charger for the camera, a bunch of memory sticks (4GB, 1GB, 128MB, 32MB, 16MB), USB adapter for memory sticks (camera), spare battery for the camera, my trusty and 20 year old plug-converter from Lufthansa (this thing has been several times around the world by now), earpiece with microphone (Nokia), Nokia E61, original Nokia SD-card 64MB, USB adapter for SD cards, Nokia GSM bluetooth device (I might want to Geotag my pictures - we'll see), solar power charger with built-in battery and a ton of adapters (mainly to charge the Nokia devices on the road), cinch audio adapter (Nokia) with two spare headsets (Panasonic), USB cable (Nokia), spare battery for the phone (the single most expensive piece of equipment and Nokia doesn't even provide a protective cover for this), car charger (Nokia), power outlet charger (Nokia), (The Sony W-200 digital camera obviously is absent from the picture).
All of this gear fits in a small, spare toiletry bag. It is actually quite amazing how quick these little devices add up: All of the above gear, plus the camera and toiletry bag weigh 1,8 kg! However, altogether this is still small and light enough to be carried along on smaller trips in the daypack. And it will give me some peace of mind in situations where I'll have to leave the Rucksack unsupervised.
I might still throw in the bluetooth keyboard from Nokia - but it is horribly expensive and I'm unsure whether this is really needed. I might as well just spend one extra hour in an Internet-Café blogging directly during bad weather. And another piece of electronica just simply adds more weight. Sigh!
Having said all that, there is still some hesitation about whether or not to take the laptop. Only reality will tell whether my ultimate decision was a sound one or not.
Labels: Preparation
posted by Reto at
11:45
1 Comments
Links to this post
