Mt. Redoubt Eruption

It's difficult to get information now from the Alaska Volcano Observatory since the possibility of an eruption was on the national news last evening. There is so much traffic to the web server that the AVO had to limit what it publishes. The mountain is still rumbling but as of noon there has been no eruption. Will keep monitoring the situation. Once an eruption occurs planning will begin for an alternative way out of Anchorage to a city that will not be effected to begin the trip. The flight back is not as critical at starting on time to make all of the proper connections.

Eruption preparations

Volcanic activity is still occurring with small earthquakes around the mountain. Bartlett High School, where I work, is now preparing to cover sensitive equipment in case of an eruption that will cause ash fall in Anchorage. So far nothing specific has developed. If you would like to follow the volcanic activity around the mountain the Alaska Volcano Observatory is a good website to look to. http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/Redoubt.php

Medical Insurance

Bonnie is beginning to research what we will have to do for medical insurance if anything. We are sure that our current health care coverage will be lacking once we leave the country. Will have to find out what we need to do to supplement that coverage. Of course this will translate into another expense, just don't know how much yet.

Mt. Redoubt is still rumbling but there is no sign of an eruption, yet. It could rumble for a long time without any eruption or it could erupt any minute. One never knows and that includes the vulcanologists.

Will a volcano delay our trip?

Boy I sure hope not. Seems Mt. Redoubt is rumbling. The eruption status has gone up to orange which means an eruption is imminent. Now the airline folks will not fly when they will encounter volcanic ash in the atmosphere. This could cause difficulty if there is an eruption the day before we are supposed to leave. So if you are the praying sort please help us out and by praying that there is no eruption the say 5 days before and the day of our departure. Thanks ever so much for your help.

Taking local currancy with you.

After talking with a couple of people that have been to Egypt recently it seems that it may be worth your while to get quite a few Egyptian 5 pound notes to take with you if you are staying in a hotel or similar facility.

Everything seems to cost a dollar. Most small items can be bartered down to a dollar in the markets and gratuities are most often a dollar. That translates into 5 Egyptian pounds though a dollar right now is worth about 5.5 pounds in Egypt. (http://www.xe.com/ucc/) So you may be able to save some money by getting five pound notes before you go. I was also told that generally when the banks exchange you money in Egypt very few five pound notes are given out even if you ask for them.

Will find out the places in Anchorage to exchange for Egyptian pounds and find out the cost in the next few days. I will write more about this when I can confirm or deny the truth of the matter. But that won't be until at least the middle of March 2009.

Seems the GBP is up to $1.36 today.

What's the cash exchange rate?

During these tough economic times travel abroad in most cases has become cheaper for US citizens. A year ago it took two US dollars to buy on Great Britain Pound (GBP). Yesterday the cost for a GBP was $1.29. So if you have the money now is the time to travel abroad, you will get some good deals. My guess is that it will only get less expensive during the next year. When we finally come out of the economic slump the world's currencies will probably start rising against the dollar again.

Some places will take your dollars instead of the local currency. If you use dollars that will probably make things more expensive for you. There a many ways to get local currency for your dollars. Probably the easiest is to get an ATM card from your bank or credit union. You will have to have a checking account for this to work. With your ATM card just go to an automated teller machine put in your card, key your pin, and enter the amount of cash you want. The machine will vend your cash and deduct the withdrawal from your checking or savings account whichever you took the money from. You don't need to have any US cash for this type of transaction.

Another method is to take US cash to a local bank and ask to exchange it for local currency. Banks in big cities will usually do this for you. Banks in "small" town usually won't. But even "small" towns have ATMs these days so use the card.

Don't generally exchange your money before you go. The US banks rip you off on the exchange rate. If you make purchases in larger cities you may be able to use a credit card for your purchases. That's also a good way to go as you don't have to use or carry cash and the transactions are "safe".

One last thing, be sure you tell your bank and the credit card company (s) that you will be traveling. Give them the dates and the places. It's pretty ugly to try to use an ATM or credit card only to find out the bank has blocked it because the use is outside of your normal pattern. While fraud protection is a good thing it can hurt you if you don't think of some of these things in advance.

How much is a "hotel" and food?

This is a really tough question. A trip anywhere can be really expensive but it doesn't necessarily have to be. We are going ultimately to Egypt and there you can get a "hotel room" for as little as 10 Egyptian pounds (less than $2). (You won't find this place listed on the web.) This of course won't be much more than a bed with a share bathroom. It is cheap though. And you can spend easily $300 and more a night in most large cities or resort cities.

Fortunately, we will be staying with friends that live in Egypt so we won't have to look for a hotel or places to eat on this journey but next time that will change. Use travel sites on the web to find potential places to stay. Once again you should check with friends who may have made the journey before you to see if they have any suggestions.

