Bacon and Egg Ice Cream and the Inca Trail

Still organising but hopefully its going to be downhill from here. Fly out on the 6th of September from Sydney to Santiago. Visas have been sorted out (both Brazil and China). Last vaccine (hep B) shot booked for Monday. Hiking shoes purchased...still need to buy the backpack but hope to get that within the next week

On the entertainment front we have managed to book dinner at the Fat Duck in London (www.fatduck.co.uk)...well known for topping a list of restaurants around the world and for the head chef's (Heston Blumenthal) approach to food...a student of molecular gastronomy, a branch of food science, he uses research to blend some unusual ingredients. Spice bread ice cream and crab syrup, smoked bacon and egg ice cream served with French toast and tomato jam, and oysters and passion-fruit jelly are a few examples. In short...i'm really looking forward to it!

Other entertainment we've managed to confirm bookings for are the Lion King on Broadway NY, Cirque du Soleil's Zumanity in Las Vegas, and a helicopter ride over the Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon departing from Las Vegas.

Without doubt, i'm looking forward to the entertainment we've booked but what i'm looking forward to most on the PJWT is the Inca trek. Unfortunately we weren't able to book the original 4 day/3 night Inca Trail due to new permit requirements and limited availability (need to book at least 2 months in advance for those who are hoping to do the original trek). However we were able to book an alternate 5 day/5 night trek which takes us through a few more less frequented inca ruins and we still end up at Machu Picchu so should still be good. The trek we're doing can be found at http://www.llamapath.com/vilcabamba-machupicchu.htm. The trek is a little bit longer than we had planned so it doesn't allow for much time to acclimatise (one and a half days) so risk of altitude sickness is concerning. Hopefully plenty of coca leaf tea should help (fingers crossed there aren't any random drug tests in my near future!).

Still getting ready

Still getting ready for the trip and amount of planning involved is quite incredible. Had my second lot of vaccines for the trip on monday and it left me with two dead arms. Apparently the hep A/typhoid and tetanus injections will do that. One more Hep B injection and i'll be done for the trip...bringing the total injections to 7 (3 Hep B, a MMR (measles, mumps and rubella), a tetanus, a yellow fever, and a Hep A/typhoid combined). I guess its a necessary precaution for travellers to less developed countries...

Other bits of the PJWT that we've been busy organising have been accommodation (for the short trips and for when we arrive into a city late in the afternoon), medication to take, dinners/lunches at famous restaurants (i.e. Fat Duck in the UK), and entertainment. Rationale for the accommodation was just to ensure that we had a place to stay and didn't have to muck around looking for a reasonable place. The "meds" include the standard anti-diarrhea, sleeping pills, iodine pills for cleaning water, anti-altitude sickness, etc. Rationale for the dinners and lunches was just because Pat and Jas of the PJWT are greedy pigs. Entertainment so far includes The Lion King on Broadway in NY, Circe de Soleil in Las Vegas, and maybe a helicopter ride through the Grand Canyon (very much a maybe on this last one).

Getting ready

Haven't kicked off the PJWT but have been busy sorting out our travel itinerary and preparations. Travel itinerary is almost finalised and has been keeping our travel consultant, Lauren from Flight Centre, very busy. Other things still on the to-do list include visas, vaccinations, what to pack, tour guides and permits for the inca trail.

Intro

Hi all. Welcome to the Pat and Jas World Tour (PJWT) blog. Proudly brought to you by yours truly (in the orange jumper) and my esteemed colleague and travel companion, Jason Chanlongsirichai (in the maroon shirt). Sponsored by Nable Consulting, "For all your IT consulting needs...with love". =)

Brief summary of why we're doing this. We're both 28 and never really travelled so we thought it was about time. At our age most of our friends are already married or getting married so chances of travelling for more than the standard 4 weeks annual leave entitlement with a mate is getting slimmer and slimmer with each birthday. I guess this is the quarterlife-crisis-soul-searching-once-in-a-life-time cliche trip.