You know boots, right?
The hiking boots. La Sportiva, or Zamberlan, or similar.
Rough beasts they are. Can walk in water and do not get wet, can drop a refrigerator on your feet without hurting them. Nice.
But they weigh, and that's the downisde. I would estimate each one weighing around 300 grams, so in total it's half a kilo. Definitely not your everyday flip-flops.
And they take space, yes they do. One third of the backpack. Could put my socks or underwear in them, but I mean c'mon, it's not a survival expedition, where each gram or cubic centimeter is crucial.
If they take so much space and are quite heavy, hence the question - should we take them at all?
Since we plan to:
- Be on the beach (plus various water based activities and diving) for around 30% of the time;
- Hike, trek, walk around in nature - other 30% of our time;
- Explore the city life - 20%;
- Other - 20%;
it is easy to realize that the boots will not be useful for most of the time. That's why we started discussing if we take them at all, or leave them be at home.
And believe me, this discussion was probably the most time and effort intensive, with a lot of arguments from both sides. We agreed to the total trip budget in around 30% of the time that we spent discussing about boots!
It proves that most important things are not neceserrily the most complicated ones, and simple things are not the easiest to take decisions about.
What's your opinion? Would you take the boots, or just buy them during a trip if necessary? Comment below.
Comments
Getting the hang of things
OK then. When you arrive spend a few days in a decent place. TV, fridge, air con, towels hot shower, decent food. Only for a few days though as it'll burn your money. Get a bungalow for about 350b a night (53euro a week) with a fan and a shower after that. That's about as cheap as it'll go unless you like sharing toilets and showering from a tap in the open air.
An expensive meal in a fancy place will cost you 3 to 4 euros for the main course, decent food can be had for 200 baht a day if you avoid things like egg and chips with bacon. A chicken sandwich at Mr K is 50b and you can have a chocolate and bannana crepe for 30b. That'll keep you going for a day and 20b will buy a few litres of bottled water.
Drink singha NOT chang. Chang is cheaper but is like cider for causing deranged madness and motormouthing. Chang drinkers tend to have a lot of scars and cuts on their head from people punching them out, you have been warned.
Thailand
> Very humid place, anyone who weighs a few kilos too much; lose it before coming here
Well, I weigh 10 kilos "too less", so that's not a problem to me. Let other crew members comment on that themselves.
> If you want to travel light you can get laundry done here for peanuts and clothes are cheap. The lighter cloth and looser fit used here makes a lot of sense.
Thanks for a tip. Last time we tried laundry, they painted our clothes in some yellowish brown color, so we had to throw it away. Will take 2 T-shirts, one synthetic, one cotton.
> Don't spend more than a couple of days in Bangkok it stinks.
Didn't you visit a few markets, Khao San road with all it's glorious fake student IDs and Soy Cowboy? Takes more time than a few days to do all that. I agree it stinks and has a permanent blue-gray smog, so the sun can not be seen.
> Get a bungalow for about 350b a night (53euro a week) with a fan and a shower after that. That's about as cheap as it'll go unless you like sharing toilets and showering from a tap in the open air.
Reasonable price, heh? Nothing like that in good ole Europe.
> Drink singha NOT chang. Chang drinkers tend to have a lot of scars and cuts on their head from people punching them out, you have been warned.
Aye aye captain!
How's it going further, what about the other countries?
Thailand is humid
Well been here for a couple of weeks now. Very humid place, anyone who weighs a few kilos too much; lose it before coming here or it's going to be a permanent personal waterfall for you. If you want to travel light you can get laundry done here for peanuts and clothes are cheap. The lighter cloth and looser fit used here makes a lot of sense.
Don't spend more than a couple of days in Bangkok it stinks.
Dudes
Personally I'm off on the 17th November to Thailand,Vietnam,Cambodia,Laos back on Feb 17th. I'm currently breaking in some Birkenstocks. Anyone I know who's been to Thailand has pointed out that socks are too much to wear. Also you can get clothes and shoes made to measure for peanuts in Thailand. I guess I'llknow for sure soon enough.
I was just over on the drupal site, trying to decide between Drupal 5.0beta or civicspaces to do up a site like this. Small world.
Bring a maglite, bright at 7AM, dark at 7PM, no twilight.
That was me
Now that I'm logged in and all that.
Welcome
Cool, welcome to the site, Sean!
> I was just over on the drupal site, trying to decide between Drupal 5.0beta or civicspaces to do up a site like this. Small world.
Heh, in the last few months I really had a lot of "small world" proof, just like this one. You still plan to do the site?
Tell a little more about your trip - what's the first country to visit, have you already been in that region, if you plan to travel alone, etc.
We were planning to depart November as well, but not everybody managed to leave their jobs in time (heh, me mostly). Will bring my Ecco (similar to Birkenstock) as well, no doubt about it. It's just not so convenient with them in the mountains..
> Bring a maglite, bright at 7AM, dark at 7PM, no twilight.
Yeah, probably will take one or two. You liked that specific brand, or using some other?
Mwaahaha
My sister bought me some Birkenstocks and a maglite (normally I'd say torch but in some places that would mean a burning hunk of pitch on the end of a stick). My mother gave me a pair of Eccos (stole them from my father really). So despite my best efforts I'm a computer gimp wearing sandals. I'll be smoking a pipe and wearing a beard next.
I'm flying to Thailand with a mate of mine in a wheelchair, he hates the cold winters so I think Thailand is the cure for that. His madbird and his PA are along for the ride. I've never ventured further than Paris before myself so this should be a good one. Everyone else in the country seems to have spent at least a week there at some point.
Apart from getting the vaccines and the visa I know nothing of Thailand at all, and that's the way I want it. What's the point in a holiday with a list of things to do in a specific order ? If I want lists and deadlines I might as well be at a desk.
Madbird?
What's a madbird?
Last time we were in Thailand, we ended up in a place which is a malaria zone.
Knowing that in advance we investigated the options to protect ourselves, but we found out that vaccination against malaria is not possible, and the course of pills can make you go blind, schisofrenic, vomit all day long, etc. And it is not given that the pills will actually protect against malaria.
So we decided to just skip it and went there without any medicines.
To make sure the digestion works after unusual meals we usually took a few shots of vodka after dinner / before sleep :)
Everything worked perfectly.
What country are you coming from? Ireland?
Yeah Ireland is the
Yeah Ireland is the place.
All the malaria advice seems to indicate taking the pills for a day or two before going to a malarial area, and while in the area. Me, I'm just going to keep out of malarial areas. My sister took pills for a month before going to Thailand, but that's the Aussie prophalactic way. Everyone else I know got there first then took the pills every day. That lasted for two weeks but by then felt so sick from the anti-malaria pills that they stopped taking them.
I didn't get rabies shots either so I guess I'll just have to avoid rabid dogs.
I'll have to obey your vodka drinking instructions, without question. It has the ring of true wisdom about it. My digestion has always been excellent but I'm sure a load of vodka will only enhance it further.
Madbirds are Irelands number one product, the most mad are the red haired ones.