One more dawn… One more day… One day more!


I can’t believe that the final day on English soil has arrived… and typically it’s raining. I can’t actually understand where the time has gone, it honestly does feel like yesterday that I was booking my flights, making the post about it being 80 days to go, 2 months (and frantically hunting for insurance) and the final 21 days.

It’s so surreal. I think it’ll be even more so when it gets to the final 24 hour countdown at 1.20pm today (on the assumption that my flight won’t be delayed). The point at which I check in online with Emirates will make it all the more real. I can already check in for my flight with AirAsia, Bangkok to Chiang Mai, so I should really do that before I forget.

Yesterday was pretty much the day from hell. I’d planned on doing a full day’s packing and getting everything perfect. Pack, take out, adjust, repack, and so forth until my pack was fully made up and I was happy with it (these things are important guys!) but instead I found myself talking to Vodafone for nearly an hour about my impending switch over that, according to him, wouldn’t happen on the date they suggested because I was out of the country. Sigh. As a result he’s put it in for an ‘emergency switch over’ to happen today but I don’t know when my phone will suddenly go from Pay Monthly to PAYG OR whether my existing sim will even work. If it doesn’t I need to go to the Vodafone shop and get them to switch it over there. It’s ridiculous. On top of that I had to go to the bank, get some money onto some currency cards (these are a GOD send I swear), and then pop into the Vodafone shop just to clarify what had happened on the phone. He had no clue and made me feel a little bit like an idiot to be honest.

A little bit of info about the currency cards by the way. I absolutely loved them for my trip to Europe (but still do take some notes with you just in case). It works like your debit or credit card and you can get them in either Mastercard or Visa. Mine's Mastercard for reference. For Thailand, where it's much better on YOUR pocket to get your currency when you're out there rather than get ripped off in the UK, they advise taking Sterling notes and exchanging them at one of the many bureaus at the airport. As they've cottoned on to this the exchange rate within the airport grounds are normally a good 2-4% lower than outside so I've got one lined up in Bangkok which is just outside airport grounds to change over a little bit of money. Anyway. I didn't really relish the idea of carrying £400 worth of sterling OR baht throughout Thailand so the other alternative would be to use my debit card and then withdraw weekly how much I need. Fine? Bad idea. My home bank (Natwest) imposes such horrendous charges that do vary (honestly I never see any consistency) as I'm sure you're quite aware... but there is an alternative... These pre-paid cash cards.

Now I use Thomas Cook just because I've used the euro-traveller card before and I know it's pretty reliable, plus I got a fairly decent exchange on my Sterling to AUS$ ($1.62 to the £). They do still charge of course but it's capped at £1.50 for a Sterling card. It's important to consider that using your card in Thailand WILL also incur an additional 150 baht surcharge if you're taking money out from the ATM (that's about £3, give or take a few pence). 

So...

Withdraw £200 say from a Thai ATM. Using your debit card (using Natwest's charges as an example here) you'd get charged a Foreign Cash Fee of 2% of the value AND a Non-Sterling Transaction Fee of 2.75%. Your £200 withdrawal would end up costing you an additional £9.50 PLUS the 150 baht/£3 surcharge, so £12.50 in total. Using the Cash Passport, it is my understanding that you will only get charged the £1.50 for using your card and then the £3 surcharge, so that would amount to £4.50. 

We'll see what happens anyway.


I then bought a beautiful new journal for my trip away. Leather bound, in the sale, and full of birds. A little bit of the leather has scuffed on the spine so I got an additional 20% off. So what should’ve been £8.60 (originally £12) cost me a whole £6.88. Happy days.


I must go anyway. I have far too much to do. The packing has all been done (well, I managed to get all of the clothes in above photo (+ my hiking boots, not pictured) into my pack and whilst it isn’t in the slightest bit heavy I just don’t want to take that many clothes (plus my toiletries bag hasn’t gone in yet and I know that’s going to be at least 2kg). Judging by the photo below Sky, my cat, either wants to come with me or wants me to stay behind. Poor little mite, I’m going to miss her so much when I go.



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4 comments:

  1. Bless her!!! ahhh, Goblin always hides in my bags before we go somewhere, cuties!!

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    Replies
    1. Cats are actually the best. She's now sitting by the printer looking at it rather curiously since bits of paper keep shooting out ;) xX

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  2. Oh it's so exciting!! Have a wonderful trip!!

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