We are also going to the United Kingdom, London. To get a hotel there we simply went to travel "agencies" on the web and looked up hotels in London. The are wide ranges of prices in London but we didn't find any as cheap as $2 a night. We did find many for $60-$75 a night and more. We got a response from some friends though to our Christmas card and they recommended a place that they had stayed. Bonnie went right out and booked a room there for the time we would be in London. So much for shopping around. The final cost was 109 GBP (Great Britain Pounds) a night. The hotel is called The Elizabeth, London. After we stay there we will let give a report on the place.

Meals are also variable in cost. Sometimes a meal comes with the room you rent, usually breakfast. Restaurants vary widely in price from location to location and even from meal to meal. You may be able to purchase food in a grocery or market that you can eat while you are walking, sitting watching something, etc. That will probably be cheaper than eating in cafe. Local food may be very different than what you are used to eating, if you are an adventurer you should by all means try much of it. If not you can find foods you are familiar with. But do try some of the local cuisine just don't ask what it is.

There will be many other expenses. These you may have less control over than food and lodging. There may be admission fees, gratuities, tolls, etc. Even venues that are advertised as free may not be. Transportation is another expense that you will have to deal with. Public transit is usually cheaper than a taxi. You have to figure out public transit and if you don't know the language it may be difficult to get information. Don't be bashful, ask questions. People will generally be very helpful if you are polite and ask for assistance. You might be able to rent a bicycle to ride on during some exploration. It's cheaper than a taxi and doesn't have fixed routes like public transport.

The key to how much it will cost is to be flexible. If you are on a tight budget look for inexpensive things to do. But don't be afraid to spurge once in-a-while. Good luck.

What is there to do where I'm going?

This is the question that everyone eventually asks. Usually you have a specific reason to go to a place, but maybe not. You can research what to do by simply keying into a search engine on the web the phrase "things to do in whatever your destination is". This is easy. I went to Google (http://www.google.com/) and keyed "things to do in London". A list of sites came up and the third one said "Top ten things to do in London: London for free". Free that appealed to me so I had a look. There were listing for museums, botanical gardens, parks, and other things. Now do the same thing for the country of Turkmenistan and you will also get a list of things to see and do.

Of course you may be taking your journey to visit some one. If that is the case the you should find out from that person if they have plans for you before you make plans. Both your and their plans could fit together easily but you will only know if you consult one another. Let them know what you might like to do and they may be able to arrange it for you. Be flexible. There may be something you have strong desires to accomplish when you are on your trip but you may find something more compelling after you arrive.

Another great source of information are the people you know where you live. You would be surprised by the number of people who have been to your destination. Listen to their advice, weigh it with your discoveries and make your decisions on what to do. Your friends and acquaintances are wonderful sources of information. Good luck with your search.

How much will it cost to get there?

This is a really tough question to answer. In the last few months the amount your dollar will buy abroad has been improving. Three months ago it took nearly two US dollars to buy one British pound. Today one British pound can be purchased for less than 1.5 US dollars. How long this trend will continue no one really knows. I would guess that until the economy world-wide starts to perk up the US dollar will increase in value against most major currencies in the world.

Airfare will be one of the major costs of your trip if you are going to another continent. The cost of air travel can be reduced in some instances. You can buy your tickets well in advance of your trip though right now with the cost of fuel going down this may or may not save you money. You can use accumulated mileage plan miles for some or all of your airfare.

For example, the airfare from Anchorage, AK to Cairo, Egypt today is about $1250. Bonnie and I each had about 40,000 miles on our airline account. American Airlines is a partner with the airline we fly most often and they have a 40,000 mile ticket to Europe. Just remember your dates often have to be very flexible when you use this method. I talked with a ticket agent giving her approximate dates we would like to depart and return. I was also very flexible on the European city we would travel to as our first leg. Now American flies many places in Europe but for our dates and the fact we need two seats we ended up going to London. The cost from Anchorage to London was $150.10 each, round trip. To get mileage tickets you need to book well in advance. I booked these tickets in September 2008.

Since we were flying to London and have never been there we decided to spend a few days there before we went on to Cairo, more about that part of the trip later. We decided to spend three days in London, surely not long enough, before we moved on. Checking the fares to Cairo from London required using a travel site on the web. We chose to use Yahoo Travel, http://travel.yahoo.com/. I looked at a lot of travel sites and this one seemed to come up with the best fares because they peddle other site's fares and not their own. We were looking for a direct flight if we could get one. Now since the dollar had been rising against other currencies I didn't buy right away. About once a week I would look at fares, when the cheapest flights started going away is when I bought our tickets. I actually bought the tickets from a British travel agency (http://travel.ebookers.com/) and the fare was about $495 each, round trip. There are cheaper fares today (about $400) but I decided not to wait. The bottom line then turns out to be about $650 and 40,000 miles each round trip from Anchorage, AK to Cairo, Egypt. I think that's cheap and pretty cool.

