I have been asked to look for information on the journey between hanoi and lao cai..and of course between lao cai and sapa too. Below is the source in which i have found some answer to my question.

http://www.vietnamstay.com/service/sapatrain.htm

will elaborate on this later.

remi

———————————————————-

ok…i managed to get a reply from aurora travel, Here is the reply:

Day 1 (Wednesday, February 11, 2009): Ho Chi Minh City Arrival – Overnight train to Sapa (D) Our guide meets you at Noi Bai airport and escorts you to the city centre. You will then follow your guide to visit Hanoi Hilton prison and Van Mieu - Quoc Tu Giam (Temple of Literature). Then we are roaming to the old quarter (trade area) of Hanoi for looking and shopping. Cyclo ride through the old but busy streets should be highlight of the day. We then stop at Thang Long theatre for enjoying Water puppets show. 18:00: another driver will pick up the last member in your group of 8 and transferred him to join in yourgroup. In the evening, have dinner at local restaurant and then go to the train for an overnight train to Sapa.

Day 2 (Thursday, February 12, 2009): Lao Cai – Sapa (no guide) Arrive at Lao Cai Train station at about 6.30. Take a ride to Sapa. You will be free today in Sapa. Our suggestion is to walking or trekking around the town by yourself to stretch your legs, a good practice before climbing Fansipan. Overnight train in Sapa.

Day 3 (Friday, February 13, 2009): Sapa - Heavens Gate – 2900m (B/L/D) You are having a couple of interesting days waiting ahead. You travel by car toward the Silver Waterfall where you will be able to take a short walk to the waterfall. You will then drive further to Heaven Gate,the highest peak of roads in Vietnam. From there you can see Fansipan, the highest peak of Indochina mountains as well as enjoy stunning views. The trek will be relatively soft until lunchtime. After a couple of hours of hiking, you will have a break at a nice spot in the forest and enjoy a good lunch. With new energy you start ascending as well as descending towards the campsite. En route you have many opportunities to enjoy the scenery and magnificent views to Sapa area and beautiful landscape of Lai Chauprovince. You will arrive to the campsite at 2900m ASL in the late afternoon. Now it is time to relax and enjoy a well prepared dinner.

Approx: Grade 3 of 5/ 0,5 hour driving/ 5 hours walking/ 1 hour lunch.

Day 4 (Saturday, February 14, 2009): 2900m – the top of Fansipan – 2700m (B/L/D)After having breakfast, you climb to the top, where you can celebrate your victory. From there, you canenjoy the best view to beautiful sceneries. You will then start descending. You stop on the way at a nice spot for lunch. After lunch, you start the tough trek, which is all the way downhill through rainforest. This part requires a great concentration to step on steep trail until you meet the campsite at 2700m ASL. Here you spend another night in tent.

Approx: Grade 3 of 5/ 6 hours walking/ 1 hour lunch.

Day 5 (Sunday, February 15, 2009): 2700m – Sin Chai – Sapa (B/L) You wake up in the fresh and pure morning in wild nature, before heading back to civilization. You trek downhill through well protected forest and after a couple of hours of hiking, you stop for lunch. You will then continue descending toward Sin Chai village of Back Hmong minority. On the way you will be able to enjoy valley views and beautiful surrounding. You stop at the village for a while before you go by car back to Sapa, where you can celebrate your achievement and relax. Overnight in Sapa.

Approx: Grade 3 of 5/ 0,5 hour driving/ 6 hours walking/ 1 hour lunch.

Day 6 (Monday, February 16, 2009): Sapa free – Overnight train back to Hanoi (B/no guide) You will be free today in Sapa for relaxing until late afternoon when you’re transferred to the railway station for your overnight train back to Hanoi.

Day 7 (Tuesday, February 17, 2009): Hanoi (B/L) Arrive early morning (around 05:30-06:00) in Hanoi. You will be picked up to a local restaurant for breakfast and then depart for a city tour. We will go north to visit Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, His House on Stilt, One Pillar Pagoda, Tran Quoc pagoda, Army Museum and Hanoi Flag Tower. After lunch, you will visit the Ethnology museum and then transfer 5 members to the airport for departure flights. 3 others will be free at your own arrangement.

