Plans are inflating fatally...

Fatal news: cannot step back!

We haven't updated our blog during past 3 weeks... however, quite substantial steps have been taken!

Flight tickets
After long preparations and considering especially Zdenek's tough agenda in June and in September, we just bought our flight tickets yesterday!! The Fatal trips gains the ultimate time span!

12 FATAL WEEKS
Friday June 20th 2008
Wednesday September 10th 2008

Due to unfavourable circumstances we had to pay a part of the total sum in cash. And what better place to choose than a branch of Komercni Banka next to the multifunctional complex U Hajku on Na Florenci street in Prague:)

So as to begin our backpacking experience in a mild way, we also decided to fly to Delhi from Vienna and our objective #1 would be to get there on time, not being ripped off and keep ourselves from digestive challenges:)


Vaccinations
It goes well, both of us have already our vaccination schedules settled. The only drawback of my stay in Canada impacting the Fatal trip is that there is not enough time for me to take an anti-cholera cocktail.

All the rest
As I've just returned from Canada 3 days ago, we are now ready for the next in-person strategic meeting to proceed with general preparations. Stay tuned!:)

On behalf of the fatal crew :)
Martin

Vaccinations coming soon!

Preparations are getting more and more fatal.

Last days we have spent researching for vaccinations needed for our trip and looking for the best and cheapest vaccination centre in Prague. To my surprise, I have sent ca. 7 emails to different doctors and have received 5 answers, from which 3 I would rate as "very satisfactory". Based on those answers and based on our current research, we are going to get (re)vaccinated against those diseases:

• Tetanus
• Hepatitis A+B
• Typhus
• Polio
• Diphtheria
• Meningitis A+C
• Rabies
• Cholera
• Tuberculosis
• and possibly some more...

Well, it seems that if we will survive the vaccination, we will have a great trip :-) !

We are also going to buy a return ticket Prague-Delhi in following two weeks.

Martin is coming back from Canada in a few weeks, then more serious planning will come!

Actually I was about to put some pictures of the diseases here, but I became so disturbed by the photos that I have decided to put up something rather positive - so check out some of the places we are going to visit :-)

On behalf of the fatal crew :)
Zdenek

Kouangsi Waterfalls, Laos

Taj Mahal, India

Petronas Towers, Malaysia

Coastline, Thailand

Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Second strategic meeting

Three weeks have passed and we are meeting again!

Having met on time as usually (30 minutes later than agreed on) we drove to my house and had a romantic dinner with candles and soft background music. And a dog screwing around the table.

Because of the time pressure, we did not have that much time to do a decent research (Martin did actually most of the work), so we decided to focus on specifying the course of our trip and next steps concerning our fatal summer. Since borders of Myanmar are closed, driving or somehow getting through this country showed to be extremely difficult or even impossible. Therefore we had to replan the trip we are going to take.

You can see the map below.

On behalf of the fatal crew :)
Zdenek

(yellow = country borders, red = long way to take:),
green = facultative trips, blue = flights)

First complications

Two weeks have just passed since our previous meeting and our preparations for the fatal trip continue. Each of us, me and Zdenek, are responsible for half of countries on our actual destination list. It means that we are gathering information about visa, vaccination, the most significant travel sights, country specifics (e.g. culture, accommodation, transportation, politics, climate, currency) etc. to be ready for sharing and discussion during the second strategic meeting (coming soon!).

"My" countries are Vietnam, Thailand, Brunei, Malaysia and Myanmar (Burma) and it is the last one that has caused the first complications. As you may have noticed in the map that was created after the last meeting, we intend to go from India to Laos through Myanmar. To be more precise, we would like to go by train. And here it comes... I found out on multiple channels that most probably it won't be possible due to current military government that block many frontier crossings. It is highly recommended that tourists enter the country only by plain.

If this gets confirmed, it brings many implications, e.g. to fly to Myanmar from Thailand instead of India (because of visa), therefore a need to obtain a double visa to Thailand (because of repeated entry)... and above all to reconsider the order of all countries on our "flight plan".
Let's hope it requires just few slight rearrangements! :)

On behalf of the fatal crew:)
Martin

First strategic meeting

I can recall the situation quite clearly... having a lunch with Zdenek on Friday October 26th 2007, talking about various things as usually, but also coming up with a crazy idea to set off for a big journey. It shall be the biggest trip we have experienced so far and that will be pretty hard to challenge in future as well. Let's see... :)

Well, nice idea, but let's carry on with some appropriate planning!
Today, it is Tuesday January 29th 2008 and we are meeting again at Zdenek's place for the First strategic meeting.

What is on the agenda:

• set a rough timeline
• share our expectations (don't worry - we are not just bullshitting around, thanks to a decent preparation since Christmas)
• choose destinations
• create a flight plan
• fog out (vymlzit) the budget (uff... it was hard to precisely evaluate the costs of accommodation in Vientiane (Laos), transportation fees in Bangladesh or cost of female entertainment in Thailand... you can imagine, can't you?)
• check our bank accounts :)
• launch the blog (yeah!)
• and last but not least... set the next steps, of course!

We've been extremely productive and after 2,5hrs of ice breakers, we've decided the whole thing within another 5hrs.
See the map below to get a better idea about it. More detailed "output" of this meeting will be available soon.

Following pictures document the atmosphere of our First strategic meeting:

Martin & Zdenek

Are you ready for a fatal blog?

Ladies and gentlemen!
The time has come!

Let us welcome you on this brand new blog that was created for one basic purpose... to keep you updated during our 3-month summer transasian trip.

Let's call it the fatal trip!

Would you like to know more about the whole voyage? Stay tuned for more information... coming soon!

Zdenek & Martin
fatal-trip.blogspot.com