Good bye Finland

Leaving was hard this time ,and that has never happened before! More stress than normal but also the normal last minute packing-cleaning-getting ready routine in a house that was filled with someone elses stuff as well. Now sitting in a bus, trying to breathe, hoping I have everything. Backpack weight was less than 12kg and I also have all my diving/snorkeling gear in there, fins even. Not bad. Of course I am now wearing my multi-layer travel outfit (known by many as 'this did not fit in my bag'- outfit) which happens to be multicoloured too.

Yesterdays news said the main airport (where we are heading now) was suffering from a computer problem and heated up with crouds waiting to check in. Yesterday we also saw news about the new typhoon in Philippines now passing Coron, Busuanga island in Palawan, which is our first destination.

The bus just passed by a spot where 2 guys were climbing an ice wall next to a big road. Only in Finland?

Writing here in bus with my phone and 3G connection reminds me of my first interrail I did in Europe. It was February, not the season for an interrail and it was also a bit out of fashion already. But in the beginning year 1995 there were no low cost airlines, definitely not web resources about hostels or other transport and of course no way I had a mobile phone. Contact with hostels was done by a pay phone (coins or card) at the destinations railway station hoping you had copied the right number at home from a hostel guide, with local currency...a different one in every European country.. And what to do when you did not see your friend waiting you at the station in heavy rain in Paris? Call home, because your friend had called Finland to tell my mom to tell me she was late. After two hours the rain and panic was gone and the friend was there. I also remember having a lot of thought what c-cassettes to bring along for they took such a major amount of space in my bag. Real maps, no navigator and that is the same way I like it now and I hardly ever get lost. And the last, the most precious thing: my dads old system camera with real film. I could only afford one 36 pictures colour film to be developed afterwards, so it was only 36 pictures during the one month rail trip. Plus extra nervousness waiting if they all were good enough (sharp, lighting correct) to be shown in an album.
Now, wireless working, I will soon check the typhoon situation in Palawan, send this to bit universe and maybe play a game of Scrabble with a random player somewhere in the world, or take an old fashioned travel favorite- a pocket book- to my hand and enjoy the rest of the ride to the airport.

Money and setting up

Finally, after a weird and tiring week working (and not even finished yet)  I came to think about some more practicalities; buying some currency. As you see above, I got some, but only some. Actually I did not even open the plastic bag filled with money because I got pissed off. Some of us know, that there are limited places to "change money", or "buy currency" (whatever way of saying you want to use) in my town. This one above is the usual place. I also did an internet search about same matter and guess what I found out right now; only this place and my own bank provide services like this...I mean, yes, every bank in Finland buy and sell currency for sure, but seem s like they do not inform that in internet as a service. Well done!

Let´s call the place where I went, "*orex", in this text. There has been many times when the service has been working wonderfully. Not his time though, or maybe I am just getting old and cranky and demanding. On Monday I went there, stepped in ans asked kindly if they have Philippine Pesos. They did not, but no problem, since they say they deliver whatever currency you might want in 48 hours. And on their web pages they tell  that the reservation should be done at least 2 days before the departure/need, so they can make it. I made a reservation for 15 000 PHP that is about 300€. They said I should come in app. 3 days to get the amount, on  Thursday or  Friday. Very well. I also told them I can wait until the 28th for the money, but it is nice to get it sooner.

On Wednesday I was confused, thought it already was Thursday and went there. I got to hear that it was not Thursday yet (damn right) and I was only getting 10 000 PHP the next day. Excuse me?  Yesterday I went back to get my "less money than I ordered". I got lot of explanations why this had happened. I guess I was pretty tough customer at that time and asking simply what do we do about the remaining 5000 PHP I had ordered. More explanations. I mean, I do not even care that much, but what if I had been someone who is going on his/hers first trip ever? And based on this, I can say that *orex company does not follow they own delivery terms.

Later, I got a call from *orex. A man explained just a little bit more again and told me that they are T R Y I N G to get the remaining money to me by 28th of December, on our departure day. I was also adviced to take 100€ notes with me, so I can easily change the money in the destination...wonderful advice, for someone who has been travelling quite a bit. It is now only about that fact that they did not deliver. That´s why I am demanding.

