Visa requirements can change without warning and you wouldn’t want to show up at the airport only to find you can’t board because you should have gotten a visa in advance. Here’s a few examples of countries where you used to be able to get a visa (or reciprocity fee) on arrival but now you have to apply online in advance.
I recommend double-checking at least monthly if you plan on visiting countries that you normally need a visa for.
Back in 2011, before I started this blog, we did a fantastic trans-Panama Canal cruise on Princess and were able to find some good birding at most of the ports. I’ll be posting about that trip in detail, but first lets look at why you would want to use a cruise ship for birding…………….and a few reasons why not.
Just like choosing a land based trip, you need to know what kind of birds you are most interested in and what part of the world they are best found in. You also have to look for national parks or wildlife reserves near to a cruise port. People who are more interested in sea birds and shore birds will have more to choose from than those who are interest in parrots and songbirds. Hummingbirds are active throughout the day so any cruise which calls at a port in Central or South America has the potential to see them. Here are a few typical itineraries from Princess Cruises (you can use this idea on any cruise line) that have at least one port with a good place for birding nearby. It is very unlikely the cruise line will have a specific birding shore excursion so be prepared to find and organize your own guide using sources like eBird, Fatbirder, Trip Advisor and even Google!
I am usually pretty careful to research special events (Olympics, G20 Summit, conferences) and public holidays in our destinations because special events can cause congestion, flight delays, no space on public transport, full hotels and tons of kids in national parks. This one slipped by me. Songkran is a major holiday in Thailand and is actually kind of fun…..unless you have expensive camera gear.
Especially on the first day of Songkran, people run around throwing water on anyone and everyone – including tourists! It doesn’t matter if you don’t want to play, are wearing nice clothes or carrying a DSLR, everyone is fair game on Songkran!
Luckily the staff at 100 Islands called a taxi to pick us up at the door to take us to the airport, otherwise we would have been drenched before we reached the airport. A few Thais still had a go at us!
They even chase victims in the backs of pick-up trucks!
Lying in wait!
Our next birding destinations were in Malaysia so after a couple lazy days on the beach at Koh Samui, we were rested up and ready to bird! As I mentioned, flights to and from Koh Samui are not cheap and I had run out of stopovers to cram into the generous United award ticket. So we took the Lomprayah ferry from Koh Samui to Surat Thani and Air Asia to Kuala Lumpur. From there, a 5 hour bus ride would get us to our first Malaysian destination – Taiping. We could have gotten up early and done it all on one day but I was wary of cutting the connections too close as ferries can be cancelled if weather is bad.
Actually if it had not been Songkran (major holiday in Thailand) we would have taken the train to Butterworth, then bus to Taiping but you can’t book Thai trains online and I didn’t want to risk not getting a sleeping car.
The Lomprayah van picked us up and took us to the jetty. The ferry left a bit late but was a pleasant and speedy way across the sea to the mainland.
It wasn’t full so we spread out and enjoyed the ride.
Most people will have booked combo tickets that include a bus ride to your final destination in Thailand. I had booked us to Surat Thani town where we were dropped at the office in town and had to get a taxi to the hotel. They arranged it but we had to pay something ridiculous like 300-400 Baht!
The second part of this journey was Air Asia from Surat Thani to Kuala Lumpur which I booked online well in advance (due to Songkran) and got an insanely cheap price of around $35 per person!
Lovely welcoming committee! I don’t know if these ladies are always here or it was special for Songkran. At this small airport you have to wait until about a hour before boarding to go through security to the gate.
Eco-travelers go to great lengths to get to places where exotic wildlife can be seen up close. But here’s some “wildlife” you DON’T want to see – bedbugs! Learn how to avoid them here.
Don’t you just hate rude, inconsiderate behaviour on planes? Here’s a list of things to avoid from Conde Nast Traveler.
If you are in a lie-flat business class seat you won’t have anything to worry about. But with J seats becoming harder to redeem, sooner or later you will find yourself in the economy section of a long haul flight.
Conde Nast has some ideas to help you out.
