Don't Be So Naive

Now the thought of going travelling round the world, seeing all the sites and having that sense of freedom fills us all with that wonderful warm feeling....however that all changes when reality strikes! 

VISAS, VACCINATIONS, oh and of course COSTS,COSTS and more COSTS! Suddenly that warm feeling turns into a massive knot of worry. 

We have had massive discussion about costs, as we had planned so many exciting things to do and places to go, then it hit us, what about all the other bits we need to get/do to even get there in the first place. 

Naive Number One

The Visa 

FACT: A visa is a conditional authorisation given by a competent authority of a country for a person who is not a citizen of that country to enter its territory and to remain there for a limited duration.

Granted it's obviously for safety and a very important document, however its are also a blumming pain. 

Not only is there a mountain of paperwork to fill in, along with having those awkward passport photos taken, but also the cost! 

There are a few companies out there that will do all this for you, but again at a fee!

The visas we need range from £16 up to a whopping £125 for the locations/time we want to stay. 

Now the company we were looking at using were adding a charge of another £50 to EACH yes that's right EACH visa, so even the cheapest of visas at £16 suddenly turned into £66!! 

So we have come to the conclusion, as we are working to a very strict budget, that we have done the sensible thing and cut some locations from our journey and are going to do the paperwork ourselves. Tedious but more money in our pockets. 

Naive Number Two 

The Vaccinations 

Now no one likes the thought of these but they have to be done for your safety! 

Whether they are in tablet or injection form, they are a MUST. 

We have done a lot of research into this. 

Boots do a fantastic guide on their website where you type in all your destinations and they give you a list of all the things you need.

Now when we did this we found we needed SEVEN different vaccinations! 

The look of horror on Suze's face was hilarious! 

Now obviously they come at a price, however if you look on the NHS website you can get some of them for FREE: Cholera, Hepatitis A are just a few, and this will save us a lot of cash. May not be pleasant but better to be safe than sorry. 

We are still having to fork out a good £500 for some others, one being Rabies (which you need 3 separate injections over the course of a month)! 

Joy of joys. 

NHS Website http://www.nhs.uk/chq/pages/1071.aspx?categoryid=67&subcategoryid=152

Boots Website http://www.boots.com/en/Pharmacy-Health/Health-shop/Travel-health/Travel-vaccinations-and-advice/

And Naive Number Three 

The Extra Costs

We have obviously sorted flight and accommodation for all our destinations but you also need to think of all the little extras. 

Daily spending? 

Food budget? 

Activity budget? 

Travel, buses, taxis etc? 

Contracts to end before you leave? 

It all adds up! 

We have very much come out of 'Naive Dream Travelling Ville' and got our feet firmly on 'Sensible Cost Effective ground'. 

After a lot of talking and number crunching we have had to do the unthinkable and scrap some destinations.

At first we thought it will be shorter, however we will just get to spend more time and have opportunities to explore the places we do visits for longer, so no need to panic. 

We can't lie, we are a tiny bit heartbroken, but we aren't going to let this little hiccup tarnish our dream.

So fellow travellers please keep a sensible head on your shoulders through all the fun and excitement of the thought of travelling! Don't get caught out! You have been warned! 

Suze and the Beard x

Wagamamas And All Things Travel

The past few days have been eventful, from travel preparation curled up on the sofa in Cafe Nero, to car restoration that involved Beardy getting mugged by a bush, all will be explained, and finishing with some remanising over some noodles.

On Friday night we were getting the Jetta all ready to be sprayed on the Saturday which involved a load of shrink wrap, a thick jumper and a lot of patience.

It all started off so fun and light hearted, I mean how often do you get to wrap an entire car in what is basically big cling film? Very rarely in our case. So we were looping and swirling all round the car until it was all wrapped like a sandwich, but then it all kicked off.....beardy had lost the keys!

We searched everywhere, the garage, the lounge, the kitchen, the drive way floor, everywhere!!!

Pretty much retracing all the steps taken before the wrapping began. 

By this time another layer of jumpers had to be applied as it was getting bitterly cold, and let's just say the fun and light hearted atmosphere had turned into anger and panic.

Crawling around on the floor and both looking at each other in such a way as if to say 'We better not have to cut the car open' was just a tiny bit heartbreaking. 