It is sad that the next time I will go to my own bank to buy the currencies, even if the bank working hours are not as flexible as the ones with *orex.  

But some nice things as well.
I finally got something I have desired for a long time; a brand new snorkel! Made by Cressi and at the same time I got new neoprene socks for my fins. The Agua Lung fins have been tested in the pool, but cannot wait to get them to sea. The purchase was made in a new scuba shop in Tampere,  Oxygene Diving.

Working and thinking about travel vaccinations

During my day I was too lazy (and too busy because of the Telakka Christmas Bazaar tomorrow at 12-20  ^ picture up there, my stuff - the reflectors on the down left corner.) to cook.

My whole kitchen is a mess, all my materials all over the place, so, I went to get a pizza. I started reading  the local newspaper Aamulehti there and my eye caught an article about vaccinations, mostly about the normal flu prevention but also travel issues. Especially the facts that they stated there startled me. 

Our trip to Philippines was a "big one" when it came to vaccinations. I also had to take some additions, that we need to take in Finland for our normal program. What I found out, was that on the year I was born, the local program in my town did not vaccinate against MPR (measles, parotitis, rubella). This all took calls to the town where I was born and some digging into the old files and then sending them to me. That should anyway be now in control. But, I had been traveling a lot in areas where the noted epidemics happen, and could have caught something and did not even know that my vaccination cover was not ok...thanks to Finnish health system. No need to vaccinate these guys anymore, the illness is gone from Finland! 

The others I got was Typhoid fever, Hepatitis B (only one shot now, and now I am ok for the rest of my life). Malaria then...I decided not to get the pills since the side effects have been quite hard, and if I get it, normally the symptoms are different if you take the pills..the doctor agreed with me on this. There was different info on the Finnish vaccination pages (Rokote.fi  and Matkailijan terveysopas ) and the WHO  pages as well as the malaria maps on CDC.

The local newspaper article was quite clear on one thing,  Japanese encephalitis (the whole program of 2 first shots costs 250€) was not needed. I guess my doctor would not agree on this one. There has been one single case in Finland, and the person got the illness in Singapore. Also typhoid fever and cholera vaccinations were to be avoided because of the side effects on a short vacation lasting only a few weeks. 

Anyway, what I recommend now is this http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/   (travel section of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) 

and there you´ll find all the epidemics that we should know about while getting abroad. 

How has your travel health been? 

Weather in Philippines and VISA

What would be a better day to continue blogging than my birthday? 

Above you see the local weather through a web cam in Tampere city center in Finland (something like -15° Celsius at the time of writing), all covered with a bit of snow after the storm last weekend. It is funny though how the traffic (especially in our capital Helsinki) gets messed up right at the moment when the first snow hits the ground. A huge amount of the trains were totally cancelled and it took me a while to get to work in Helsinki, to our last show of  "Tales from a Clubroom".  Snow everywhere... my dog is happy though, lots and lots of new smells and (also yellow) snow to eat. 

Today I got sms from my best friend in Germany. First was the basic birthday greetings and then a question about if we already were in the Philippines. There had been a huge thunderstorm and she was worried. 

The typhoon Pablo (international name Bopha) had hit Palau and this morning it hit island Mindanao in southern Philippines causing a lot more trouble than what happened with our little snow storm in here. The island we are now talking about is not normally hit by anything like this and we were not planning to get there. The news say that the storm is now on the way to Negroes, to Visayas group of islands that happens to be the major tourist destination in the whole country. But, in this link it shows that the typhoon is on the way to our destination, Coron Palawan by the 7th of December. Flights cancelled, ferries do not move, rain is heavy. Better keep the eyes on the PAGASA (Philippines Atmospheric, Geophysical & Astronomical Services Administration) web pages. 

One more thing now. No one answered to our mails about the visa waiver policies in Philippines...kind of amazing, that the honorary consult in Finland did not answer to our direct email. Anyway, the problem is solved, and my aunt was super happy about the solution to spend a weekend in her favorite city in Asia. After 20 days we will be 3 days in Hong Kong and then head back to beaches. Good plan, right?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

NOTE on the 09th of December.

Got good info about the visas from Noelia in here 

http://www.noelimits.com/2012/11/tourist-visa-in-philippines.html

Also worth checking if you are interested in traveling <3 nbsp="nbsp" p="p">