QUOTATION

Price is net, PER PERSON, based on twin shared, non-commission for a private tour for a group of 8 people

Breakdown services Mid-range (3*)
Land service US$443.00

Hotel Propose/Confirmation City Mid-range (3*) Notes Sapa Royal View Hotel
– Standard room
Check- in time : 13:00 or 14:00
Check- out time: 11:00 or 12:00
Check-in/check-out time is subject to availability and with additional charge.

Service inclusive
-Accommodation with daily breakfast at hotels mentioned
-Returned trained tickets: Hanoi – Lao Cai – Hanoi in a first class 4-berth cabin with soft sleeper and air-conditioning (Tulico/Ratraco train).
-Tours with private local English speaking guide in each area -Transfer services in a private air-conditioned car
-Entrance fees for sightseeing
-Black Hmong porters (to carry food and luggage)
-Cook (from group sizes of 6 clients)
-All needed transport
-All indicated meals, plus snacks
-Water on the whole trip
-Sleeping bag and mattresses
-Silk sleeping bag
-Waterproof bluebag for luggage
-Tents
-Mosquito net
-Meals as the indication (B: breakfast, L: lunch and D: dinner)

Service exclusive
-Meals not clearly mentioned
-Services not stated in the program
-Domestic airfares and tax in Vietnam and in Cambodia
-International airfare from/to Vietnam
-International airport departure tax
-All type of visa fees to Vietnam and Cambodia.

hi all,

i am so sorry that if you have made it to this blog for the last couple of days, you may have encountered an empty blog of mine. The reason is because my last web host had wipe away my blog from their server.

The hosting has not expired but the reseller license has expired. That’s the lesson learned when u trust ur friend so much …. grrrr. anyway, fortunately i have installed something like wordpress backup plugin and i managed to get previous post up and running today.

ok, to dr j, all the best with your hajj trip. thanks for the comment and hopefully i can stuff this blog with a nice theme so that ‘orang orang dewasa’ can read it happily….hehehehe.

ok, that’s all folks.

remi

ps://i think i might be missing the oppurtunity to take part in this year’s pesta blogger indonesia. OK…nevermine, some other time maybe…huehuehe. cheers. have a nice day

ok. i guess this will be the trip of the year in 2010. Its 2 years from now but this is not just a normal trip. This is not the usual “relax, mas kaboel will take care of everything”. At this point, we dont know anyone in that region. Hopefully, we will find someone who can shed some light.

anyway, mas jamal had initiated a thread in his blog. The post can be found here: http://www.tembeling.com/blog/?p=367

i have also consulted mr razim faris. Have invited him to join the trip and asked him to apply for another job so that he can join this trip when he is in between jobs. Hehehe. one some research on the silk road. And suprisingly, he has bookmarked one very good site for this purpose.

The site is located at http://www.seat61.com/SilkRoute.htm

ok, i’ll stop here. till then sweet dreams silk roads

actually the trip to rinjani was planned when we just came back from lawu in august. Its gonna be a big group, consisting of mainly photographers. The trip will be in june 2009. hope i will be able to get a super wide lense and a video camera by then. The trip should consists of few days of shooting spree in bali. i guess, that would be my 2nd trip to bali and lombok.

 but before that, we are going to climb mount Fansipan of Vietnam in february 2009. At the same time, another group of us will be going for sightseing in the region of Dieng of Central Java, Indonesia. That will be another big group of photographers outing. I want to go but since it clashes with the fansipan trip, i just have to forgo the oppurtunity.

so, next year, ecotravellers will be going to 3 escapades. 2 mountains and 1 sightseing. And i think i might be going off for another trip, maybe all by my own since i’ll be getting a free airasia ticket. I dont think i will be using the tix for silk road in 2010. Anyway, silk road is still in planning stage. nothing concrete. hopefully can ask inci angie narina regarding her trip along the silk road. <– hopefully she had been there coz she told me that she will going there this year.

i will be detailing the info for silk road. The trip might be as short as 2 weeks and may reach 1 whole month. need to find out about Lhasa and stuffs. this trip was brought up by Mr Jass. We have to really plan since this is not a cheap trip. its gonna be fun. cant wait….

anyway, mr jamal and mr ali are planning for another escapades to down under. Oh…i want to go….i want to gooooo. never been to countries outside south east asia ( im lame ).  hopefully their trip would not fall on those days that i have to submit my projects/research etc.