The search for the keys must have gone on for a good thirty minutes and to be honest, we had both had enough so I headed to the kitchen to grab some scissors when all of a sudden I hear 'Suze!!! You are not going to believe this!'! 

I ran out to find Beardy standing next to our neighbours shrub, and upon one of its twigs were the blumming keys! 

That's right we were mugged by a bush! How this happened we will never know, and how we BOTH managed to miss them...well that's any bodies guess. 

We laughed an awful lot about it though. 

Saturday 

Volkswagen Jetta GL 1989 gets a make over.

The most time consuming part of this was just wrapping every single door and window on the car so there was no risk of overspray inside.

The Jetta has been a bit of an ongoing project where I would just spend a couple of hours a night to remove a panel paint prep it, sort out any damage or rust due to its age, seeing as its older than I am.

With our leaving date approaching quickly and me not having the heart to sell my little project which I've been plodding along with for quite some time now, I badgered a friend at work to finally get our arses into gear and get it sprayed back to its original jade emerald green colour. So far due to a massive cock up on my behalf I forgot to ordered more thinners. Suze and myself raced around two towns trying to find the right type but annoyingly to no avail. So unfortunately process has been prolonged yet another week, but at least we have started, and it's looking a lot better than I thought it would. Might have to have a cheeky dip into travel savings just to ensure the car is completed and ready for storage before we head off on our adventure.....but shhh don't tell Suze. 

Sunday (Today) has been pretty productive. Got up early and sorted through some old DVDs, grabbed the camera and notepad and headed to town.

We went straight to CEX to trade in a box full of unwanted films so we could add a little more cash to our savings jar. The poor lad behind the counter looked mortified at the amount we had plonked on his desk. Let's just say we didn't do too badly. Thanks CEX Man. 

Next we headed for hot chocolate central Cafe Nero. Honestly if you haven't tried their Hot Chocolate Milano GO TRY IT! It's lushness in a mug.
Luckily for us we were able to nab the one and only sofa in there. So we set up our planning station and hit the web to look for accommodations. 
We are finding reading lots of Blogs, trip advisor reviews and a couple of websites really helpful. Some of our favourites include:

http://www.lonelyplanet.com - Fantastic for finding accomedation and hearing reviews from other travellers who have had a first hand experience of the hotel/hostel in question. 

http://www.worldofwanderlust.com - She has brilliant, easy to follow tips for pretty much everywhere, from how to pack, to save and to make the most of your adventure. Well worth the read.

http://tripplanner.airtreks.com - Now we have never used this site before, however we have only heard spectacular things. They are an American company who help you plan your travels. You pick all your locations and then they give you a rough price of how much it will cost, normally at a fantastic rate. RESULT!

You call them up when you are ready to move on to a new destination and they tell you the next avaliable flight. You turn up at the airport with your reference number and bobs your uncle (in suze's case this is true) and they hand you your ticket. It seems and sounds pretty straight forward, and we trust our reliable sources but we will obviously do a review when we have tried it for ourselves. 

After writing nearly 10 pages of notepad we felt we needed a little treat so headed to good old Wagamamas.

If you have never been before its a great place for fast fresh pan-Asian style food.

This sounds bad but we actually have our 'usual', yes we have been so many times it's obvious what we are going to order.

Suze and the Beards Wagamama Favourites 

Tori Kara Age - Deep fried chicken pieces with a chilli sauce
Duck Gyoza - Duck dumplings with how sin sauce
Chicken Kare Lomen - Chicken and noodles in a spicy coconut soup (Suze)

Ginger Chicken Undon - teppan fried Undon noodles with chicken and ginger (Beardy)

Add some Tiger beers into the equation and you've got yourself one very happy couple.

http://www.wagamama.com

Great weekend and planning is coming along nicely. 

Suze and the Beard x

The BIG Clear Out

So it's begun!
We have finally started to declutter the cave.
At last count we were up to NINE, yes NINE bin bags, and thats in just one room!
The amount of forgotten gems and random purchases we have come across have just been amazing, and in some cases the odd 'what on earth were we thinking'.
That's the joy of a good clear out. You not only get a fresher perspective on things, along with a clearer mind, but re-telling the stories behind these random treasures made the day more of a pleasure than a tedious chore.

Yes that is an old school Game Boy, some records, Suze at the age where she was smaller than the smallest Disney Character 'Fievel' and more importantly a life size cardboard cut out of Michael Buble. 

