Leaving Finland

This is my last post from Finland. I have finished packaging my brand new rucksack, which wasn't too difficult. There's lots of handy compartments and my stuff went into the sack without bigger problems. It also feels a _bit_ better on the back than the worn out army rucksacks which I have used to wear.
So, I'm leaving in the morning by train to Helsinki. I can't believe that the journey lasts for 5 hours, I could do it faster by car...

I'm arriving Singapore on sunday evening and already booked a night in a 8-person dorm. It's a good start to make new friends :). On monday I'm heading towards Bangkok and going to meet Topi(see Ofnok from links). It's nice to spend the first days with someone who has some experience about Asia. It's intresting to see how I'll manage with the warm weather, because this week I have experienced below -20 degrees celcius and there should be around 30 in Singapore/Bangkok.

...and yes, I'm feeling a little bit excited.

Preparations done?

I just can't wait for the journey to begin, even if it's less than month to go. I finished all my exams during the last week and now I don't have any school left here in Finland. I have been able to finalize my preparations for the journey and do some budgeting. Here's some paste from my TODO-list, which should be called WASDONE-list now:

Credit cards: Visa, Diner's Club
Rent your apartment in Finland
Travel insurance
Study visa
International driver's license
Bonus-cards for the major flight companies
Injections
Apply for campus accomodation in Newcastle
Copies from important documents, like passport

And here's some expenses what I've been trying to gather:

Description	Sum(euro)
TOEFL	120
Overseas student health cover payment(6 months)	110
Injections for Thailand, Indonesia and Oz	260
1-way Flight tickets(HEL-FRA-SIN-DPS-SYD)	995
Campus accomodation applying fee	15
Australian student visa applying fee	260
Deuter Quantum 70+10 travel rucksack	180
International driver's licence, 1-year	26
1-way flight ticket SIN-BKK	50
3-month travel insurance (Super Gouda)	113
overall	2129

Which proofs that you should have plenty of savings before the journey as well :)

Tentative plans for Bali (and Lombok)

So after the three weeks in the beaches of Thailand I'll go to Bali from Singapore. I don't actually know much about Bali. For me it's famous for great surfing and various bombing incidents, but that's it. I have seeked for all the web pages about Bali in the past few days and managed to get some scraps of information to help my planning. I also came up with an idea of travelling to Lombok which is an island just east(50km?) from Bali.

So here comes: After I arrive to Denpasar in Bali I'll try to find my way to Padangbai where ferries to Lombok depart. A public 4-hour ferry to Lombok should cost around 2 euros. I think I can afford it. Plane to Lombok would cost as much as around 20 euros.

The main thing that interests me in Lombok is the Gunung Rinjani. It's the second highest mountain in Indonesia and also an active volcano. Trekking up to the summit(3726m) and down to the crater lake without any rush would probably take 3 days from my journey. Guides should be quite cheap to acquire. 3-day trek with guides, porters(yes porters!), and all the equipments including meals costs around 50 euros, not bad. I'm sure porters aren't for somebody like me,who has been in the famous finnish army and walked 60km in a single winter day totally naked only carrying my clothes and mines in a 40kg backpack when it has been raining water and temperature was below -30c...if I remember right the wind speed was around 30knots and all we ate was lichen.
EDIT: it seems that they close the Gunung Rinjani national park during the last months of the rainy season (Jan-Mar), because of the slippery trails, so it might be that I'll drop Lombok from my travel plan.


After the Gunung Rinjani I'll probably return to Bali and go around the island. There should be beautiful scenery with rice terraces all around the inner Bali and that's what I want to see. After I seeked some web-pages I noticed that Bali is famous for the balinese dance which is usually performed by cute balinese women. I couldn't miss a show like that! I have became much more interested in cultures, after we incidentally went seeing the flamenco show performed by very talented dancers(women) with my friends in Spain.
Of course I want to go surfing also but considering that I've just been 3 weeks crawling in Thailand's beaches I probably want to see something else than sand and water. Besides Bali has enormous waves(atleast I think) and mostly reef and stone bottom so it's not place for beginners. I think the only beach break(beach bottom) is in the Kuta beach which is famous of being very crowded place even though two bombings there have made a mark to the tourism. I'll have plenty of time to surf in Newcastle anyways.