for me, 3 overseas eco-vacation is a lot to consume in a year. Unless i have people to do the jobs for me…ooh gosh this is the time when i pray that there will be more people like me in this world. i hope to accomplish that as easy as this –> copy remi remi2, muahahahahahahahha

as for local event, i have been invited by todd to join him to climb a mountain near kampar, perak this weekend. I dont think i will be able to join him since my neighbour is getting married this weekend and my friend zani is having his open house too. I have to help zani with picking up the foods from pencala this sunday. oh gosh, i’ll be missing another trip.

nevermine…till next time, keep up the eco spirit in yaaaaa

hi all,

 it has been a long break since i last write on this weblog. Actually i had written 2 important posts after the jakarta-bandung trip, one is regarding the trip and the other is regarding asean contries local newspaper links.

but unfortunately those 2 posts have been lost. my hosting provider didnt even know that his main hosting company has changed their dns server ip again. And the best part is, my hosting provider website is no longer accessible. This is the price to pay for you to trust your friend who is very keen in getting rich quick. i hate him. personally and for eternity.

anyway, i managed to get the dns problem solved. fortunately the domain was registered by myself. due to the dns changing exercise, the 2 posts was not backed up. im going to try to get those posts up later.

anyway, i stumbled upon this news from bbc website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7658258.stm

‘Tourists die’ in Nepal air crash

Twelve German tourists were among 18 people killed when a passenger plane crashed in Nepal’s Everest region.

A total of 14 foreigners are believed to have died, airport officials said.

Only one Nepalese passenger survived as the Yeti Airlines plane crashed during landing at Tenzing-Hillary airport in the eastern town of Lukla, they said.

Nestling on a mountainside at 9,380ft (2,860m), the airport is popular with mountaineers and trekkers heading for expeditions in the Himalayas.

The plane reportedly caught fire after crash-landing and hitting the perimeter boundary at the airstrip.

“Twelve German and two Swiss people were on the passenger manifest,” airport official Mohan Adhikari told AFP.

In fine weather, there are daily flights between Lukla and the Nepalese capital Kathmandu.

Lukla’s runway is just 20m wide and is set on a slope, with a steep 700m drop at one end. 
 

——–

 hope the news above will not deteriorate our determination to climb the Annapurna Base Camp in the next 5 years.

hi all,

we have finally reached home on monday afternoon. the trip was great although we could not complete 1 important de-tour. we did not manage to get around dieng nor did we shoot the magnificent sunrise at dieng.

below is my travelogue. correct me if i missed something… :-). pix will follow soon.

day 0.
- packed things before 7 pm.
- managed to get 2 tix for chelsea - malaysia match @ shah alam stadium
- car broke down, couldnt start due to weak battery. somebody helped to push the car.
- reach home by 11.30 pm
- double checked backpack
- went to zani house by midnight

day 1.
- zani sent me to airport by 12++ am
- met todd at LCCT before 1 am and we talked while waiting for others to arrive
- met dr j and the company at 4.30 am, waje arrived somewhere around that time
- everybody checked in at 5 am, lotsa ppl qeueing…
- checked in at 5.50 am and went for subuh prayer.
- flight depart at around 6.50 am, wonderful sunrise during departure
- arrived at solo 8.20 am. kabul and memeng were there, with theh L200 old kia van…uhhhh. ( i want to castrate kabul for this )
- went to boyolali to catch the much awaited brunch at soto mpok giyem. we got lost. after asking around, we finally found out that there are 2 mbok giyem warungs. and we brunch at the other branch and it tastes the same minus the jawa orchestra plus the pretty waitress @ cashier…hehehehhe
- proceed to dieng via selo. found out that the van is not good enough for dieng. diverted to brobodur.
- took a lot of pictures of brobodur. didnt buy souvenir.
- stop by cartenz to buy outdoor gear / equipment. the chicks are actually not bad at all. todd bought a lot of gears and had been given a membership card by a cewek. “hilang akal tul cewek tuh”
- dinner at padang restaurant. nice dinner but i think, it was overpriced. 400 ++ k is not a nice number.
- went to jogja to overnight. walked in behind malioboro and found a decent losmen to stay.