Ahem....moving on. 

As nearly all the forgotten clothes and shoes we have dragged out from the back of the wardrobe, seriously it's so big in there we were practically having to snatch things back from of the sneaky hands of Mr Tumnus, are near enough brand new we will be taking a trip to our local charity shop at the weekend. However I must say there are a few items we came across in there that belong well and truly in the bin. Would never push an unholy bridesmaids dress on anyone .

We are getting there! Slowly but surely and as our home is becoming more of a shell, it's starting to really hit us that our leaving date is getting closer and closer! 

Travelling Treat

After a lot of reading reviews and playing around in many photo shops we have only gone and brought ourselves a little treat, the Samsung NX3000. 

We first saw this beautiful piece of kit on a Christmas shopping trip. Unfortunately for us, we made a huge mistake of not getting it there and then, as John Lewis was in a price battle with a competitor and had slashed the cost by £50!! However we had our 'no it'll be the same price next time' heads on and walked away, only to find on our next visits it was full price!! 

I have to admit we had a slow motion 'Noooooo' moment but went ahead anyway, and to be honest, we couldn't be happier. 

It's lightweight, easy to use, with so many extra features including apps and wifi connection to mobile devices. We haven't even mentioned the brilliant flip screen which is ideal for vlogging/selfies and let's be honest, the quality is just awesome. 

We can't wait to take it out for a spin or should we say 'flip' to fully test it out. Thanks to fig for being such a cute model. 

Link to camera below: 

http://www.johnlewis.com/samsung-galaxy-nx3000-compact-system-camera-with-16-50mm-lens-hd-1080p-20-3mp-wi-fi-nfc-3-flip-screen/p1575128?sku=233804305&kpid=233804305&s_kenid=1c08d9a7-640e-6969-33af-000073d0f005&s_kwcid=402x24080&tmad=c&tmcampid=73&kpid=233804305

Let's Get Travelling

My Name is Suze and I am a 24 year old girl who, if I'm perfectly honest, hasn't found her way in the world just yet.

I have had numerous jobs from rocking the headset in a call centre, being a wedding expert for a make up brand, to being a recruiter in a well known TV station, but nothing has ever felt right.

Early last year whilst heading back to the shire from London to see some friends something very unexpected happened.

Let me tell you the story.

One of my very good friends who I have known since little school said to me, 'Suze, I want to set you up with someone.' Now alarm bells were ringing when the list of 'issues' got longer and longer, examples such as:
'Right he's blonde' (nope)
'He's cocky' (nope nope)
'He most likely will call you a C**T at some point' (OH HELL NO)
'But that's just his way'. 😳
Reluctantly I said fair enough let's see what happens and we headed out.
When we arrived at the, what I would call, interesting local in town, you know the sort, corner with the drunks, corner with the youngsters trying to look thirty, skirts half way up their bums and serious foundation/bronzer combo and the 'jack the lads' wolf whistling at any female with a pulse, that sort. We clocked the others and I waited, telling my other friend how horrible I thought this was going to go.
Next thing I know, shots are on the table and the blondie has arrived, and what do I see standing behind him? A tall, dark, stubbly, shy buddy of his. I leant over to my friend and said, 'shit! I like his mate!'.
And let's just say after a few drinks, some laughs and some outrageous flirting on my part we hit it off.

Ever since then me and Beardy (Matt) have been inseparable.
It's happened very quickly. I moved back from London to help my parents out with their house as they now live in Dubai. I asked Beardy to move in and we couldn't be happier.
*Warning Cheese Alert*
That odd random night out brought me the most genuine, down to earth, hilarious best friend and boyfriend I could ever have asked for.

Since living together, pretty much from the start, we have both spoken about how we have always wanted to go travelling, but it's never quite happened, from lack of funds, not having the right plan and to being let down by others. So we have just said sod it, let's take the plunge and go!

So that is what we are going to do.

Like me, Matt has never been fully able to settle here in the UK and as much as I loved living in London, we both feel there has to be more to life than working, sleeping and repeating.

So we are heading from the cold, wet UK to the heat and sands of Dubai, to the temples of Thailand, and wherever the wind takes us.

So we thought we would vlog/blog our journey.
The planning, the saving and the taking off. All the essentials.

So get ready and come with us on the most exciting time of our lives 🌎✈️

First stop: Prep

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