I don’t know about all of you people, but when I get to go on a big trip, excitement and fear become my constant companions. They walk hand in hand, but there’s always one that pulls a little stronger, a little firmer, on the other’s hand and decides the direction my thoughts are going.

Right now, I’m sitting on the couch at my parents’ house, and it is not only Christmas, but also 2.30 am and another also, two hours before the departure for the next big adventure. And man, it’s an adventure.

As you can tell by the picture, we’ve been planning this trip to Myanmar for quite some time (because it’s Christmas now and I was sweating in the park while taking that photo). We, that’s Marvin, my boyfriend, and me, by the way. There hasn’t ever been an occassion to write about him here, but there is now, so I have been thinking whether or not to call him some sort of nickname (he suggested Max Power, Commander Cool and other likewise examples, mostly stolen from The Simpsons). But I thought there’s really no reason for that, so there we are.

We will be traveling to Myanmar in just a few hours and we are lucky enough to travel around there for almost three weeks. There’s a crazy amount of places on our itinerary list and about a gazillion more we would like to visit. Once we got into reading about the country, we didn’t really see just how it would be possible to visit for three weeks only.

This trip has been preceded by a great amount of planning, not only because there’s so much to see and do, but because the infrastructure simply demands you to plan ahead if you want to make the most of your time.

I’m usually not the plan-ahead kind of traveller, I prefer to have like the first two nights booked at some place and then just see what happens, but that didn’t seem as wise this time.

It’s save to say that six years ago, I have travelled around the world for ten months with less preparation. I’m really just writing this to give you a heads up about what will happen on this blog shortly – but there’s also some tips for those of you, whose nature is like mine more of the last minute kind.

The visa: Tourist visa can be applied for online, which is great and shortens the process of receiving one significantly. I would still suggest to do it at least 2 months ahead, because the application website can be kind of moody when it comes to, you know, working properly. Still great for those who find it hard to plan very far ahead

Getting informed: As I said, we tried to read as much as possible early on and that’s great of course, because it gets you super excited for you trip. We have read and heard “warnings” everywhere that you should book really far ahead especially around Christmas and New Year’s time, but well… We didn’t. Don’t know why, but just didn’t. But see, the thing is: We got each and every accomodation we decided we liked, no problems whatsoever. So yeay.

Oh, and here’s some advice from someone who knows because she just did all of these wrong:

Do NOT wait to get your vaccinations until short before the trip, especially when you travel in winter time – or you might end up having to take some of these shots when you’re already sick because so is everyone else (it’s flu season, you idiot, how did you not see that coming?), and I can tell you, that is not great. Except if you like feeling sickish, exhausted and simply short of breath for a straight four weeks.

Also, maybe don’t pack your bag after midnight in Christmas when you are super tired and maybe also not write your blog post about your preparations then because your brain doesn’t do sentences properly.

Anyway, as I will probably be writing a lot about this trip, at least now you know what I’m blabbering about. Will try to catch like one hour of sleep now, like that has ever worked for anyone. Cheers!