Our research prior to the trip largely involved reading about how other people had prepared for their own trips. In the nature of good karma, here you will find some useful bits and bobs that may be a handy resource prior to going on a trip like ours.
Contents:
Border Crossings
To read about our border crossing experience, country by country, click here.
Carnet du Passage
The Carnet du Passage (also referred to as CdP or just “Carnet”) is like a passport for your vehicle and is required when temporarily importing a vehicle into some foreign countries. An extremely brief outline is that you pay a deposit based on both the value of your vehicle and what countries you intend to travel to. You are then issued with the Carnet book. Each page is split into three sections. At the border of a Carnet country, the customs officer completes one page of the Carnet. One section is taken by the customs officer when you enter the country, the second section is taken when you exit the country, and the third (top) section remains in the Carnet. Once you return back to your country, you send the Carnet back to the company you got it from, and providing everything has been filled out properly, you get back your deposit.
There is little point in us describing the exact ins and outs of this document, as Google does a far better job than we ever will. At the time of writing, the only place in the UK to get a Carnet is from C.A.R.S. The website we used to know which countries required a Carnet was Overlanding Association. Land Cruising Adventure also have a great information page about the Carnet.
Cooking
Initially we planned to use at Primus Gas stove, however when we had difficulty sourcing the correct gas for it in England, we got concerned that it might be next to impossible to find it elsewhere in the world. So Chris did some research and found Land Cruising Adventure’s blog about why they use a Coleman Stove. We bought an unused second hand one and haven’t looked back. 12 months into our trip, we still love it and are so glad we chose petrol over gas! We cook almost every single day, and during our 306 days driving from UK to Singapore we spent a meagre £12 on refuelling our stove.
First Aid
The all important First Aid kit – the only item we have added to rather than taken away from. We hope that we never need to use it! See what we packed by clicking here.
Kit List
Our kit list was fine tuned over several practice runs prior to “the big trip”. However, whilst on our trip, we managed to fine tune it even further. You can download both our original list and the final amended list with comments about what we added/removed and changed.
Laundry
We have done the majority of our laundry using the Scrubba wash bag. As you just need water and some kind of soap (washing up liquid or body wash works as well as laundry detergent) it can be used anywhere. It has saved us so much money compared to using washing machines everywhere we go (we spent a meagre £26.50 on laundry during our year long UK-Singapore trip). It also folds up very small so takes up virtually no space. After hundreds of uses its still in pretty good condition.
Useful Apps
To find out our most used apps during the trip, click here.
Visa Applications
Applying for the visas was not actually as daunting as one may think! Very few countries required us to apply for a visa prior to leaving for the trip. Here you will find our experiences of the different kinds of visas we applied for.
Water Purification
Coming soon…
Starry Nights & Insect Bites 