What worked best for me was getting a little help from my Dr in the form of sleeping pills and putting a boring movie or tv show on. Failing that, download a podcast on quantum physics or similar! It also helps if you are physically tired. We always go into town and look around on long layovers.
There seems to be some kind of racket in Arusha where all taxis charge $50 to the airport. I am no fan of taxis at the best of times and even less so when I think I am getting ripped off. Now for most people, your safari company will pick you up at the airport (maybe with additional charge so ask) but most people also stick around Arusha for a day or so afterwards to sightsee on their own. When you are ready to leave, if you ask your hotel to call a taxi, it will cost $50. Taxis on the street may be more willing to bargain but they do tend to jack up the prices for foreigners going to the airport. Some of the domestic carriers do have shuttles but we were on Ethiopian Airlines that didn’t have a shuttle.
You don’t have to put up with these rates, here’s how to get 2 people to the airport for around $10. Here’s the basic route using L’Oasis Lodge (highly recommend) as a starting point.
Step 1 – Lodge to main road. For L’Oasis, this is about 10 minute walk down a dirt road to the main road.
Step 2 – You will see a bus station and usually several people waiting for buses. Mini-buses will pull up and the conductor will shout the destination. When you hear “Moshi, Moshi, Moshi”, hop in. The fare is around 3000-4000 Tanzanian Shillings, about $2.50 USD. The mini-bus will be crowded and if you have heavy luggage (which you really shouldn’t) you may want to pay for extra seats. It will take around an hour to the junction. Tell the conductor you are hopping out at the airport junction road. You won’t be the only one, though you will probably be the only foreigner.
Step 3 – At the junction, taxis will be waiting and approach you. We paid 10,000 TZS, around $5 USD. Since we had plenty of time, we had lunch in a cafe and I decided to get my hair braided while my husband got a shave.
But there’s your transport from Arusha to the airport for around $10 USD!
The video I found on YouTube shows exactly how easy it is for crims to get into your checked bags, steal what they want and make your bag look like it hasn’t been touched. His friend was robbed but you don’t have to be!
Although the man making the video recommends a hard sided bag, my solution is far simpler – don’t check any bags at all! Use carry-on bags/backpacks such as the E-Bags Motherlode and bring a Scottevest so you can put any heavier items in the pockets if your carry-on exceeds the weight limit. Some airports do weigh carry-ons so be prepared!
I always enjoy a long layover in certain cities as it gives us a chance to go into town for a quick bit of sight-seeing or shopping but not have to fork out for a hotel. The best layovers are when you arrive in the morning and depart in the evening. Here are a few we had last year.
Singapore – not yet blogged but we went to the Jurong Bird Park.
These layovers don’t always go to plan. Last year we had planned on a 12 hour layover in Beijing so we could go to the Great Wall on the way home from Europe. Singapore Airlines had a schedule change and rebooked us on a flight leaving 2 hours after we arrived but they left our final leg alone from Singapore to Brisbane so we now had a long, boring NIGHT layover. I didn’t want to fork out for a hotel and the timing was such that we wouldn’t have been able to do or see anything. We just wanted to get the next flight home but guess what? The ticket was issued by US Airways while they were still in Star Alliance but the change came after they switched to OneWorld. I didn’t want to mess up the ticket and on one level I was at least grateful SQ rebooked us instead of stranding us.
I did call and try to get SQ to move us to the 11pm flight so we didn’t have to stay overnight and could get home in the morning but they wouldn’t do any changes because it was a US ticket.
Once we arrived, I tried one last ditch attempt. We went straight to the transit desk with boarding passes in hand and asked if there was any way to get on the earlier flight. Much to our relief, there were 2 last seats in business class on the red-eye to Brisbane! We were spared 12 hours in the albeit pleasant Krisflyer Lounge and arrived home (with luggage) in the morning after a good night’s sleep.
Exhausted but homeward bound on SQ
Moral of the story: It never hurts to ask. Airlines can’t change another airline’s ticket before departure but once a boarding pass has been issued and the ticket is in their control, you might get lucky!