day 2.
- wake up at 430. dr ali woke up early and managed to get sunrise at malioboro.
- breakfast at a minang restaurant. cheap, some had mee soup, some had rice with chicken and stuffs.
- shopping and street shooting @ malioboro until 11.30am
- by 12 noon, checked out from losmen and went straight to dieng.
- lunch @ ___ . had soto again. not as good as mpok giyem but okeee laaahhh.
- arrived at dieng after maghrib. had dinner @ telaga warna. The best part is met with the tour guide of dieng. bought a marvellous pamplet and some had purwaceng….hehehe. i repeat…PURWACENG.
- decided to cancel sunrise shooting in order to catch up with mount lawu climbing
- went to selo to overnight. arrived at selo around 12 midnight. found a homestay for Rp 200k but without hot shower and drinks.

day 3.
- wonderful sunrise at selo, marvellous mount merapi view. everybody is enjoying the early morning photo shoot out.
- had breakfast at the same stall in new selo ( as in feb 2008 ). had mie sedap.

- checked out from homestay at 8.30 am and proceed to solo to pick up arey.
- arey flight delayed. we arrived at the same time as his @ 10.30 am.
- proceed to lawu. arrived at lawu around 2.00 pm. had lunch. everybody has nasgor - nasi goreng @ friend rice. it was ok.
- started trekking at 3 pm. wonderful scenery of the crops planted on the way up using cemoro sewu route.
- passed first basecamp, the warung had already closed.
- arrived at 3rd basecamp when night falls in
- first group reached sendang drajat basecamp ( camp 5 ) at 9 pm ( arey, todd, waje, culas and mufti ). They moved into another basecamp which had shelter.
- 2nd group reached sendang drajat basecamp ( camp 5 ) at 11 pm. ( me, dr j, and .. whats the name of ur porter dr j? ) . we hoped in from one shelter to another to find the first group. they were in the 3rd shelter. had dinner of pecel and telur goreng ( fried egg ). sleep after solat isya’.
- last group reached sendang drajat basecamp ( camp 5 ) at 2 am. sardin came later. kabul fainted and only reached sendang drajat at 4 am. they had to sleep without tent. the temprature was around 5 degrees celcius and they barely had a sleep.

day 4.
- journey to summit started at 5 am. at 530 am we reached summit.
- the view was spectacular. viewed mount semeru, mount merapi, and mount merbabu from a distance.
- 3rd group reached summit at 6 ++ am. congrats to dr ali, om jasni and mas sani. kabul and sardin were with them.
- descend to basecamp some minutes before 9am. packed up the back packs and descent to cemoro kandang at 10 am.
- the view was marvellous as we passed the great savannah before pos 4.
- the first group to reached cemoro kandang at 2 pm. I was with the 3rd group to reach cemoro kandang at 3 pm. last group, dr ali and arey arrived 20 minutes later. we had lunch at the stall opposite cemoro kandang basecamp. i had rica-rica while om jasni had nasgor.
- proceed to cemoro sewu basecamp to take a bath, repack our things. no heater, and the bath water was freezing cold. 
- proceed to bromo after maghrib prayer.
- had dinner at a losmen somewhere around telaga sarangan at 7 pm. i had gado - gado. it is actually what we call rojak in malaysia but with kerupuk.
- continue to malang via highway. memeng was driving very fast. hueheuhe. thank god we were safe.
- stop over at purwosari. memeng was badly sleepy. bought 6 energizer batteries for rp 22k. that is quite a bargain …. i wish i could buy the whole energizer batteries and bring em back

day 5.
- reached penanjakan gate at 2++ am. repacked and changed our clothing 
- lepaks and proceed to penanjakan via 2 vg 40 at rp 600k.
- arrived at penanjakan at 4 am. had tea with the rest of the team.
- proceed to viewing area at 4.30 am. everybody was finding the best spot to shoot bromo and sunrise.
- sunrised at 5 am. marvellous. captured lotsa photos. i was separated from the group. prayed at 535 am.
- continue shooting after that.
- proceed to bromo before 7 am.
- crazily shooting peoples and horses. i decided not to use horse to reach bromo. me, arey and todd walked to bromo. i hire horse to return to the jeep after climbing down from bromo.
- the weather was marvellous and we decided to go to the savannah for an extra of 300k. stopped at the savannah and the sea of sand.
- return to penanjakan gate at around 10 am. repacked and changed our clothing before proceeding to surabaya at 11 am/noon. WE HAVENT HAD OUR BREAKFAST YET.
- had our lunch somewhere after/before pesuruan. i think that was around 3 pm. we had bakso. a big meatball with a very tiny amount of mee hoon. we were starving……
- continue to surabaya via toll route. “eh they got jalan toll jugak ke”…hehehehe
- reached juanda area’s around 5 pm. checked in at new cahaya hotel. The hotel is not bad at all. paid rp 670k for 3 rooms for 9 persons. Good facility, hot water, hot shower, aircond and breakast too.
- dinner after maghrib at the nearby ibu nuraini restaurant. had a really great dinner. most had the much anticipated bebek goreng ( fried duck ) and cigiyur rujak. i had kambing gulai.
- van roof was damaged. due to this, we couldnt sightseing at surabaya. we went to sleep instead.

