Preperations

We are now approx 5 weeks away from our trip and there is still a lot to be done. We are meeting with OHIP at the end of the week to extend our OHIP while we're away as when you're out of the country for more than 153 days a year it gets cancelled. We have booked our flights for October 13th but our last day at work will be October 1st, which leaves us just a bit over 3 weeks to go. We have been doing a lot of research about where to go when we land in Bangkok and for now the consensus is that we'll head south east to Koh Samet or Koh Chang. October is just the end of Monsoon season (rainy season) but the east doesn't get hit as hard as the west so hopefully we'll get some nice weather. Although I was checking the weather in Bangkok the other day and it was 30 degrees Celsius so I think we'll be okay.

We have been doing research on where we can work and stay for free or for little money and Andrew found this great program called WWOFER. It basically allows you to get in touch with various organic farmers in the country of your choice and you can stay with them for free as long as you help out on their farm. It's meant to help people learn about organic farms but a lot of people use it for backpacking and for cheap accommodations. I think we might try something like that out.

I have been trying to figure out the best items to pack. We have put aside a box and just keep adding items to which we have to remember to take with us. My goal is to take as many ts-shirts and underwear as possible as those are the items I will be changing most frequently. After that I'm packing a pair of cargo pants, a pair of jeans, a long sleeved shirt and a sweatshirt. I'm going to keep the toiletries to a minimum as I'm planning on using my shampoo as a body wash. Besides all those items listed above, the medicine we're taking will take up the most space. We have a whole box of malaria pills.

I don't know how much I will be posting leading up to the trip as there's not a whole lot happening right now. But if I get the chance I'll blog about the rest of our preparations.