When to go?

Obviously when to go will depend on you. We are choosing to go to Egypt in the winter/spring. Since Egypt is about 95% desert and quite hot in the summer for the most part, we chose to go during a "cooler" time. We didn't want to endure 35C to 45C temperatures since it seldom gets above 25C in Anchorage even in the summer.

If you live in the northern hemisphere the seasons are reversed in the southern hemisphere. Winter in Anchorage or Seattle is summer in Sydney, Australia or Santiago, Chili. If you are traveling to a destination near the equator it probably makes little difference when you go. At the equator there are usually rainy and dry seasons versus summer and winter.

Generally during the "high" season things are more expensive. In Europe the high season is considered between May and September. In Egypt is between October and April. Again we chose to go to Egypt in March because of the weather not the cost. The high season in a country may depend on the rainy or dry season. Generally in the southern hemisphere the high season is winter in the northern hemisphere and vice versa.

If you are going to visit someone you should consult with them. They will have the best information and you will find out when they are available to show you around.

Do your research on your destination and make an informed choice. The World Wide Web is an excellent source of information as is your local library. Remember to always check your sources carefully on the www before you give out any information or spend any money at a web site.

What do I need before going?

Really there are other things I need? There very well could be. Many countries require entry visas. Basically an entry visa is a piece of paper, a page in your passport, or a stamp on a page in your passport that tells the immigration folks in the country your going to that you have permission to go there as a tourist. You may be able to get a visa on entry into the country, but just in case check with their embassy in the USA. Most all country embassy's have a presence on the world wide web these days so just go into a search engine and key the country name followed by embassy and a link to their web page should come up. You may have to poke around their site some to find where the entry requirements are but they are probably there. There may be more than one embassy web site and more than one location for a consulate in the US. To get an Egyptian entry visa we had to send our applications to the San Francisco, CA office. (http://www.egy2000.com/indexl.htm) Don't forget to check if a visa is required for a place you may stop along the way other than to change planes. We are going to spend three days in the United Kingdom (http://ukinusa.fco.gov.uk/en) so we had to check their web site too.

The embassy web sites also have information about what to see and what to do to enjoy their country. They have tips on staying safe and customs and courtesies that are observed in their country that may be different than ours.

You also need to check the US State Department web site (http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis_pa_tw_1168.html) to see if there are travel restrictions for your destination or restrictions for intermediate stops you might make along the way. This website also offers other tips about traveling abroad. While you are at the State Department web site see if there are any immunizations that you will need to get before you go to your destination. Some may be required, others may be suggested. Immunizations sometimes require more than one injection a specific period a part so this may delay your departure if you don't work on it right away.

Choosing where to go

There are obviously thousands of destinations you can think of so you will need to decide where to go while your passports are being processed. Or your decision may already be made and that is why you are getting a passport. Either way a destination is required for travel.

If this is your first trip out of the country you might want to select a place where a reasonable facsimile of North American English is spoken or a country where you know someone that may be able to show you around. Another thing to consider is that in most major cities around the world you will be able to find people that speak "English". If you move out into the country that will be less the case. We have had a number of foreign exchange students over the years so we made our choice of places by looking at where those students live. Our choice for our first trip of the North American Continent was to go to Egypt. Next time we might be braver and go somewhere there is no one we know. That will be more challenging but hopefully just as much fun.

Getting Ready

The Bush administration has seen fit to have all persons entering the United States to have a passport in their possession. The citizens of this country are included. So very soon when you leave this country even if a passport is not required to enter the place you are going you will have to have one to come back to the USA. This of course means you must get a passport before you leave the country.

This is the first and most important step on your journey if you have never had a passport before. Getting the required documents may add a significant amount of time to the process so start as early as you can. I would not make any plan reservations or plans to leave the country until you have the passport in your hand. This process could take you six months or more from start to finish. Each family member will need a passport.

Obtaining a passport is really no big deal. It just takes time to get one and you have to jump through some hoops. Instead of outlining everything you need to do hear I will just direct you to a couple of appropriate websites. (http://travel.state.gov/passport/fri/pubs/pubs_854.html and http://www.usps.com/passport/) One or both of these sites should get you appropriate forms and instructions on what to do, again it just takes time and $100. You may have to send away for documents that are required like birth certificates (your birth state's vital records should be consulted, search on the web). You will also need a couple of pieces of picture ID when you turn in your application. The pictures can be taken with any digital camera you have and printed on glossy paper in your ink jet printer, use a 16up setting in the photo print setup.