Chumpos - Koh Tao

It seems that I don't have to go to Surat Thani if I want to go to the islands. There's also boats going from Chumpos to Koh Tao. So I'm going to go first through Chumpos to Koh Tao and go to scuba diving course there and after a week or something go to Koh Phangan. They are selling bus+ferry tickets to Koh Tao in Bangkok's Koh Sao Road (or something like that), which is the center of tourism in BKK. This kind of combined ticket should cost around 8-10euros. I wonder if the Thailand's state bus travels between Bangkok and Chumpos and I could book bus+ferry by myself.

Why is everything called Koh this Koh that?? Maybe I should change my name to Koh Timo to get the maximum respect..

Tentative plans for Thailand and Malaysia

So here is my tentative plan for travelling around SE-Asia. I have already reserved a flight from Singapore to Bangkok with AirAsia. Made a booking online and the flight cost 50 euros with all the taxes.

I'm going to spend a one night in the Singapore before the departure. The reason for my short visit is that Singapore is a way more expensive compared to Thailand or Malaysia and nothing special to see there anyways. Well atleast that's what I've heard.

In Bangkok I'm going to spend few days depending how do I like it there. From Bangkok I'll take a bus or a train to Surat Thani which is a place where ferries to Ko Samui operate. I won't probably stay in Ko Samui for long but going to head towards Ko Pha-Ngan which is famous about the full moon party. There's going to be a party on 14th January so that's the day when I'm going to be there for sure. I'm also going to go to Koh Tao which should be a great place for doing some scuba diving. Going to do atleast open water diver course and hopefully advanced open water diver course as well. It's around 300 euros for both courses which is a way more cheaper than in Australia and especially than here in Finland.

In the 19th-20th January I'm probably leaving Thailand towards Malaysia and Kuala Lumpur. It would be a great to spend a weekend there, because I've heard that it's nightlife is quite good. Nightlife or not, seeing even the basic tourist attractions would take more than a one day.

My flight from Singapore to Bali leaves on 25th of January so I have few days to get myself from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore via bus/train. It would be enough, hopefully...

Organizing

31/12/2005 HEL-FRA, 31/12/2005 FRA-SIN, 25/1/2006 SIN-DPS, 12/2/2006 DPS-SYD

That's my route to Australia. Note my date of departure, which means that I'm going to change my year in the plane :). Which also means I'm getting new experiences from the early beginning of the journey and I'm sure I'm gonna enjoy drinking champagne 35000feet above the ground.
I'm going to fly through Germany to Singapore and my next flight is going to leave after 3 weeks from Singapore to Bali so I have some time to travel in Thailand as well. In Bali I'm going to stay for a bit over 2 weeks and then leave to Australia for good.

Needless to say that my study motivation went a way down towards zero after the reservation of flights. Well 2 more months studying left and 3 months until the journey. Still more organizing to do...

And about the picture:
I'm sure you all know where Germany, Singapore or even Bali is but I've always wanted to draw my own travel route to a World map with a red color like they did in Indiana Jones.

Accepted

Today I got a long waited e-mail from international office. They offered me a whole year exchange place in the University of Newcastle in Australia. I had a plan to study only one semester and spend the rest of the year travelling around pacific. Luckily studying for one semester was ok for international office as well, even though people usually spend a year studying. I will be on my way to Australia in the beginning of 2006.

There was 20 applicants to Australia's exchange program and 8 were accepted. My hard studying during the last year now really paid off. Managed to get my GPA a good way up. Now I don't have to pay any semester fees in Australia and I'm getting 1900 euros as a scholarship for studying for a semester. Those who study a whole year can apply for 2400 euros scholarship. If I wouldn't have been chosen, I could have applied straight to one of the Australia's universities and still got the scholarship. I would only had to pay half of the semester fees by myself.

Tampere University of Technology offered two exchange places in all of these Australia's universities: Griffith University, Bond University, University of Newcastle, Canberra University. Which sums up to 8 places in total.

The reason for taking only one semester was that there's a problem between studying and travelling. It's really hard taking part to the lessons when you're 1000+ kilometers away and even if you get 2 weeks off you will only see a scratch of the massive continent. Now I'm able to travel without strict timetables and that's what I have never experienced before. Anyways, I'm glad that I got accepted. Now I have a good excuse to go to the journey of my life. The journey to the other side of the globe.