Page 51 - Phonebox Magazine November 2012

EVENTS
Go For GAGA
There is a spot of fundraising going
on at Newport Pagnell’s workingmen’s club in aid of the Newport Pagnell Carnival. Get Down for an Award winning Lady Gaga Tribute. Saturday 17th November, 7.30, £8 on the door. There are a limited number of children’s tickets available, if you’re not fast your last, or just gutted and walking home with a teary child in your case.
Colour
me naked
The Canon Newport Pagnell
Friday Novemebr 9th Colour me naked
Ting & Ra and the Iries are head-lining
Supported by Sweetcornbread.
Shop Local Shop Late
Late night shopping in Olney on Thursday 22nd November until 9.00pm
Please click here to view participating outlets
Support your local business community and pick up some offers
Also Carol singing, mulled wine and mince pies at the market place.
Ex-Editor buzzes off.
So here we are again, six years to the day (okay minus one day, but whose counting?) and we’re back at Heathrow, This time waiting for a flight to Kathmandu with all our belongings for the next few months in our rucksacks and each sporting those zip off travel trousers, ready for a new adventure.
But how did we get here? You may remember our last travel articles on which we reported on our year out around the world. We had come home thinking that was it, ‘there would be no more long trips away’ but in fact, as suspected by others, we had caught the “travel bug”. The bug did take a while though (coincidentally the same amount it took to pay off the last trip, and save for this one...).
After being diagnosed once again we set about preparations for the next journey. The main challenge to think about was our house although renting it out through a local agent was easy. We moved back to Emma’s parents temporarily and lodged in one of the spare rooms (thanks to the parents!). Downsizing from our own place was the only issue but we soon adapted - Note to Ron: Don’t open the garage door!
The paperwork in the run up to renting the house out was a bit harder as we required permission to let from the mortgage company and also had to make sure the taxman was involved by signing up for self-assessment and as non- resident landlords. This paperwork had caused a bit of hassle; for example between receiving the permission to let form and sending it off, the mortgage company had changed their terms (it was a little too lean for their profits) and would not honour their original deal. Due to this we complained and took the complaint as far as we could, whilst shopping around for alternative mortgages. Luckily the mortgage company did end up honoring the original deal, which essentially made this trip possible.
Now that we had the permission to let agreement, we needed to look into options for renting our house out. We decided upon a local letting agent in our home town that could fully manage the property whilst we were abroad. We don’t have the worry or any hassle if the house is empty as agents or landlord insurance companies can offer deals where you still receive the rent even if it is empty. Once the agreement was in place it was time to ensure the property was fit to rent out and by law we were required to have inspections for the gas, electrical safety and energy performance of house. Next up we decided to neutralise the colours in the house and ensure everything was in working order before carrying out a few improvements to make sure the house was at a decent standard.
The usual visit to the local travel clinic at Cobbs Garden in Olney (Hi Judy!) for our Hep A & B, Polio, Typhoid, Diphtheria boosters and Malaria tablets was next up. We were already covered by some of our previous jabs such as Rabies, Yellow Fever.
Travel insurance was another priority as Nepal has a lot of options for high altitude trekking and we needed to ensure our insurance would cover this.
We also backed up all our important documents such as insurance details, passport copies, landlord documents, visa details, etc) onto a cloud account (we used Dropbox) so we could access them anywhere in the world. Even though we carry hard copies of important documents with us its very useful to know everything is just a mouse click away. Another bonus is that
hopefully we can upload our travel photos on the go to the account (internet speed permitting!) as another backup to our USB sticks.
We started to plan our packing a couple of months in advance, with great consideration over the items packed. We used the same rucksacks as last time, which are side-loading. This means that it zips all the way down the side rather than just opening from the top. This makes it easy to access the items at the bottom of the bag and is just like opening a suitcase, which is important when you are often moving from place to place and opening and repacking your bag a lot. As it’s hard to fit everything in, it’s best to find adaptable clothing that works in lots of situations, taking into consideration local culture. There is a good saying, “Pack it, halve it and take twice the money”. Everything can be brought abroad and usually a lot cheaper anyway.
Unfortunately Emma still struggles with this even after going away for such a long time before; it’s just too easy to think everything is an essential item. The difficult thing for this trip was the different climates that we will experience over the coming months. A big decision for Emma was wanting to take that favourite beach dress even though the beach is two months away (life’s problems....). It’s always nice to have a few home comforts though and as 12 hour bus journeys become the norm, Kindles and iPods do help ease the boredom, although in the right areas staring out of the window, watching the local culture before you can pass the time before you know it. Another useful item is a pack of cards and can be good for socialising with other travelers.
So far we have only booked our first flight as we like to be as flexible as we can and you never know where you will want to stay longer or leave sooner from. As there is no direct flight from England to Kathmandu we chose a flight connecting in Muscat with only a 3 hour wait; the alternative was an 11 hour wait in Mumbai. The plan for now is to spend some time in Nepal and India, before finding a beach somewhere in Asia on route to the destination of Australia, where we will be working for approximately a year.
Back to the now, I think that’s our flight being called to board.
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