Round the world trip with 4.5yr old-Tips and help with planning please

[whooosh]

Well not exactly round the world but to Oz,Malaysia and Thaialnd for 3-4months.

Have got DD into school for 5 weeks in Oz for the experience whilst I do some voluntary work but everything else is up in the air.

Will do Borneo for Orang u tans,Chiang Mai for elephant camp,Kuala Lumpar becasue we transit through....

So what to I need to organise??

Have tentatively booked house sitters.

What do I do about telephone/blackberry whilst travelling.

Would like to do an online blog-any experience of an easy one to use?

Need to check out vaccinations but am hopeful we may not need them.

What else do I need to think about and plan-I only have 6 weeks

You will need vaccinations for sure, both of you. I would start with those as some need to be given in advance. Plus anti malarials

Sounds fantastic, lucky you! I love travelling with dd. I would do that trip like a shot if I had time.

the google blog is easy

thesummerholidayofalifetime.blogspot.com/

I did this during this summer. Hope it helps.

Am a little worried about the anti-malarials for DD but better than the alternative I guess.

SOme people think I am mad but having had a truly horrible year and funds becoming available due to tragic circumstances I am just going to do it.

Think I may use the train accross Asia rather than flying the whole time....

Thanks Sturl-off to read now.

No probs, its got everything from school, to injections, packing, money etc etc etc etc to what we did and how we did it.

Enjoy.

Apparently you can now buy a SIM card that works around the world but I haven't looked into this in detail yet - maybe you can do a search for this?

Vaccinations: definitely, especially if you'll be in the jungle etc. (And, if you can, buy the malaria cure during your travels just in case. We did this in Kenya for peace of mind and kept the cure for the required six months after we left - they sell adult and child cures in Kenya that you can't easily get in the UK or other countries, and the same might be true on one of your stops.)

Malaysia's wonderful as well if you have time. How long will you be staying in KL? Out of curiosity, how long will you be staying in each country/city?

Have fun - sounds fantastic!

Sturl-the info is really useful-thanks.

We will stay approx 7 weeks in Oz,2 days KL,week in Boerneo and 2-3 weeks in Thailand.

I am now trying to think about packing light bbut we have 5 weeks in Melbourne where we will have to be dressed very differently to Borneo and Thailand so need more stuff.Have worked out I will need to take 5 chargers with me!! Phone,i-touch,DS,camera,video camera!!!!

Will try to book jabs next week.

going to renew DD's passport which needs doing and will renew mine anyway so it may help getting through some airports quicker....

Looks like a great trip! Did you book it all through the same agent or did you do separate bookings? I've always wanted to go to Borneo for the orang utans - could you let me know which company organised this for you? Thanks.

I organsied it myself. Just sorted flights out to KK then onto Sandakan. Got a local bus to the sanctuary, in fact on my blog it says all about the bus and costs.

Saved an absolute fortune doing it myself.

Thanks, I'll read it in more detail this weekend (I just quickly flicked through it yesterday!).

We did three weeks in Thailand on our way out to Oz in 2007. We all had Hep A vaccinations and tetanus boosters, we didn't take anti malarials as the places we were staying (Ko Tao and Bangkok) weren't high risk areas and anti malarials have made me really sick in the past so I didn't want the kids to take them. We werre diligent with insect repellent instead.

My kids (then 4, 8 and 14) found Bangkok too full on tbh. They really liked the area around the Ko San Road (the backpacker bit) but got a bit freaked by the general heat/noise/traffic/smell. We had deliberately booked a really nice hotel so we had a comfy base and the kids could chill in the pool at the end of the day and we were very glad we did. They all loved the islands, and the people there loved us; there weren't too many families of 5 around (made a nice change from the self obsorbed gap year kids I think!). Have a fantastic time

Make sure you disconnect the internet from your blackberry as whoever you are with will charge you a fortune for using it abroad. You can still text and make/receive calls of course.