day 6.
- woke up at 4 am. packed up things.
- subuh at 5 am. breakfast at 6 am. at 630 we proceeded to juanda airport.
- the airport tax is around 150k. bought some ‘kek lapis legit’ at the airport and 1 samarinda sarong. not cheap, but it fulfills my mother wish.
- depart at 845 am. arrived around noon at lcct. good bye everybody. cya in dieng or rinjani.

ok, this would be my last post before flying to solo on wednesday’s morning. my friend, norazamimah ( she is still a single lady ) has emailed me a set of javanese words with its translation. Mimah, Thanks a lot. Maturwunun ya neng. Without further a due, i present to you the 2nd lesson:

hope it helps.

remi

General Information:

1. date: from 30/7/2008 until 4/8/2008
2. no of days: 6 days
3. flight: lcct-solo: ak996, 655 am, 30/7/2008 ; surabaya-lcct: qz 7613, 835 am, 4/8/2008
4. total participants: 9
5. CHANGE OF ITENARIES: please take not that the itenaries have changed. This is to accomodate Mas Arey late arrival on the 31st at Jogja. We regret that we could not proceed to Ijen. Instead, we will replace ijen with The highland of Dieng ( Dataran tinggi Dieng ). Kelud is an option, if we have time, we will take half an hour detour at kelud.
6. exhange rate: rm 355 : 1 juta rupiah, please bring sufficient money. Sometimes it is better to change your currency at malioboro, we can get better rate overthere. will show you the ‘toko’. The chick is not bad either…hahaha. — updated: kabul managed to get today’s exchange rate: rm 350 : 1 juta rupiah. considering that this rate does not change much next week, we can save between rm 5 to rm 30 every 1 million rupiah. got it skool children? FYI, exchange rate in penang is rm 385 for 1 mill, and in shah alam rm 360 every 1 mill. SO…LU PIKIR LA SENDIRI NABIL…
7. please take note that, souvenir shopping will take place at malioboro, jogjakarta. not at surabaya.

participants:

1. remi
2. arey
3. todd
4. jamal
5. ali
6. jasni
7. waje
8. sani
9. nizam

friendly reminder ( especially to WAJE )

1. please be at the airport no later than 5 am.
2. DO NOT LEAVE BEHIND YOUR MEDICATION IF ANY. I only prepare general medication needs.
3. Dr Jamal and Mas Arey will bring 2 tents of 2 man capacity
4. please do not forget your PASSPORT.
5. i will email the tix slip to those who bought the ticket thru me. Others are encouraged to email their tix slips to me at: remiglobal@gmail.com as i will compile the tix together.
6. please bring sweater @ jumper @ pullover and sleeping bag. It is also advisable to have sleeping matress.
7. remi, please do not forget your battery charger. You are the only canon survivor here…hahaha.
8. do not forget to bring tons of batteries and memory cards.
9. please read the general guideline at http://ecotravelogue.com/2008/04/08/lawu-bromo-ijen-preparation-check-list/

chelsea vs malaysia

1. we know that this match will happen on the 29th of July. for those with Dr. Jamal, if you want to proceed to shah alam, i strongly advise you to reach shah alam before 6 or after 9 pm. i can guarantee a heavy traffic for this match.
2. for those who watch, good luck.

itenaries

1. please view the pose before: http://ecotravelogue.com/2008/07/25/dieng-lawu-bromo-finalized-itenaries/

that’s all for now, see ya at the airport.

 remi

ITENARIES UPDATED ( time follows WIB ) 

Day 1 - 30th July (Wed)
0825 - ETA at Solo Airport. Welcome to Indonesia….
0845 - 1500 - Travel to Wonosobo, then to Dieng Plateau (2000m absl). 
                       - Breakfast / Brunch at Soto Mpok Giyem, in front of Sekolah Dasar Boyolali
                       - cant wait for the breakfast….nyum nyum
1500 - 1730 - arrived at dieng, solat jama’ zohor-asar and start with Photo shooting
1730 -  1815 - setting up tent / dinner @ nearby warung
1830 -           - maghrib - isyak jama’. Bisa ngobrol2 sampai subuh bapak2.

Day 2 - 31st July (Thu)
0300 - 0430 - sunrise shooting @ dieng
0430 - 0530 - solat subuh 
0700 - 1000 - Travel to Magelang, breakfast
1000 - 1300 - Visit Borobudur
1300 - 1600 - Travel to Jogja, lunch
1600 - 1700 - Pickup Arey at the airport
1700 - 2000 - Free & easy (jalan2 bandar Joqja somewhere along malioboro), dinner ( Pecelele, gudeg with nice entertainment along lesehan umum @ malioboro ). *mas arey pingin naik kereta kuda. can buy good outdoor equipment here, at least 2 outdoor shop located along this road
2200 -          - proceed to kaliurang, sleep at local resthouse near Merapi Southern Entrance & rest. can take this oppurtunity to recharge ur batteries.

Day 3 - 1st August (Fri)
0430 -          subuh, morning shooting…i hope villagers at the southern crater is as friendly as in Selo.
0800 - 1200 - Travel to Malang Madiun Magetan (Basecamp Cemoro Sewu)
1200 - 1400 - Lunch, packing (should carry essential items only…er, what’s not essential? Yelar, things like charger, power adapter etc)
1400 - 2000 - Trekking Mount lawu (6 jam tuh!!)
2000 - Rest at Sendang Drajat Camp

Day 4 - 2nd August (Sat)
0500 - 0600 - Climb the summit
0600 - 0700 - At the summit (shoot sunrise beb….. and solat Subuh jangan lupa. Then breakfast)
0700 - 1300 - Descend to basecamp
1300 - 1500 - Rest a bit, lunch, packing again, if we have time, we go mandi2 at the waterfall.
1500 - 2200 - Travel from Sarangan to Malang & to Bromo. if we are a bit early, we can pass through kelud, and shoot for 30-45 min. InsyaAllah.
2200 - Dine & proceed to penanjakan

Day 5 - 3rd August (Sun)
0400 - 0700 - Should be at Penanjakan to shoot sunrise!! breakfast after this.
0700 - 1200 - To Bromo crater
1200 - 1400 - Back to Malang. lunch
1400 - 1700 - Proceed to surabaya. Kalau ada rezeki, we will get to pass Apple orchards and tea fields. wanna have some tea?
2000 -            dinner at surabaya. if we have a lot of money, mas arey will recommend a good place to eat.

Day 6 - 4th August (Mon)
0700 - 0800 - Drive to airport
0835 - Balik!!! - makan roti canai atas flight at your expense.

dear participants,

we only have less than 3 weeks before this project will be started. bare in mind that you have to start the physical training now. ( i’m giving myself a reminder…hehehe, me getting fatter and fatter everyday )

 although kaboool says that lawu is not tough, i highly recommend that you at least walk around some football field within your vicinity; for at least 3 rounds everyday to prepare your body for this kind of trip.

as usual, your mental must be fit. We have to stay positive at all time. Although may be some of us are not trekkers, we have to keep in mind the “Malaysia Boleh” spirit. Indonesia has recently launched something similar to “malaysia boleh”. Their tagline is ”Indonesia BISA”. Makanya, bapak-bapak yang ga bisa sebut “Malaysia Boleh”, bisa nyebut, “Malaysia BISA”…hehehe

as for the equipment, you can always refer to this post http://ecotravelogue.com/2008/04/08/lawu-bromo-ijen-preparation-check-list/

i will finalize the ration list in 1 week time. Most probably, we may not need to bring a lot of ration. kabool has confirmed that almost every post has WARONG MAKAN or simply food stall in lawu.

i would like to warn that, please do not take this trip for granted. Although it is somewhat a leisurely trip, an early preparation is always advised. The most important thing is your passport, make sure it is still valid and not within 6 months of compulsory renewing period.

 to be continued….